Yesterday Morning at Spring Pond in Blue Heron Park, Staten Island, NY

From where I live in Port Richmond, Staten Island, there's a bus that stops only a block from Blue Heron Park in Staten Island, but I have to get the bus before 9:00 a.m. when the direct bus stops running there.  I can go later, but after 9:00 a.m. I have to transfer.  Also I wanted to see Spring Lake and how the lighting was on it as the sun was rising in the East.  The following are some of the photos I took.  I don't know what kind of bird that was, but I'm going to find out on my next visit to the park.  I'm suddenly interested in learning names of birds, trees and flowers, which I've never really been into before, which only shows how much I'm changing.

After spending an hour taking photos, I then get back on the bus and go out to Target in Charleston, Staten Island, shop until I can't carry anymore, then head back home.  This whole adventure takes about 5 to 6 hours.

Photo taken at about 7:30 a.m. on June 8, 2012

 Spring Pond is covered with lily pads.  Blue Heron Park has 7 ponds, but Spring Pond is my favorite.

Close up of blooming Lily on Pad.
The green leathery leaf is a sundeck for spotted newts and a heliport for dragonflies. 

Lily Pads

Although the lily pads look like they are floating on the water, they are attached to stems, and anchored to the soft bottom of the pond by roots and rhizomes.   The pond has many frogs and turtles.

Bird on Lily Pads.  (I don't know what kind of bird this is, but I think it may be a baby blue heron?)

Same Guy as Above.  My telescopic lens makes him look larger than he really was.

My Father, John T. Alstrom, Jr. U.S. Army Veteran

Memorial Day, 2012

In Memory of my father, Major John Thomas Alstrom, Jr., born Baltimore, Md. November 27, 1914.  Died January 1984 in Sun City, Arizona,  U.S. Army Officer from 1940-1951 (WWII and Korean War Veteran).

Father During WWII

Father in his office/room  in the Aleutian Islands During WWII.  He was an Officer.

Father in China at the Beginning of WWII

Father Receives Purple Heart (1952) for getting his leg
blown off in Korea after he stepped on a  land mine.

Father as a Civilian

Mother, Father and myself when he was
 stationed in Germany (1946-47) after WWII

Mother, Father and Myself during WWII in Wichita, Kansas where
I lived with my Mother while father was in the Army

Father Received Bronze Star for Saving a Man's Life in Korea

A National Prayer

Although I've been feeling depressed today, I realize it's because my life has become too outward and not enough inward.  I haven't been meditating or praying hardly at all because I have been so preoccupied with making art, or trying to make it.  However, that isn't enough to make me happy.  I need daily contact with God and my spiritual nature.  Creativeness and the spiritual nature are closely linked, but they aren't quite the same.  Art can become a substitute for religion, but I don't think it's adequate, which is why many artists go bonkers (i.e., Van Gogh), and why I've been feeling very depressed.  My two-bit analysis of Van Gogh is that he was a very religious man, but felt rejected by organized religion, so I think he substituted art for religion, but that doesn't work.  Finding something one loves to do, like painting, gives one some satisfaction, but not real happiness.  Being obsessed with art doesn't keep one from drinking.  I've always felt a very close kinship with Van Gogh.

This evening I walked to my local park and opened the book "The Prayers of Peter Marshall" and immediately read this prayer that I copied below. The part of this prayer that really hit home with me is the line about giving love to those who can't recompense you.  I think that's the hardest thing in life to do, and I've failed at it most of my life.  I've always dismissed people who can't give me anything back, or can ever have anything to offer me, even elementary kindness, after I feel that I've given to them.  In looking back on my life, I feel most grateful for the people, who when I was very young and empty inside with nothing to offer, helped me anyway.  Now in my senior years, I remember those people the most of anyone.

The Reverend Peter Marshall, Chaplin to the US Congress

I found the following prayer in this book of prayers by Peter Marshall.  It seems to me this is not only a good personal prayer, but it would make a wonderful national prayer for our country, the USA.  We need to show love to other countries and the people in other countries who can't possibly recompense us at all.  We seem to show the most love for countries who have something we want in return like oil or loans.  But, being truly Christian, means loving and doing for others who have nothing to give back.  Jesus acted that way.  He gave love and understanding to prostitutes and other low-lifes who are people who have nothing to give in return, but in doing so, he saved their lives.  By acting that way to other countries, the United States could help save nations.  Only by acting that way, could the USA become a truly Christian nation.  The dichotomy between our country's political environment and Christian values astonishes me.

Kirsten Gillibrand on Obama Announcing Support for Marriage Equality

Dear Gayle,

 In an interview with Robin Roberts this afternoon, President Obama publicly announced his support for marriage equality.

This is a historic moment in our fight for marriage equality. We’re getting closer.

It was not long ago that we passed marriage equality right here in New York. Now, with President Obama on our side, we can take this fight all across the country.

We know that President Obama is going to come under attack from some members of the far right. That’s why I hope you’ll join me right now in telling President Obama that we stand with him.

Polls show that the public is on our side. President Obama is too. But you can be sure there are some who will attack him for taking this stance.

We must keep up the fight. Marriage equality depends on it.

Thanks,
Kirsten 

Remembering the Rev. Peter Marshall

Because it's Sunday, this is my little Sunday School Lesson today for grownups.

Peter Marshall was a great Presbyterian minister, originally from Scotland, who rose to the position of Chaplin to the United States Congress.  Once you read his prayers, you can understand how he got this position.  It's unfortunate that he seems so forgotten now.  I found this book, in someone's trash, of prayers called "The Prayers of Peter Marshall," which seems very hard to find now.  His wife Catherine Marshall became a well-known writer in her own right.

The following prayer really hit home with me.  For one thing it's a little political, maybe because he was to give it before a room full of Senators.  It's also his very last prayer written before he died in 1949.  He died before he could deliver it, so it was delivered in the Congress by another pastor.

Deliver us, our Father,  from futile hopes and from clinging to lost causes, that we may move into ever-growing calm and ever-widening horizons. 

Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persuade, for small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. 

We know that we cannot do everything.  But help us to do something.  For Jesus' sake. Amen.

This prayer reminds me of a frame of mind of some people I've met in life.  They only want to do really big things, things that they don't have the capacity to ever do.  However, if they would start with just small, everyday things, they would be such better and happier people.  It's not like all or nothing.  It's like let me God do something, just something, the scale isn't what is important.  You start small and build.  If you want world peace, start with yourself and your family.

The line "Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persuade" seems to me that this could really apply to President Obama's present political situation with the Republicans.

I recently rewatched the old film on Cable called "A Man Called Peter," which was his life's story.  The film is worth watching because the sermons the actor playing him gives are great sermons.  I've never heard anything better.  They seemed great to me, because they related so much to my own life and problems.

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