August 7, 2013

August 7, 2013

(Please Read: Google has reintroduced the thumbnails at the bottom of the photos after you double click on any image. All photographs are mine unless otherwise noted.)

   Below are photos taken this last Sunday at Acadia National Park during a late day visit somewhere around four PM. I will let them and the Akathist speak for themselves. The last photo is from the Farmsworth Museum in Rockland Maine taken in a hall staircase while I was waiting for Lee to come out of the gallery she was in. I believe it is a painting by N.C. Wyeth. Sunday was a good day for us.

                                        ------------------------------------------

The Akathist Hymn: "Glory to God for All Things"

Kontakion 2

   O Lord, how lovely it is to be Your guest. Breeze full of scents; mountains reaching to the skies; waters like boundless mirrors, reflecting the sun's golden rays and the scudding clouds. All nature murmurs mysteriously, breathing the depth of tenderness. Birds and beasts of the forest bear the imprint of Your love. Blessed art You, mother earth, in Your fleeting loveliness, which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last forever, in the land where, amid beauty that grows not old, the cry rings out: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

   You have brought me into life as into an enchanted paradise. We have seen the sky like a chalice of deepest blue, where in the azure heights the birds are singing. We have listened to the soothing murmur of the forest and the melodious music of the streams. We have tasted fruit of fine flavor and the sweet-scented honey. We can live very well on Your earth. It is a pleasure to be Your guest.

Glory to You for the Feast Day of life
Glory to You for the perfume of lilies and roses
Glory to You for each different taste of berry and fruit
Glory to You for the sparkling silver of early morning dew
Glory to You for the joy of dawn's awakening
Glory to You for the new life each day brings
Glory to You, O God, from age to age 

------------------------------------------

     (A poem from this years Retreat at Eastern Point, Gloucester Mass. on the ocean East of Boston)  

- On Retreat, May 16, 2013 –

 I am,

A fish, who breathes the air of God's Oceans

I am,

The entire Ocean and all who remember Creation there

I am,

A drop of water, a single drop

I am,

All the rain that is, all the rain that will be

I am,

A bird in flight

I am,

All the wind that supports all that flies in God's Air

I am,

The night's darkness

I am,

All the stars, the moon, the universe, galaxies galore

I am,

A single flower, a blade of grass reaching for the Sun

I am,

The Sun, the Wind, alive in Creation's Eternal Song

I am God's Gospel

The Book of Hope

The Living Water

I am,

The Air of the Spirit that I breathe –

God is in me

There is no more to be said,

no amen, no period

the prayer of lover and Love never stops

                                                     

                                              Bill Lagerstrom   

----------------------------

Some humor about security news in Maine:

Until next week,

    Bill Lagerstrom

July 22, 2013

July 22, 2013

(Please Read: Google has reintroduced the thumbnails at the bottom of the photos after you double click on any image. All photographs are mine unless otherwise noted.)

    I occasionally come across a blurb by a reviewer which makes absolutely no sense on any level about the efforts of creative people, and is inherently babble which an online dictionary described as, "Babble is to talk on and on without a particular goal, to bubble at the mouth, but not in a pretty way. " Here is a review from the NY Times about a new album of music by a group called "Matt Ulery's Loom." 

    "Wake An Echo" due out on Tuesday could only be the product of a composer-improviser working in this era, with frictionless access to great chunks of classical postminimalism, atmospheric indie-rock, and harmonically astute post bop." 

    I leave this to any interpreter of alien languages to decipher. (See the cartoon at the end of this post for what may be needed to understand what was said in the above blurb.)

                                         -------------------------------------

   Lee and I went to the botanical gardens in Boothbay Maine last Saturday and the first four photos are from that day. It is something of a Maine venture by local people who bought 250 acres of land and built over fifteen years a wonderful landscape filled with a great variey of plants, flowers and trees. Worth a visit as the project turned out really well. 

Dreams of childhood still rise to the surface,

an idylic house and garden where peaceful summer days

were spent in the imagination of youth -

which has its own wonderful reality in memory. 

(The scene above is in the children's section of the gardens.)

The bud of an energing flower .......

..... becomes the flower offering pollen to the bee

in turn becoming the food to feed others.

