November 15, 2013

Novenber 15, 2013

   Click on any photo to view the images full screen.

   Last week I was in New York City visiting my daughter Bridget and her husband Rudy and their dog Rocky who is a breed known as a 'Morkie," a cross between a Maltese and a Yorkshire terrier. An agressively loving dog who demands and gets as much petting and belly rubbing as he can out of everyone in the room. So here I enter, an alpha grandpa who has no intention of giving up my status as king of the pack while looking at a determined twenty pound living mass of "I am here to be adored and pandered to in every way as royalty needs to be so honored." Well we struck a bargin that made the relationship more two sided than the pooch would have wanted. Let's just say that Rocky got his belly rubbed and I got my space for a few minutes here and there.

    The dog is in truth lovable and almost as good looking as I am. I did enjoy his company and the war of "You will pet me continually!" became a pact of peace where "I will give you a treat, a pet, and you will take a nap or bother someone else." This dog is also a vegetarian, eats carrots, the favorite treat!"

Mr. Rocky Medina of Forest Hills, Borough of Queens, New York City

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    Bridget and myself for the early part of the week played the role of tourist even though between us we have around seventy five years of living in New York City. On Tuesday we went to the Central Park Zoo after a walk up Fifth Avenue dodging the tourists and the always in a rush New Yorkers. At the Zoo I found the most relaxed and serene New Yorker, one of the seals taking a nap and digesting lunch. 

Equinimity in action - so to speak

Fifth Avenue and Fifty Third Street  subway station -

Taken during a non rush hour moment

The hand on the upper right is saying,

"Stop smiling!" 

A rare looking person on the streets of NYC

At the Zoo with expressions ranging from bored to happy.

She listened to her mother when told to go play in traffic.

Fall trees are forever in the forground of buildings,

yet they will always manage to live by their own clock

even in a twenty four hour city.

A sign outside a voting place in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Philippine.

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   Mostly photos today and more of New York City next week along with a few more comments and poetry.

   The NYC Subways tried to be more consumer friendly over the years without a lot of practical success. Announcements are made every so often as to when the next train at any station will arrive, usually a few stops away - maybe. This week's cartoon is a reflection of this friendly attitude on the part of the MTA towards riders.

   Peace until next week,

                     Bill Lagerstrom

November 1, 2013

November 1, 2013

   All photos can be viewed full screen by clicking on any Picture.

    The new holiday that was said to replace Christmas as the favorite among those under thirty is Halloween. I decided that instead of dressing up as a zombie, or as a research bureaucrat in non public service I would instead decorate my favorite cemetery for the occasion. I walk here three to four times a week as it is around a half mile from where we live, which gives me some sort of an edge on knowledge of the afterlife that runs rampant every October 30th. My continuing education program - there are a few teachers buried there which gives us a chance to converse regularly.

   Here is my halloween photographic effort:

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    I track the seas off midcoast Maine to see when a storm brings waves of a respectable height to make the sixty mile trip really worthwhile. Lee and I are in Acadia frequently as witnessed by the photos on this site since its conception, so the drive is not a big deal. The National Weather Service showed waves of fifteen plus feet so off I went to Schoodic Point which is a peninsula just North of Acadia and is a part of the National Park that is well exposed to the ocean thereby offering good wave watching for the intrepid. Schoodic adds around thirty miles to the trip and it is a really delightful part of the coast showing what Maine looked like before far too many houses were built on the seaward side of the State. 

   Here are a few of the photos taken yesterday.
    

    Waves fifteen feet, wind 35-40 miles in speed, heavy rain and spray and a Laughing Gull weighing around a pound and a half has no real problems with the ongoing search of food. In the center a Herring Gull drops down to see if something is edible. 

A point on the Schoodic peninsula

       Unbothered by the storm seven to eight Eider Ducks and a gull are the dark specks in the photo's center. The adaptation of birds and mammels to live in the ocean is a wonder to me as to how such a light, fragile creature can survive in these conditions. Yet, there are hundreds of millions of seabirds making a living in the open ocean all around the world. 

Taken yesterday, a woods scene in a windy overcast storm sky.

The last yellow colors of Fall, Schoodic Point.

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Some humor:  What we may have come to in the information age ...

    No Blog next week as I will be traveling.

                    Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom

October 25, 2913

October 25, 2013

   All Photos can be viewed full screen by clicking on any picture.

    Before I say anything in this weeks post I would like to offer a link to another blog that has been a joy for me to read every week. As you may know I spent most of my life in and around New York City fully caught up in the vastness of what a great urban environment can offer. Clifford Browder, who is a well published writer offers wonderful weekly insights as to how life in NYC was, and is currently. His writing is excellent, thoughtful and beautifully crafted - well worth a look and a read. Reading his blog for me is a reminder of some of the conversations we have had over the years about everything that came up and how important it is to stop and listen to those who are open fully to what life has put in front of them. 

   Worth a look - click here: http://cbrowder.blogspot.com/

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   On a gloomy day in Acadia last weekend the woman below reminded me of my own wait for the ending of Fall and the coming of Winter. I felt a nostalgia that gray days between seasonal changes tends to bring, a small saddness for the ending of warm weather while looking into the horizon for what is coming. 

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   Labyrinth - a walking meditation in the form of a circular maze on the ground that leads one in a continuous path to the center and back our again. It offers a spiritual walk that takes us out of perceptions of order and knowable direction into the unknown, where we learn over time to be comfortable in a space that may have always felt scary, perhaps to be avoided as well.

   Below are four images of a single crooked tree that I offer as a visual labyrinth to be viewed slowly to see what they may offer as you go from one to another. I welcome any insights that you may have in this brief "walk." 

- Start here, return here by coming back through the images -

   

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

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      Here is the famous labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral that has been walked since the 13th century. Click on it and 'walk' it with your mouse or finger in full screen. One always takes one's time in a labyrinth, a slow walking meditation.

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Enter here

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Every leaf has Light within its form

which, when it is allowed to escape

into the open eyes of a beholder,

brings forth a hither-to-unseen beauty.

Sun on the Autumn trees with rain clouds nearing.

(This is the road Lee and I live on.)

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Until next week, Peace, Bill Lagerstrom

Some Humor: