"Summer Fading . . . " A selection of songs from my upcoming album

Selection of my acoustic songs on upcoming album, "Summer Fading . . ."

Sanctuary: A positive meditation

Surround yourself with goodness
Be open to the pull of the universe
Let yourself be guided by currents that surround you
Yield to the forces of good in your life
Forces only felt when you focus on the goodness that surrounds you
We live within the currents of the universal
Goodness swirls around us, forming eddies in our lives Be open to the flow of the universal currents
Seek them, flow with them, follow them
Like dust that swirls within beams of sun
So our lives swirl within beams of universal love
______________________________
from "Soul Insights" by Michael R. Martin

Searching - an excerpt from Soul Insights: Christians Bridging the New Age by Michael R. Martin

We are born whole, complete
From the moment we leave our mother's womb we spend the rest of our lives
searching for that wholeness, that oneness, complete God is always there, nurturing, guiding
Waiting for us to find him
This is God's prevenient grace watching over us
And though we can never find that completeness in this lifetime We can open our hearts to the One guiding spirit
And become more than we are,
With eyes focused beyond the mortal plane
______________________________________
Source: Soul Insights: Christians Bridging the New Age

Spring Peepers

At night, the strident call of Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), the ducklike clacking of Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica), and the short trill of Grey Tree Frogs (Hyla versicolor), fill the air around every bog and wet place. Later in the summer, these tiny amphibians are sometimes found while walking in the woods and fields, mistakenly called baby frogs by the young children who can’t resist picking them up to show to their parents. At maturity, the tiny, brown Spring Peeper is just 3/4 - 1 1/4 inches in size. The nocturnal Spring Peeper is found in wooded areas in or near permanent or temporarily flooded ponds and swamps and hibernates under logs and loose bark. The Grey Tree Frog is 1 1/4 - 2 inches. The nocturnal Grey Tree Frog lives high in trees and descend only at night, usually just to chorus and to breed. The Wood Frog, brown with a bandit's mask of black behind its eyes, is only slightly larger at 1 3/8 - 2 3/4 inches. In the colder parts of its range, the Wood Frog is an explosive breeder. Swarms of pairs lay fertilized eggs within 1 or 2 days, then disappear into the surrounding country. It may venture far from water during summer, and hibernates in forest debris during winter. The Spring Peeper, a Chorus Frog, and the Grey Tree Frogs are members of the Tree Frog Family (Hylidae), while the Wood Frog is a member of the True Frog Family (Ranidae) and closely related to the familiar Leopard Frog.
______________________________________
Source: an excerpt from "A Few Summer Days in the Adirondacks:
A Natural History of the Adirondack Park" by Michael R. Martin

I long . . .

I long to lay down next to you;
with time upon our hands.
to touch . . . to talk . . . to empathize;
each other to explore.

I long to look into your eyes,
your heart, your soul, your mind;
Until the whole world fades away
to you and nothing more.

_________________________
Circa 2004

The Wind Enchanted

The wind
A giant sighing
Across bare branches
Like the rattling of dry bones.

A storm trundles forth
With massive footsteps
Brooding clouds hang low
Air the moist breath of trolls.

Location:NY-86,Saranac Lake,United States

My Webstagram web-based Instagram page

See all my great Instagram photos you are missing if you aren't using Instagram. Even if you are, here's a great way to browse them on the web . . . A sampling of recent photos are shown below:



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Behind the Barn

Behind the barn
Melting snow reveals
Entropy, rot, rust.

Behind a soul
The years reveal
Entropy, rot, rust.

Location:NY-86,Saranac Lake,United States

The Woodsman

The night wind blew steady
Ripping away leaves dulled
By a succession of cold nights.

He knew what the cold morning would bring:
A forest of bare branches,
A carpet trail of layered leaves packed by wind and rain.

In preparation, he put file to axe head cradled in his lap,
Flipping the axe every few minutes.
Testing evenness by the reflection of a lone gas lamp,
Sharpness, first against his thumb nail,
Lastly by shaving a small patch of forearm.

Satisfied, he cradled the tool and cleaned axe head and handle
With an oil-impregnated rag stained auburn by years of metal and wood.
Leaning the implement in a corner of the cabin next to his boots,
He lowered the wick, dimming the lamp, and curled onto his cot,
Faithful dog repeating the motion on the floor beside him,
And fell quickly to sleep,
To dream of life on his beautiful mountain trails.

Sermons of John Wesley

Interested in the complete, fully indexed sermons of John Wesley? Buy my Kindle book at http://goo.gl/64eJN


These are the collected 141 sermons of John Wesley, father of the Methodist Church. Sermons are indexed by number, title, and scriptural reference. Over 1,000 pages long, this document is not available in print and is a valuable reference for anyone who preaches the Gospel, is a United Methodist, or is interested in furthering their Christian education.

Another excerpt from "A Few Summer Days in the Adirondacks: A Natural History of the Adirondack Park"

June 05, Saranac Lake

It is early June and another day dawns, the forest shrouded in fog. The Saranac River flows full and steady through the village of Saranac Lake. A pair of brown, velvet-furred mink cavort along its stone-lined banks, seemingly oblivious to the wakening town. In the village, lilacs are in full bloom and the trees are full-leaved, plumped by the rains of the preceding days. Red-winged blackbirds stake their claims in the wetlands outside of town, clinging sideways to the puff-topped stalks of last year's cattails, calling out to one another with territorial displays. Concentric circles on still waters of Lake Colby mark the rising of feeding trout.

The forecast is for several days of hot and humid weather, with temperatures into the 80°s. In the not-so-distant past, summers would come and go with rarely a day in the 80°s - at most, a two or three day stretch. But such is no longer the case, as days of sweltering mugginess have become common. To experience such climatic conditions in early June seems to push the envelope of climate in this elevated mountain plain. Climate change theory projects warmer and wetter conditions in the Northeast, although the heavily forested Adirondack region should create its own weather island of cloud-shaded and somewhat cooler landscape. Still, one can expect, with some exception in the worst "heat waves", that nighttime temperatures will fall 20°-30° and make for restful sleeping.

Floodwood Road, near Polliwog & Middle Ponds
GPS: 44°20'25"N 74°22'07"W
Elevation: 1640 feet

In the wet woods, where spruce cover is not so thick as too block out light from reaching the forest floor, ostrich ferns reach 18" tall, near half of their final height. Mosquitoes are thick here and early season dragonflies, smallish and brown, swoop to and fro, hunting down their aerial meal. (Franklin and Essex Counties are known to have over 75 species of dragonflies)

The tangled stems and wide serrated leaves of witchhobble or hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) flood the forest floor under fir, spruce, and beech. This is one of the most common Adirondack shrubs due to its tolerance for shade and acidic soils. Its white, five-petaled blossoms are mostly gone now, having blossomed forth from Mid-May in umbels of white before unfurling its leaves.

In this mid-elevations, poplars are sowing their fluffy, wind-dispersed seed. In some open areas, along wood roads and shorelines, clouds of poplar “popple” swirl in thick eddies along the ground.

Excerpt from "A Few Summer Days in the Adirondacks: A Natural History of the Adirondack Park"

Early June

Johns Brook, Keene Valley
GPS: 44°11'23"N 73°47'57"W
Elevation: 1200 feet

Originating on the eastern slope of Mt Marcy, the Adirondack Mountain's highest peak, John's Brook drains the valley between Tabletop Mountain to the north and a string of high peaks to the south, including Sawteeth, Gothics, and the Wolf Jaw peaks. At lower elevations in Keene Valley, the clear, cold water of John’s Brook cascades over rounded boulders of light-colored Granite (?) in the shade of tall maples, pines and hemlock before flattening out and joining with the East Branch of the Ausable River.

Roaring Brook Falls




The flow of water is greatly diminished at Roaring Brook Falls compared to the conditions during spring run-off, but still impressive as cold melt water cascades 1,000 feet and drops another 1,000 feet down through rock-strewn, spruce, birch and pine covered slopes to the point it crosses Route 73 in Saint Huberts.

At lower elevations (1000-2000 ft) lilacs are in bloom, leaves on the trees freshly full, some trees are still setting leaves – birches