March 2, 2014

March 2, 2014

Photos can be viewed full frame by clicking on any image.

All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

     This has been a busy week in the "do-ing" and in the "be-ing" of full days taking me in two directions relentlessly. The learned habit of taking five breaths when overwhelmed has served me well in practicing the many returns to the present moment where balance lives. It is the center between the pulling of the world and the serenity of inner peace that provides the stability I need to function in both the secular and the spiritual sides of life. Practice, practice, practice to get to play at Carnegie Hall and to get through difficult days as well is the remembered advice I give myself. I will never get to play at Carnegie Hall but I can always arrive at an attitude of willingness each day to continue in the day, and play the song whose title is, This Twenty Four Hours .  

   The first five photos photos posted below, which were taken last week, are for me a reflection of "Path," the journey we all travel on through our lives. 

   Some music for the Journey:

   Click here: https://app.box.com/s/2b67gp5wfm28y1afxnqf

-Steps-

The mystery, and the known reality,

Emerges from darkness,

Springing, unexpectedly,

From its source, as it is released into the light.

Soften resistance to the Never Ending Calling,

God’s longing for our return to where we belong.

Beginning again is the first step,

Providing all we need to continue the journey Home.

Disregard the escape hatches on both sides,

As moving ahead one step at a time

Keeps the focus on the path God set us on.

The passageway is ever held securely in our heart.

                                                                     Bill Lagerstrom, 2014

A gray overcast day in Acadia on the Jessup Path.

In the cold and somewhat dismal days of Winter,

there is a path that will take us to home,

safety and warmth, because we know the way.

In the depths of the forest 

there is always a trail.

Sometimes covered in snow,

sometimes obscured by Autumn's leaves -

there is always a path to follow.

When the end of each road is reached,

stop, pause. and enjoy the view of what lies ahead.

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      The earth left to its own devices never completely dies. We, as guests to this wonder, have the priviledge of witnessing the joy of nature which invites us to look with new eyes at the miracles of each season. Hope that we will come alive after each of our season's passing is something of what I sense is offered every time I walk in woods and in forests. 

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   Here are two rather abstract photos of flight that I found appealing. I have no explanation for their attraction, only that there is something in the images that may at some point reveal their message - or may not. Sometines the sense of  'something more'  is what is written in the visual dispatch sent from the spirit's abode within. To put it simply, a felt sense of something of value is received. 

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   Some Humor:

(We have a twelve foot mound of snow left from plowing outside our door which may never melt. I am thinking of putting a stamp on it and sending it to the devil.  Everything can be of use.)

   Peace until next week,

                          Bill Lagerstrom                  

February 20, 2014

February 20, 2014

   Click on any photo to bring up in full screen.

   All Photos are mine unless otherwise noted.  

   Very little talk this week, just the photos from last weekends snow here in our part of Maine, and two images taken a few weeks ago. Peter Ralston, a well published and remarkable photographer who has a gallery in Rockport here in Maine says, "There's a story in every photograph that is worth telling." I agree and also believe that the story can be fact of the matter, or a metaphor that begins in the heart, that wonderful vehicle that expresses every emotion we are capable of setting free. 

   I would suggest that you not take my story line for the images on this blog, but that you let your own words flow from the center of yourself in the language of the Spirit's Wind as it is set free to roam without restriction, through all that we are, as receivers of wondrous insights.  

The storm arrives over Penobscot Bay 

with all the drama it can muster -

dark and violent as its passage rushes toward Camden.

Trying hard but not succeeding in covering several clouds

that refuse to surrender their light to the furies. 

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Winter closes its gate to the arrival of Spring,

not yet ready to cede defeat in the face of changing seasons.

When the first green shoots of Spring poke their noses through the snow,

Winter will release its grip on the land and on our lives.

Then, and only then, will the joy of being out in snow covered woods

be replaced by the delight of walking the paths in Spring's new life,

bringing another resurection into our waiting hearts. 

  (The following five photos are a reflection of what I felt and pondered as the movement of the wonder of Winter's beauty met my eyes. The expressed delight of God's creativity is to be found everywhere, and for me is seen in all directions as long as I stop, look, and listen to the Song That Never Ends. )

Let us fall in love again

and carry the colors of sunset and sunrise all over the world.

Let us become a new seeker

and feel the drifting breeze from Heaven's Incense

carried on the evening light to a willing heart.

God's loving regard is crystal clear,

and all are blessed by its joy filled Light.

                             (Influenced by Jalludin Rumi.)

(Sunset photo taken at Schoodic Point, Acadia Park.)

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   For wonder and amazement take a look at this:

           http://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g?rel=0

                From the BBC and David Attenborough.

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   Some humor, two this week as I only posted a photo here last week - my attempt at atonement for grevious sins - I think ....

  

Until next week,

            Bill Lagerstrom 

February 11, 2014

February 11, 2014

   All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.

   Enlarge photos to full screen by clicking on any image. 

        “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

                                                                           Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

    An echo of the above statement can be heard in the following link. I would like to suggest that you take a few minutes listening in silence before continuing.

   Click here:  https://app.box.com/s/e44b032ab4c2ab7f4d03

   This last weekend I changed something of the way I see the world through my new lens implant and in how I perceive some of the photos I took on Saturday. It is a return to a few places I have been to often in my photographs and a fresh look at what I am doing with them on the computer screen. Digital photography has unlimited potential for creativity that it is sometimes daunting, so I have a tendency to go with what has already worked. 

   This week I offer first a delightful photo of two men, two horses and a sled preparing to go out on Fields Pond to cut ice the way it was done before electricity. This was a big business in the Northeast for many years as ice could be shipped long distances without excessive melt.

    This image works for me and I will continue to put similar photos out as Maine deserves to be somewhat changeless in its daily life. 

   After that there are seven images that are products of something I see in them, and are an experiment in seeing the familiar in a different way. There is always a story or a metaphor in every photograph that is life asking us to be observant as we open our outer and inner eyes. 

Fields Pond is in the background past the trees.

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The morning sun is brazen, pushy,

as it seems to force its way into the day.

The night has no choice in this daily event -

always giving way to the inevitable.

I never knew that God put speed signs up 

to slow down the clouds racing by -

Perhaps this is so we can enjoy more of

the wondrous creations of a new day.

   A tree says:  "A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail."

                                                                                      Unknown author 

In that space between awake and sleep,

I dream of trees and let my roots reach out

to entwine themselves in their roots.

Then sleep brings the welcome connection

to everything that is waiting for morning, to be seen again.

On clear mornings the sun arrives at the cloud factory,

anxious and ready to receive the days finery

which will adorn the sky, as we, looking up,

marvel that such beauty is sent to feed our heart and soul.

A story of symmetry laid down straight and true. 

Every story has a picture that reveals ........

The lamp post said,

"I rise to the heavens straight and true!"

The tree replied,

"Good for you."

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Some humor:

   "Do you agree George, that Immanuel Kant stood for the middle ground between rationalism and empiricism? Or do you take the side that all knowledge comes from experience and not reason?"

(Passing time during a slow period at work.)

   Until next week, 

      Bill Lagerstrom