September 24, 2012

September 24, 2012

(All photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

   It has been said in Sufi literature that if a rock falls, "That is the Nature of God." So, perhaps it follows that rocks and have their "nature," the ingrained, never to be displaced essence of their Creator. I, for most of my life have looked at God's wondrous Creations with the view that is more scientific than metaphoric - Rock is ......  formed by the magma from the earth's core ....  many types, granite, basalt .......  named and labeled to fit neatly in the box I placed them in.
   
     To stop, look at anything created with an eye that is both outer and outer and which desires to see what of God is imbued in anything, is relatively new for me. Learning to sit with and allow something to tell me what its seeming secrets are requires a different way of looking than I have spent so many years accepting as the way to understand what is around me. I am learning to stop, take several breaths, and ask for the vision to see what has been in front of me all along - that which is the living presence of the Divine in all and everything. That has become the petition of the present moment's prayer. 

    I do not, however, get down on myself for not having done this new kind of observation before most of my life has passed. To the contrary, I am only grateful for the Gift of sight which I now know has its eyes within my core - where the senses of the heart operate in us all. 

    Bless the Lord. Bless this moment in this day.

All of God's Creation desires to be known -

and will slowly show itself

to the heart that desires to see.

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

Look to the heavens and see ......

" I am the Light within you.

My only desire

is for you

to allow Me to be seen. "

++++++

There is a community of the spirit.

Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the street of love,

and becoming scintillating love. 

Bathe in the light of grace.

 Close both eyes to see with inner eyes. 

Open your hands, if you want to receive. 

Open your arms, if you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle. 

Quit acting like a wolf, 

and feel the shepherd's love filling you. 

Be empty of worrying. 

Think of who created the soul 

and who fashioned everything out of nothingness! 

Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? 

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. 

Live in loving passionately and bloom 

like a beautiful night-queen flower 

that opens to the starry night,

 silently, without any noise. 

                                           ~ Based on a prayer by Cynthia J. Alby

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

   A talk on Light and The Inner Senses,

                 By Victoria Austin of The San Francisco Zen Center

                           Click Here

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

A gray rainy day is still filled with light

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Some humor: 

Further adventures in "first love"

Peace,   Bill Lagerstrom

September 17, 2012

September 17, 2012

(All photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

    This week I am offering "Light" the product of God's love for everything that grows openly, unconstrained, enabling growth with fullness and delight. Below the pictures I put in a letter I sent to a friend who, when we met and talked a few weeks ago quoted Leonard Cohen - one of the great poets and songwriters of the age. Please take some time to read the letter and the poetry that follows below the first two photos so the light offered by others can enter.

"There's a crack, a crack in everything,

that's how the light gets in."

                         Leonard Cohen

Look for the Light, there's always an opening

When the Light enters and we face and embrace it,

wondrous flowers will be offered in gratitude

for our turning to the direction where God can be seen

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

- A recent letter to a friend -

Dear  (my friend) ________ ,

      I was thinking about the Cohen quote, "There's a crack, a crack in everything – that's how the light gets in." My thoughts are that to see this "Light' one must get inside everything – or at least make a start and get inside one thing, open the heart's eyes, and let the Light of God's Spirit infuse one's being at God's speed, not ours. Lazarus, in the total darkness of the tomb first heard the voices at the entrance, then saw the light at the stone was rolled away, but it was not the light of day he saw but the Divine Light shining through the eyes of Jesus. I believe this to be so - how often have we been illuminated by the Spirit's Radiance as it shone through the presence of another, or was carried on the wings of another's speech, or from the pages of a book, or from a piece of music that lights up our very core.

    

    To see the crack from the outside is simply an observation of a flaw. To get the Gift we go inside – everything. Yet, the paradox is that we can see the crack in another's armor and their ever present Light will come through from their interior. To see growth in someone I may be working with, an illumination of some sort, is also to see The Light. It all depends on sight, opening the eyes of the heart. So, the outside can also be the inside.

