September 30, 2016

September 30, 2016

   All Images are mine unless otherwise noted.

   To see photos full screen click on any image.

    Last evening the third Art Night was held at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Brewer, Maine. Kristen Hornbrook a talented photographer had her work on display along with her daughter Jess' paintings. Keeping creativity well supported in the family was nicely visible. Her facebook page is here:

                         https://www.facebook.com/kristen.hornbrook

     Worth a look.
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   Fall is now happening all through the area, although it seems to be a slow start or perhaps I am impatient for full color. This post is a little out of whack as the first images are of the Fall Season's beginnings in Acadia Park, followed by several abstracts and ending with Spring in Northern Arizona. If you want start with the last photo and work up to get the year straight and proper. 

    Fall in full bloom is not a death of what was just green,

it is the offering of beauty God paints each Season. 

We are Gifted once again with a loving touch

imprinted on our heart by our Creator's hand

   

We drink in your Creation with our eyes,

and with the eyes of our hearts.

The slow movement of Fall into Winter

allows us the chance to go back to the woods

again, and again, until the last leaf falls. 

We are grateful.

The first red leaf of the Season.

(From a photograph.)

Waiting for the change,

metamorphosis into color.

Fall gives Her image as a reflection on water - 

we look down as well as up to see this Season's offering.

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Three abstracts

Leaves do not change  color without help,

the process is well explained by science -

but I prefer to believe transformation happens

in leaves just as it does in us.

All change is an internal affair with the Master Artist

shaping our inner landscape with color

from the Master Artist's pallette.

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   Four images from the Southwest, all from the North Rim of Grand Canyon. It was a surprise to see the Season in full shades of green and yellow as everywhere I looked the scene was vivid and alive. The South Rim of the canyon is desert through and through. To arrive at the opposite side of the canyon and to see a different environment delighted me. God's never ending desire to show the wonder of all that has been created is now no longer just a thought, it is reality personified, a joy to be alive in all moments in front of me.  

The sight of this magnificent wonder 

is in actuality a mirror of the vastness of the terrain

of the heart and soul within this breast.

Perhaps this is why so many balk at the inner look,

it is overwhelming, enormous in scope -

seemingly impossible for us to even consider its presence.

God lives in everyone of us.

In that space, in that house we call our soul,

the poets say that not only God

but all Creation is there as well.

The Net of Indra covers the entire universe,

and we are all a jewel that is connected to everything,

every human being, everything  in existence. *

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*  The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness, or a cell or an atom. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel.

                                                        Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind 

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Some humor:

(Note: A Zamboni is an ice resurfacing 

 vehicle for hockey rinks,)

   Peace until next post,

                  Bill Lagerstrom

September 4, 2016

September 4, 2016

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

All comments and poetry are mine unless otherwise noted.

   We have been on Campobello Island in New Brunswick for the last ten days on what turned out to be something of a creativity retreat. Lee wrote, I did some photography and poetry, and we took walks, built a fire each night and made one pot meals. The island is a wonderful way to enter into a peace and quiet not available in the daily routine of life here in even a relatively tranquil part of the State.

    The first five images are of the seascape seen from Campobello taken this last week. The rest of the photos were taken of some of the flowers that are everywhere on the island, particularly in the Roosevelt compound where every summer the floral displays are truly vivid and beautiful.  

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    Understanding of the environment is experiential,

and some would say mystical in its essence. 

All things mystical are not complex,

a simplicity of understanding explains their core truth.

Watching a sunset for an hour or more

becomes an experience hard to walk away from

before Nature completes Her work.

When darkness finally enters 

a sense of knowing a little more -

something of the ineffable presence of the Creator,

becomes a fuller knowing of life's meanings.

                                                                                              

Sunset over Cobscook bay New brunswick.

Sunrise over Herring Cove, Campobello Island.

The warm morning sun kisses the seagrass at Herring Cove.

An insect or a dead tree washed ashore at Herring Cove?

Your choice.

On our way to finding a home to settle into,

sometimes a more precarious perch provides a respite

from the numerous flights that make up the day.

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Some of the flowers of Campobello

Reaching for the light

I didn't know that young birds had parachutes

strapped to their backs to help with a first flight!

A small part of the floral displays at the Roosevelt compound.

The "cottage" of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt,

only some twenty or more rooms.

There is a spider so enamoured of flowers

that it envelops them with a wondrous web,

not to devour the petals but to hold their beauty close 

and safe from the elements of wind and rain.

Everything alive has beauty,

every flower, tree, bird, animal or person

has the loveliness of God present

and available to see when we stop and look. 

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My gift of flowers to you, dear reader.

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   Some humor:

   Peace,

              Bill Lagerstrom

August 6, 2016

August 6, 2016

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see images full screen click on any photo.

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"If this quaking earth did not need mountains,

would God have not created them

in all their majesty?"

                                          Rumi

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       It has been a busy month, far too full to elaborate on. Just to say that many good things have happened, blessings all. 

   The first eleven images are of mountains taken on our trip to the Southwest in June of this year. We were so enraptured by the magnificent landscapes  that plans for another trip West into the grandeur of the region is in the works. Hopefully next year will return us to the wondrous creations of God's hands, put in place for our enjoyment. 

    The last image is an abstract taken at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville Maine.

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The road leading to Creation's works,

is twofold, one to use for physical access,

the other for the spiritual entryway of the heart. 

The heart sees differently than our outer eyes,

it is far more perceptive of the presence of the Spirit.

The road comes as if in a dream.

Its direction is always true,

a path to set our internal compass on.

Why do the mountains always point upward?

It is because they know both the path to heaven,

and paradoxically the road to our heart.

Follow one and you will find the other. 

"Like a city on a hill ...."

The mountains are most knowledgeable in this arena. 

Paying homage to Ansel Adams,

and his photographs of mountains.

(This is Zion National Park in Utah taken in May of this year.)

Life will grow anywhere it can find a foothold,

as does the messages of the Spirit that find a home in our heart.

(This image in not crooked.

The tree on the upper right grew that way.)

Nature sometimes decides to paint a different image

that we might expect to see - Her prerogative. 

In a half-dream I saw Spring appear

offering only a glimpse of what was to come

on the canvas Nature paints on. 

Like trees planted in places of God's choosing,

we too, grow whether the conditions are perfect or not.

Even if the seed that became you or me,

in set for its life in arid landscapes,

we will grow well according to our needs.

Many monks built their monasteries in the desert,

as they listened to the directions set forth

to direct their lives in places

 where spiritual growth would have the best chance to flourish.

When placed in front of the awesomeness of Creation,

there, is opportunity for growth. 

Did you know that in the dark of night

all trees and rocks dance in gratitude 

for the life they were given?

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All great art in inspired by a personal muse

who first reveals the image at hand,

along with a strong desire to create beauty.

We are talking here of the muse that lives within us,

urging our hands to pick up a brush, a camera,

any tool needed to bring what is longing there into existence.

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Some humor:

   Peace,

                   Bill Lagerstrom