March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015 

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted. The museum images are taken with permission of the institution.

   To enlarge full screen click on any photo.


    On Saturday we went with friends to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts, a good day with several fine exhibits where we spent the afternoon viewing what they had to offer. All of the images on this post were taken at the museum. Here is their website :

                                                  http://www.pem.org/  

       I have spent a great deal of my life in museums and outside their confines with artists, photographers, musicians and writers. Most were passionate to a fault but never dull as long as I understood what the creative drive does to myself first, and then by way of identification with others from my own experience.  I see today that the most creative sides of life are rooted in each individual heart and in the way we shape our lives along spiritual lines whether we consider God a part of our growth or not. For myself connecting to the creative awesomeness of God working through myself in order to bring something of beauty and value to the photography I love, is a joy in all my days these past few years. 

    Here are the museum images from Saturday. Most images have been worked on to bring out something of what I saw - if you go to any museum you will see what you see and hopefully share that experience with others. 

Main hall at the Peabody

Guardians outside the "Chinese House"

moved here and rebuilt a dozen years ago. 

Climbing the stairs to transcendence 

one makes many turns before reaching the goal

as the the compartments we put life into

are left behind, soon forgotten,

unless we descend again and reclaim

what is habitual, the old way of life before God intervened. 

   In the Chinese wing of the Peabody a pair of tall vases were on display. A  detail from a matching set each vase five feet tall - an amazing feat of pottery creativity. Here is a detail from one of them.

The Buddha in bronze, a remarkable sculpture.

The King and his Queen ready to win the day.

A lovely chess set from the museum.

Which door to enter?

St. Ignatius said to try one and if it is the wrong one

return to the beginning and try another. 

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   An exhibit called "Audacious, the Fine Art of Wood" was a surprise for me to find out that there are many creative and talented people out there who are using wood as a medium for expression. A delightful surprise as the quality of the works was exceptional. Here is a link where you can get a better sense of the exhibit:

 http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/178-audacious_the_fine_art_of_wood_from_the_montalto_bohlen_collection

   Here are two images of works that moved me -

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Two ways to communicate in this age.

The Conversation

More communication.

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   Some humor:

The creation of "Installation Art"

Seen at many fine museums here and there.

Peace until next post,

                                 Bill Lagerstrom

March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see images full screen click on any photo.


    We spent the weekend with the Eastern Maine Camera Club in Bar Harbor, Acadia, and the environs of Mount Desert Island. A good group of people, easy to be with and most welcoming and helpful answering any questions that arose about anything not just photography. People here in Maine gravitate toward community and truly enjoy being with like-minded people. I am most fortunate to have found this community where the love of photography is shared and enjoyed. 

   The first eight images are from this trip.

" The Present Moment always stands long enough 

for the photographer it has chosen. "

                                                                                                       Minor White

Fall in love with light.

Allow the soul to be illuminated, creating aliveness 

with the open eyes of the heart

as you reach out to the illuminated subject -

not with the camera but with every breath you take,

searching and holding what is there,

and there, and there.

The camera is only a device to record the What Is -

The moment at hand is all that is important.

Images taken only serve to prompt memory,

of what was truly seen

and truly experienced.

The morning light welcomes the new day once again

- The tree that went to sea -

If the door to transcendence is closed,

take the ladder to where you are going.

   I heard a loud hammering a few feet away and there was a Pileated Woodpecker stopping for lunch!  17-19 inches beak to tail with a 30 inch wingspan - bores into trees for insects and often tears strips of bark away to get at food. This is a big bird.

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- Community get-together -

- Tired of Winter this house owner put out a sign -

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Some rural humor:

Until next post,

            Bill Lagerstrom

February 22, 2015

February 22, 2015

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

To view full screen click on any image.

   I have begun to meet with a group of people who gather in the farm house of an Episcopal priest who lives in a small town by the name of Freedom, here in Maine, about thirty miles from where we have our home. These are intentional people and I will join them every week, God willing. Rick, who returned here to be with his mother and family in the house he grew up in is semi-retired and has opened his house to this group - a major blessing to be sure. 

   The town of Freedom is tiny with a 2112 census population of only 716 which says one ought not to blink when passing through town center. New England has been grown to a great degree with small towns and people who would not live anywhere else having found the right place to spend their lives in. Some may travel and work elsewhere for awhile, many years perhaps, but some return to Maine and find home here, while others are ex-patriots of another part of the country as we are. I have heard this story of return quite a few times and I understand after ten years why they come back, and why I will never leave. There is no other part of the East Coast that has the same appeal for me. Space to breathe and grow without the stress of a big city, good people who are not the stereotyped distant New Englanders of common lore, viable community, and for the most part non-existent traffic issues. 

    All the photos below were taken in the township of Freedom a few days ago.

    

Homeward bound

    

 Every where I go I leave tracks,

Footprints, words, resentments, joys, all echoing endlessly.

My scent is left behind in lingering distant memories –

Some for the compost pile hoping to nourish others,

Some are only rubbish, residues of the ego.

"Be useful." the Buddhist Nun said.

Adding, "That is all your beginnings. Be useful."

Understanding the directives I set out on the path,

Seeking the place of the Present Moment;

Learning to be useful to myself so I may be useful to others.

Finding the gales of the Spirit's Wind in the Present Moment,

Past glories and failures are blown to the horizon behind –

The future has become inaccessible to the demanding self.

Keeping these feet on Holy Ground while in Love's Raging Storm,

This moment, so hard to find, becomes the Gift of Sanctuary.

                                                                          Bill Lagerstrom 2010

The rain does not practice falling,

Nor does it rehearse its journey after the fall;

To the stream, and the rivers and ocean to come –

Rain surrenders, and goes with the flow.

The currents of life are caught only in this Present Moment,

Not in what has already happened, not in what may happen.

Stand on the cliffs of what has past, and what will pass,

Then, be a raindrop falling into surrender, to all that is God.

     Once we find the first small stream after yielding to Gravity,

The Sacred Now will be Our Companion always –

What is behind is gone, what is ahead,

Is where we will be when we arrive.

Practice nothing !

Dive in !

Become one,

   with The Living Waters.

                                                          Bill Lagerstrom  2010

Red sky in morn,

travelers on the seas of Winter

be warned,

snow is always on the way.

Some Humor: (Big city and small town.)

Peace until next post,

                             Bill Lagerstrom