  

   Here are two poems by David Whyte;

 - THE OPENING OF EYES -

That day I saw beneath dark clouds

the passing light over the water

and I heard the voice of the world speak out,

I knew then, as I had before

life is no passing memory of what has been

nor the remaining pages in a great book

waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.

It is the vision of far off things

seen for the silence they hold.

It is the heart after years

of secret conversing

speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert

fallen to his knees before the lit bush.

It is the man throwing away his shoes

as if to enter heaven

and finding himself astonished,

opened at last,

fallen in love with solid ground.

                                                    David Whyte

         - Loaves and Fishes -

This is not

the age of information.

This is not

the age of information.

Forget the news,

and the radio,

and the blurred screen.

This is the time

of loaves

and fishes.

People are hungry

and one good word is bread

for a thousand.

  -- David Whyte

   

 (And from myself, something of a resurrection story.)   

- Seeing The Light –   ( Bill Lagerstrom, May 24, 2011 )

Into the light, out of the cold darkness of long winter's reach,

Spring rushes in, quickly, as it does every turn of the circle.

The seasons are God's Promises coming around again –

The Teaching is made visible, death of the old brings the life of the new.

The beech trees outside our door are Spring's work in action,

Speeding to life the buds holding the brown leaves

That never left during the past months of cold, ice and snow, now fall,

As new life dislodges the long dead to the grounds grave below.

Emerging as the growth of the new leaves of Spring,

Life is nourished by the decay of what has already died.

What appeared to be lifeless, is far from total demise,

All the wisdom in still useful cells, is the food offering new growth.

God only says, "Yes."

My pleas for answers go unanswered;

What I already knew, the circle of my life,

Has for many years been visible to these eyes –

Spring to Summer, to Fall, to Winter –

And, Spring again.

Losing memory of Spring when deep into the short days of Winter,

God, realizing the nature of my disbelief, my loss of hope –

Fulfills the promises made that need not be repeated,

New Spring will arrive even if I am called Home in Winter.

Winter's last breath, as will be mine,

Is always followed by New Life,

A different Spring for a different day.

We will all know this truth eventually.

           Peace and serenity my friend, in and with The Light. 

                      

                                                 Bill 

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

Though the night holds its terrors,

and fitful dreams enter everywhere -

the Light continues to find its way in,

The Always Present Sun of Hope

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

And a little humor:

- Falling in love for the first time -

Peace and serenity until next week,

                    Bill Lagerstrom

September 10, 2012

September 10, 2012

(All photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

   Surgery was successful and I am recovering. A hard week to be sure, and a long recovery ahead for a detached tendon which dropped of the shoulder rotator cuff - something I have gone through before for the other shoulder. Medicine is good, and God is Good having Called talented people to the work of repairing broken parts of people. 

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

Be sure to see the post from Jim Lapierre's BDN blog below the poem. 
A worthwhile read

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

     Mindfulness Practice - One of the best practices I have had over the last decade has been "Mindfulness".  Taking an online course with Ines Freedman of the Insight Meditation Center in California on mindfulness produced a major shift in the way I see things.  Primarily, to stop, take one, two, three breaths and then look at what is around me or in front of me brings my surroundings into clearer focus.  
   
     John Cabot Zinn in Cambridge Massachusetts brought mindfulness practice to the United States without using the "B" word, Buddhist, in a manner that allowed the practice to be picked up by therapists, hospital workers, teachers of all sorts, essentially just about everyone.  The practice which focuses on breath, emotions, and the body has the ability to bring peace and equanimity in all of life's situations.  

      Here is my teacher Ines Freedman talking on mindfulness meditation practice -     Click Here    You have to listen to this talk one track at a time after clicking on the Ines Freedman folder,

      Many of her talks as well as loads of additional talks on Buddhist practices by American teachers are available at the Insight Meditation Center website 

                         Click Here

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

Summer here in Maine is ending 

soon the green of the passing season 

will become a fading memory

as we wait on the miracle of Spring to come

                              - A Fall Day -

How can one say the day is gray, rainy, and dark,

When there is Light everywhere!

