Photo Show

March 19, 2013

(All photos and pictures adapted from 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.)

     Bridget and her husband Rudy came up for five days last week which is why I didn't post. The next regular post will be this Friday

   For those who were not able to get to my Photo Show here is a view of the exhibit. I took these in a less that careful way which is why you see reflections and some distortion from one frame to another. The show will hang until March 30th. at The B.A.R.N. 142 Center Street in Brewer, so there is a little time left to take a look. 

   Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom

March 9, 2013

March 9, 2013

(All photos and pictures adapted from 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.)

   A few days ago I was asked to sit with a man who was dying and had no one to be with him as he made the transition to travel past beyond the thin veil that separates us all from this life and the next. He was in a place where recognition of my being there was only momentary as his eyes opened narrowly  for a brief second or two. I talked to him, called his name and realized that he was on a journey that I had no business injecting myself into - so I sat and simply watched. Thirty minutes later the vitals monitor dropped all lines to zero and he died peacefully. 

   In this age of digital everything the experience has me a little out of sorts as no doctor rushed in to check his heart and declare that death had indeed happened. There were no dramatics, no tears, no wailing's of despair, just the nurse coming in and removing the sensors that just a few minutes ago indicated life was present. Yet there was no denying what had happened - the electronic evidence was completely convincing. 

   I got out of my chair, said a prayer of gratefulness for the life that was here for many years. I then bowed and thanked him for teaching me something of what will also perhaps be my final moments in this body. He was my teacher for those brief minutes, and he will continue to teach me as the memory of the event has the reality of Grace, and it will ask for definition and acceptance over time. I know this experience was a Gift from God. I bow to all my teachers that the Spirit opens to view when I enter the present moment. Grace abounds.

    Here is a recording of my first mentor in the work of being with the dying. Frank Ostaseski has had major influence on how I approach being present for the sick and the dying people I have been called to sit with. It is well worth a listen. It is not a talk about how others die, but on how we live and become in sync with our own mortality. 

"Surrender" a talk given to the Insight Meditation Society in Redwood City, California several years ago. Click here to listen: 

                        https://www.box.com/s/97tpkkvnolhmy7y1a4mh  

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 The Saints are but the dust at God's Feet,

And I am nothing more than the dust on the dust

Of the feet of those who were annihilated in Love's Calling.

Yet, this station of life, gives me more joy than I can ever hold.

There are no more words –

I sit in awe ……

This is God's Way

With hearts and souls.

                                                      Bill Lagerstrom

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Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

     From the same trip to Cape Breton. I haven't taken any photos this week so I am looking again at what was the beginning of my entry into the digital world of photography. The two pictures above were taken with an inexpensive point and shoot camera. Expensive equipment is not necessary to express our creativity. Many simple computer programs for processing pictures are available for anyone who wants to work with what they recorded with today's easy to use cameras. If you have a desire please go and take pictures. 

Don't go outside your house to see flowers,

my friend, don't bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers.

One flower has a thousand petals.

That will do for a place to sit.

Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty

inside the body and out of it,

before gardens and after gardens.

                                                                      Kabir

Fences, barriers or invitations?

If one can see what is on the other side,

perhaps the fence is there 

only to keep the cows in.

   (This fence was on top of a high peninsula in Cape Breton and was probably there to keep the cows from falling off the cliffs. There were no cows only an occasional foolish hiker who would venture where things are dangerous.)

   We have two turkeys who spend a great deal of time eating the seed the birds drop from the feeders outside our house. We have not named them as yet - any suggestions?

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 A Little humor:

                                                                     Noah's Ache

Peace until next week,   Bill Lagerstrom

February 23, 2013

March 3, 2013

   Here is an interview with myself and Bruce Campbell about the opening of my photo show last Sunday in Brewer Maine. I will post a few pictures next week of the walls holding my offerings to the Bangor Area Recovery Network - aka  B.A.R.N.

Clock here to listen https://www.box.com/s/qz2dpy8inftcalcqkgkz 

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(All photos and pictures adapted from 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.)

   The day after the big storm of two weeks we went to Acadia National Park with snow shoes and cross country skis. A surprise was in store as the barely plowed parking lots were almost filled with Mainers who had the same idea - time to get out and get into the wonder of a decent snowfall. One lovely moment was at Eagle Lake in the Park when following us was a four year old on snow shoes along with his parents. He was unafraid and sure-footed and clearly enthralled with all the snow. The first photo below is where we were walking. 

   Once again the move here to Maine has become the right thing to do. No more panic around me from all those who in NYC who think snow is the enemy. Hardly an inconvenience here as the roads in the afternoon were dry and free of ice and snow. A marvel of planning by the communities that live here. There was a little snow and a few patches of ice on the roads in the morning so we took Lee's car which has studded snow tires. 

   Here is an instrumental by New Age performer Marina Raye called "Snow Falling On Silence." A really pleasant piece to meditate with or just to listen and be quiet - https://www.box.com/s/rhajpar0y9klr9tma35x

New paths to take as snow covers the land,

Each step adds a direction for those who choose to come later -

Jesus, the Buddha, said with fresh clarity,

"These are the steps I chose.

Come and see for yourself if they fit you as well."

         - Winter Snow Again –

This month the single leaf of Autumn’s last stand has fallen,

A lesson learned, do not cling to life if you have died.

Our daily death to self, like the fallen leaves become compost –

Nutrition to feed all that will be arriving in Spring.

For those living in sprawling cities, snow is fatal – poison –

Something to be feared and conquered immediately !

Here, past my window in Maine, the first white flakes have arrived,

God’s Gift to the leafless landscape, the joy of clear sight, uncluttered.

Yet, things are still changing, Winter’s deep hold has not yet arrived.

The Sun will warm now and then and release snow’s grip on the ground;

Temporary impermanence of this white blanket covering the future.

Time waits on December and beyond to set the snow and ice in place.

Will God lie dormant as well under the white blankets?

No. Life there is already preparing to emerge in a distant Spring –

Creation’s constructions are always patient.

The Sun still arrives every morning – proof of Love’s devotion.

Snow waits on Spring to be annihilated,

The transformation into another season,

Prodding all that will become green and new

To enter the next chapter of God’s enchantments.

Winter is the lesson of the necessary waiting

For that which slowly changes into the Emergence Of The New.

Endure my friend, if the body is still here in Spring,

The Truth Of All, will be revealed.

Keep all eyes open, head and heart.

                                                                     Bill Lagerstrom, 2010

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          Let the Winter of this Season of life

             face the Ocean, the Wind -

         Stand firm for this is Holy Ground.

         The Ocean is God, the Wind is the Spirit,

            and against their onslaught 

            one must have roots already deeply embedded 

            lest the  life and growth that traveled to the edge of the land

            be blown back, only to have to travel here again.

Follow those who know The Way.

The trail they leave is easily seen,

which was their intention all along.

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A little cat humor: (The cat photo is from the web)

      Peace until next week, Bill L.