Perhaps a metaphor for our own groth process 

as ongoing human concerns. 

A large urn sitting in a garden.

What contents are stored here?

Perhaps the ashes of trees that are no longer with us -

perhaps a living colony of ants 

making good use of what has been provided.

----------------------------------

Campobello trees waiting on daylight.

------------------------------

   Here is a recording by Clarissa Pinkola Estes called "The Creative Fire." She is a Jungian analyst who has offered one of the best descriptions of the creative process I have heard. It is in nine segments which have to be accessed one at a time for about 50 minutes of listening. Worth the effort.

   Chick here and open the folder:

                  https://app.box.com/s/uct0s6g0mejhfjfiecht 

   If you want more of these talks they are available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Fire-Clarissa-Pinkola-Estes/dp/1591793874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374408447&sr=8-1&keywords=the+creative+fire

                                    -------------------------------------------------------

Some Humor:

Peace until next week,

    Bill Lagerstrom

July 14, 2013

July 14, 2013

(Please Read: Google has reintroduced the thumbnails at the bottom of the photos after you double click on any image. All photographs are mine unless otherwise noted.)

       Last weekend Lee and myself made our first trip to Campobello Island which is reached by the International Bridge from Lubec Maine, the North Eastern point of the State. The bridge is two lanes, one in each direction, with a border station at each end, and Lubec like several other points in Maine claims to be the place where the sun first shines each morning in the United States. So rather than extend the argument to endless boredom we go to Canada where the question becomes moot as soon as the Canadian Border Patrol says, "Welcome to Canada. Have a good trip." 

   This is our sixth year of camping and renting a tent cabin at Herring Cove in the Provincial Park on Campobello. This year we will make three trips to Herring Cove for around 17-18 days there. Most say that there is nothing to do once the Roosevelt compound has been visited - not true unless vacation is a time for those who must be entertained 24/7 in order to have the sense that time was well spent. 

   Some go to Florida or the Carribean to sit in the sun and zone out, we go north to walk the paths and trails of the southern half of the island, sit on the deck of the tent cabin and talk, have tea, read, think about what to make for supper, then we may go out with Captain Macke and Captain Robert to spot whales and birds in the bay - and so on. 

    We also have the wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with people who usually turn out to be a surprise in the sense that what a person looks like is rarely what they are really about as travelers in this life. The third photo down shows Kevin and Vicky, a couple from Montreal who were doing their vacation on a motorcycle vintage 1984 and kept in immaculate shape. We spent Sunday night for a few hours having them over for tea on our deck and had a delightful time with an outgoing bright and personable couple who have been together for over twenty five years. One of those not so chance meetings between people who manage to drop all judgements and simply want to get to know the person in front of them. As it turned out we found common ground for dialog almost instantly which led to sharing the desire to talk about life as well lived as we are capable of doing so. We will stay in touch and hopefully meet again soon along the way. Thank you Kevin and Vicky for our most enjoyable talks together about worthwhile things and about the one thing most important which is to enjoy the moment wherever that moment arrives. Peace and joy to the two of you, a highly visible and committed couple. 

   The East Quoddy lighthouse on the Northern tip of Campobello taken from a boat in the entrance to Cobscook Bay. 

The air filled with heat shimmer

hiding all detail of the beacon guiding us to home port,

is the metaphor for our own return to the Home 

from which we traveled to this life at our beginning here.

On a seaweed covered rock off Campobello,

the seals wondered who were these 

strange creatures in the boat invading 

their sacred space with a camera and curiosity.

Kevin and Vicky from the distant land of Montreal, Canada. 

Sharing a trip together,

sharing a life together,

one and the same journey

of unflinching committment.

Mulholland Point Lighthouse 

against the backdrop of Lubec, Maine

Sunset brings that most special light -

calming the heart and soft to the eyes;

God's Gift to those who wait for 

The Light that enters to brighten dark corners

in every willing heart that stops to look and "see"

Lubec, Maine at sunset.

The bridge to morning's adventures. 

Into the Mystic

the day brings what it will. 

"This is the day the Lord has made,

let us rejoice and be glad in it."

---------------------------

A little humor:

Until next week, Peace,

         Bill Lagerstrom