Diffused, yes, softened, yes,

Still, very much visible are all of Love’s Creations.

The eyes of the head open automatically to the dim light,

The eyes of the heart can remain closed because of what

     lies behind the eyes of the head.

To enable the Jesus nature within to see in darkness,

     and in dark places,

Ah,  …… yes, release the body’s senses and the heads thinking,

     so the senses of the heart and soul can be set free.

“How?” you ask.

I do not know, there are no words –

Only my surrender to, and acceptance of Love’s actions

Within this once heavily guarded life within my breast.

                                                                Bill L.

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

Here in the Bangor area and beyond we have a valuable resource in Jim LaPierre who has a Blog in the Bangor Daily News as part of their community outreach. It is called "Recovery Rocks" and besides being beautifully written, the content is truly worth reading for everyone, not just those in recovery.  Please take a look Click Here  From this page you can see all the past entries by scrolling down and clicking on "Older Entries."

   I include his entry for this week which is for me right on target for the thoughts I have had on my own creative nature.  Please take a read. (Posted with Jim's permission.)

How To Get Out of Your Own Way

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Jim LaPierre

   So…I have an intern. I’ve resisted having interns for a lot of years now. I’m a busy person. Busy people don’t look for protégés much but I have one. She’s brilliant – strong skills base, good knowledge of the field, excellent organization and communication skills…hell, I’d probably hire her if I had any money. Here’s the thing: She asks me how I do what I do. Here’s the problem with that: I dunno.

  

Kinda makes me sound ridiculous doesn’t it? Ask an artist how they paint. Ask a gambler how he knows what the other player’s cards are. It’s good to have technical skills and knowledge. Everything else is creative insight and expression. If you’re good it’s because what you do is an extension of who you are.

 I've been a therapist for over ten years now. They told me in grad school that I’d be seven years into this thing before I got really comfortable. I hated that. I wanted to be really, really good and I wanted to not be scared from day one. Turned out like any other job I’ve ever had. You gotta pay your dues. I struggled. I worked hard. I learned a lot from every client I served and I learned a lot about myself. It took me a long time to realize that the more secure I am in who I am, the more patient, tolerant, and kind I became to the world. This outweighs anything I happen to know about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

   Fear makes us crave control. I pursued the illusion that if I had tons of technical knowledge, I wouldn’t be scared cuz I’d know what I was doing. This is akin to reading every book ever written about pottery but never picking up a handful of clay. What I learned in school was valuable but it wasn’t enough. People’s lives aren’t covered by text books and theoretical knowledge is of limited value. Get to know people on their terms, in their language, based on their comfort level. People want to be understood – they just fear the vulnerability it takes to share who they are.

  

    Most of us are afraid to discover who we really are. (What if deep down I’m actually an asshole?) To access our true potential is terrifying because we don’t know where the limits are. Children derive a sense of security and wellbeing from knowing what the rules and boundaries are –these are the lines they can’t cross. Those of us who raised ourselves didn’t get that sense of security and safety. For us to explore who we are and what is possible for us requires that we overcome our insecurities (reasons why we are not good enough). We have to get out of our own way in order to become something greater.

   Ira Glass said “…the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.” He was referring to the creative process. Really connecting to people involves very little science and a whole lotta art. Artists of every type tend to be at least a little neurotic because when you’re judging what we create, you’re judging us. If you’re an accountant your spreadsheet is not who you are – it’s what you do – it’s your work. It’s important and ideally you take pride in it but it’s not who you are.

  I’m good at what I do because I’m good with who I am. I had to do a lot of work to get here and that work was as a client in therapy and in connecting to something greater than myself spiritually. My work on me will never be done. I don’t ever wanna be done – that would be like settling and saying I’m not willing to get any healthier, any happier, or attain any more joy than I have. In much the same manner – for the artist a piece is never really done you just have to stop working on it and move on to the next piece.

                                       =================================

An early Spring flower in Cape Breton 2011

What can grow will grow anywhere

even out of a rock

When life presents you with Steps

take them

Some humor: