Contemplating Cove

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Contemplating Cove is a special place for me. I meditate there - let thoughts freely flow, and contemplate ones I wish to beat up. There is a brick perch at the end of the point that fits my structure. At sunrise I am there alone. The waves lap at my feet - a soothing sound. The view to the Adirondacks is one of my favorites. I love it.

It has been a few years since I sat at sunrise in Contemplating Cove. Now it is the Birch Bowl, at our home in Richmond, I wish to sit and meditate, contemplate. The delightful spot is just a stones throw from my bedroom, where I do most of my meditaing and contemplating these days.

Actually, my meditation and contemplation is most pure presently, around 3 - 5am, most mornings, as I lay beside Patty in bed. Most recently, I on my side, Patty on her back, early morning sunrays rimmed her profile face. As I viewed her chin, mouth, and nose, I saw a beautiful young woman, peacefully asleep. I thought, no, Patty is 75. I looked again and I saw the same - a beautiful young woman, peacefully asleep.

Contemplating Cove

Split Rock

Open Studio June 19th and 20th

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Vermont Crafts Council presents it’s semi-annual Open Studio event June 19th and 20th. 71 artists, around Vermont, will be opening their work space to all comers. Vertmontcrafts.com.

This is the first time the Bilder Studio will be open to the public. I will have a number of my images presented through out the studio. Bilder Studio is primarily a working space for high end commercial photography by my son, Michael, and daughter-in-law, Jessica. I have a 44 inch printer and production space in one corner, and will be spreading out my passion work during the two days of the open house.

The open studio is good timing for me. Our book on clean water, in conjunction with Clean Water Advocates, Inc., a Vermont nonprofit, has just release it’s educational and inspirational book, OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water. It is a book created by nearly twenty area, passionate environmentalists. We will be gifting twenty books on the 19th and 20th to visitors to our open studio.

Stop in: 16 Wild Apple Lane, Richmond (White building on Hinesburg Road) This is part of our home property - 60 Wolf Lane, Richmond. (the address in Open Studio booklet)

Open Studio images--2.jpg

Noble Servant

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Servant connotes indenture. But, given free-will, being a servant is noble. I am beginning to believe, at my old age, that being of service to others is purpose, and all that matters. And, the thing is, it feels good.

Being forced, required, obviates the fulfilling feel of helping. Take for example paying taxes that go to good causes, versus making contributions to your favorite charity. Or, being drafted to military service versus volunteering, Or wearing a mask because you are required, versus deciding to wear a mask because you want to protect others.

People are good. The more one is given the power to choose - free of intervention - the more they are emotionally healthy, make decisions that are for the ‘greater good’, and have that great feel of helping others. And, the fact is - it seldom works when controlling governance treat individuals as subjects, not individuals, where well-intended generalizations just don’t cut it.

It is time for a wake up call, and understand that most people are responsible, kind, and want to help. We do not need to deaden the good to control the minuscule irresponsible. The Golden Rule rules!

Wake Up Call

Fifty Shades of Gray

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The naked eye has a capacity to see more shades of gray than a camera. Ansel Adams identified nine shades of gray with his zone system creation. PhaseOne boasts of thirteen tones with their high end cameras. The naked eye can distinguish more than fifteen, if one pays attention.

I love black and white, and all shades of gray in between. The integration, blend, makes for a beautiful image, especially when all the shades are represented - enhancing the impression - the total greater than the sum of the parts.

When shades blend and compliment, it’s joyful - the differences delight, reflects the truth, oneness - different is beautiful.

Uncertain Weather

White and Blue

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My mind wonders, attracted to the two beached boats on Positano’s beach. I think of companionship, advocacy, guardian angels, God’s guiding spirit. The white - the guide - support, not needing motorization. The blue - me, comforted, knowing there is more than me alone, to walk, sail, the course.

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE from the Sound of Music resonates a note for me to ruminate: “Walk on through the wind, Walk on through the rain, Though your dreams be tossed And blown. Walk on, walk on, With hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone.”

In 2014, I put my strong feelings about the importance of having a personal advocate, in my client gift book, ADVOCATE PLANNING, TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO. The book discusses revelations, late to my professional career, including three principles intregral to living with purpose - Self-realizating, Connecting and Giving, (SCG). These principles are most effectively accomplished with you listening to your Inner Wisdom and having a personal, and a professional advocate, who know you better than you know yourself. My personal advocate - Patty, was a great advocate for me for over fifty years.

My 2014 dissertation fell short of expressing my strong feelings about the importance of SCG. I plan now to write an extensive preface to ADVOCATE PLANNING, and promote it to the fianancial planning profession. I tentatively call the script THREE PRINCIPLES TO LIVE WITH PURPOSE, a preface to ADVOCATE PLANNING, To Do What You Love To D

White and Blue

Alzheimer's

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Twilight Positano was captured in March of 2017. It is hard to believe it was four years ago already. The image pulls me into thoughts and feelings about Alzheimer’s. I didn’t take the picture with Alzheimer’s in mind, but since the capture, I think of nothing else when I reflect, as I view the scene.

Why do I go to Alzheimer’s with my thoughts when I reflect on Twilight Positano? The overwhelming color is purple - Alzheimer’s organization’s color.... and, a good color for the lingering loss - daunting. dark. ominous. end of day. heavy.

The prominent positioned readied float is warm hued, welcoming to a world beyond, with hope of peace and passion.

Patty is in the image, not recognizable. Family are standing by, with love and support. Others looking on to guide - research, longing for a cure, and assisting with tolerating.

We are in the tenth year now. The deterioration is incremental, but seemingly certain. No short term memory. Confusion - mislabeling a wall for a room, a shoe for a sock. Seaching for words once readily available.

But... we breakfast out every morning, listen to 50’s music, watch a movie, and walk, when we can. Soon Patty anticipating words from the 50’s will leave her singing lips. She sits through the movies, but doesn’t really follow, and of course doesn’t remember (watching repeats is not a problem for me either).

I dread the day we can’t do the daily routine. God speed.

Twilight Positano

In Neutral

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Patty and I spent time in late 80’s and early 90’s learning about the principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, as originally espoused by Sydney Banks. Joe Bailey is the Minneapolis based psychologist that guided us through the principles. I think I read all the books, available at the time, on the subject.

The concepts were particularly productive for both of us - simple ideas - very effective. One idea that hit home with me was: “Notice the feeling and do nothing”. The idea is clear your mind... put it in neutral... let your thoughts pass through, no fixating. The consequence is a return to the natural state of well being. Like the New England weather - wait fifteen minutes and it will pass.

I had an image of a lone-standing chair, taken at the time, looking out on Green Bay. It was a favorite image, and reminded me of the concept IN NEUTRAL. While meandering the Oregon coast in 2015, I captured another image, I again call, In Neutral.

In Neutal

Color of Water

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I know big water is generally blue. Technically that is because water absorbs red, orange, green and yellow, leaving blue and violet photons to reflect to our eyes. I look, though, at my images, captured mostly at low light - sunrise, sunset - and I see a rainbow of colors. I love it.

Water reciprocates, affected beautifully by what is Near, On, In, and Under it. I pour a glass of water to drink and I don’t want to see a color. I want it to be pure and translucent. In the big picture though, I love interesting skies and light, reflected beautifully on the surface of water. And, I am fascinated by particle impact from water bottoms and particles in and on water.

I started counting the colors in my image I call Color of Water, captured during the drought of 2012 on Lake Champlain, and I gave up - too many subtle shades to count. Usually my images are more monochromatic, but this unusual site captivates me - I feel something different each time I view the jumble of color - I try to make order of the chaos - I see as my imagination allows.

Dwelling a moment on the color of water recalls to me, the beautiful translucent aqua water off Cayman Islands in the Caribbean and the deep waters of Trout lake near our cabin on Lower White Fish lake, both are experienced delights in the 80’s.

Color of Water

Social Distancing

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I’ve been trying to make sense out of wearing masks after being vaccinated with a ‘very effective’ medicine against this awful flu, which allegedly, unnaturally, started in a lab in China.

Maybe it’s a fight of life’s driving forces of fear and risk taking - are we Evil Knievel or Howard Hughes? - Likely in between, with a lean one way or another.

I suspect I lean to risk taking, but at this time I am driven to making others comfortable and being light about it. I laugh at remembering my dad making light of my frequent comment to him when he had an accounting challenge - I’d say, No Problem.

There is a new verse to the song - What a Wonderful World: I see vaccinated friends wearing masks, Saying, how do you do? They’re really saying I love you.

Social Distancing

Smooth Sailing?

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OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water is now in Vermont local book stores and can be purchased directly from me by clicking here. Just click on image of book and follow prompts. All proceeds go to Clean Water Advocates, Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Fun in the sun on Lake Champlain, and for that matter, on any water basin, can’t be taken for granted. Crap flows into lakes many ways - I can’t image waste water treatment systems allowing sewage overflows multiple times every year.

Following is an excerpt from OUR BASIN, from the article entitled TEN INVITATIONS INTO THE WATERSHED , FOR MY DAUGHTER, FERN written by Trevien Stanger.

Gratitude. This is a world of water and wonder, my baby daughter, and you’re invited. Your first home was in the amniotic water of your mother, and ever since you’ve emerged from that first mysterious ocean almost two years ago now, you’ve never been far from water. While there are always going to be ten thousand things to pay attention to on any given day, water can be a constant presence in your awareness, a wellspring of appreciation. Notice this fact: every day of your life, regardless of season or mood, water will make at least one appearance into your perceptual field that will invite wonder. Might be a waterfall, might be a rolling fog, might be the light striking the streaming faucet just right - water talks to us as Beauty, and you’re invited to share in it.

The only piece of advice I could ever give you with total clarity is this: accept these daily invitations with gratitude and grace.

Saturday Sail



TRANQUILLITY

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TRANQUILLITY

Tranquillity is hiding - unnoticed amongst 25,000 reflections in my library of images. It now speaks loudly to me. Why it didn’t mesmerize in 2015, at the time of capture, befuddles me. I suspect I am now more emotionally needy of the evocation.

I could call it AtlanticLight15 - pre - Stroke16, the prolonged COVID19, Alzheimer's10 - a longing for less stress - simplicity, calm, quiet; nature’s promise - hope. The Simple prayer of Francis comes to mind - an instrument of peace - where there is darkness - light.

I reflect on Francis of Assisi - he forgoes wealth and material power, and is absorbed in the purity of nature’s creation. I can only imagine the eternal rewards of his words and actions. “Where there is hatred, sow love, injury - pardon… it is in giving we receive”.

Blind Obedience

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Last Saturday, I viewed the documentary SIPE; sex, lies and the priesthood at the Salem Film fest (Click here to watch). It touched me, and not just because the documentary featured my brother Richard’s life’s work, helping sexual abusers and abused victims.

I was close to Richard, at the end of his life, as he invited me to participate in his third, and final, book of poems, SMELL THE ROSES, feel the soil, reach the sky (FriesenPress.com). The three books of poems, written at the end of his life, were a way for him to process the pain of dealing with the horror of hurt, working with abused victims, and being personally abused - a hurt he held inside, for most of his 85 years.

The documentary touched me to the core because the Church’s coverup of thousands of abuses is so hard to understand, and so devastating to the victims, and to a lesser affect, albeit a big impact, to people like me, who looked at priests as special - beyond reproach . The documentary and follow-up panel discussion, helped me understand the awful sexual abuse, and the frustrating wall of resistance by church hierarchy - possibly an impact of the craziness of the Church’s required “blind obedience”.

“You can’t handle the truth” - the famous line from the powerful marine colonel (played by Jack Nicholson) in the move A Few Good Men came to mind after I viewed the documentary. What a great reference to better understand the craziness of ‘blind obedience’. The clergy oath and the depicted movie’s marine corp oath of absolute obedience, up the ‘chain of command’, is strikingly similar. The point in both films is clear - the powerful are not above reproach, and those associated with them, that act with blind obedience to cover up the crime, to be faithful warriors to the family, lose themselves, their integrity, and trust of followers.

Forgiveness is good. Zero tolerance, going forward, is good. Appropriate education moving forward is good… But, we need more for the Church to survive the balance of this century - once not thinkable, now logical. Accountability and authenticity, is necessary.

What if all who knew about sexual abuse, who abetted the abuse, came clean - not likely, but how real powerful and God-like consistent that would be. What if the church freely opened their coffers, and invited victim reparations? - Not likely, but the huge cost would come with real forgiveness and saving parishioners - build trust, and eventually replenish coffers.

Real change can be effected fast, from the top, and much slower, and less likely, as a ground swell, from followers. The Catholic Church, ironically, is going to hell in a hand basket. Get real. Get truthful. Be ministers you profess to be. Practice what you preach.

From Corinthians 13; 4-6: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

Clouds form from the volcano, Etna, in Sicily. Life and order on the city below are threatened. Church hierarchy - I wouldn’t shake the earth too much - possible extinction is real. Life on earth is short, and temporary. Changes are inevitable. How will we be accountable for our earthly actions, at the gates of eternal life? Love and Truth will prevail. Soon, each of us will account for our hate and lies on earth. Truth heals. God help us.

Share this message, or do your own blast regarding Love and Truth, as it relates to this Catholic Crisis. Now is the time to speak out for Love and Truth, and for a better belonging, for the relatively few years we have left on earth.

What's the Point?

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It seems life is one big routine, day after day. Days pass, so fast. And, I so much look forward to much of the routine - probably dependent on the routine now - Vanilla latte, hot chocolate breakfast at Parkside cafe in Hinesburg, twenty minute ride over and back while listening to fifties music, nice wood contained roaring fire, exercise (snowshoed today), movies, steam, reading, and a little play with pictures. Shades up around 10am, down before sundown, and bed around 9pm.

One routine I am curious about - My, Minnesota Mike’s, My Pillows (two work for me) disappear from my bedside by the time I go to bed. I, by now, know the favorite stow-away places. Patty can’t imagine using them. I love My Pillows, and now have learned to live with the temporary, daily, disappearance. Maybe it is a cancel culture thing for Patty.

I don’t get the point, with Patty and My Pillow hatred … but there is much to appreciate about routine, living with Alzheimer's. With all the goodness of routine with Alzheimer’s, I haven’t figured out the solution to my nature and community needs. But, I don’t mean to complain - life is pretty damn good for me, all things considered.

Thompson Point

Joke or Not

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Patty often looks for me when I am behind my iMac. The other day, she came around the corner and asked, “Where is Mike?”. I said I am Mike. She said “no you are not, you are grouchy.” I thought she was making a joke, but she wasn't! I could have cried or laughed…. I decided to laugh…. not out loud, of course. And, I watched my words, thereafter. There are times that I just need to drop what I am doing and focus on the moment before me. Patty

WATCH. SPREAD the WORD.

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I’ll be watching - SIPE; Sex, Lies, and the Priesthood (click here to schedule watch) on February 20th, and available through March 4th, 2021. I hope you will too. Richard would be the first to say - It’s the message, that is important to listen to, not the messanger - the message pulls on the heart-strings.

I lost a friend to suicide - I believe attributable to a priest’s abuse, and subsequent institution coverup. I don’t know for sure, my friend refused to accuse, even after realizing the abuse, and struggling with it’s affects - I suspect, it was my friend’s unrequited love.

Richard helped my friend, but, there must have been too much pain to reach a more seemingly, satisfactory conclusion. Richard helped spotlight the problem, and helped hundreds of abuse victims reach settlement - healing - where the abused likely felt some retribution for the seemingly unforgivable, horrendous crime of abuse by priests in power. UNBELIEVABLE.

Richard. Courage.

An excerpt from COURAGE AT THREE AM (FriesenPress.com) 2017, by Richard. A portion of the poem SURVIVOR’S LAMENT / DAILY COURAGE.

III

“I cry. I wail, even shriek at night - at three A.M.

when none but darkness is to hear me weep.

Betrayal real - re-imagined, re-lived - not fantasy.

Do you understand?

So many don’t.

Power rules. Power crushes. Power seems triumphant.

Fear can overtake me, fill empty soul with bleak remorse.

What could have been? For me? For you?.

Can’t let darkness conquer. Hang on until pink light.

Hang on, hang on, hang on …”

THE QUESTION

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My tag line at AIS Planning, back in the days, was Questioning, Listening, and Acting to Enrich Lives. My belief then, and now, is that those three activities are an art, and are most powerful in being effective as a Life-Wealth planner, and, for that matter, with having effective communications, generally.

I vividly remember asking my dad if he loved me, while he was on his death bed. He was 86 years old, and I couldn’t remember him saying he loved me. He cried, while outing the words “I love you” five times. The interchange was important, and impactful, to me. My brother says I was forcefully pressuring him, albeit, not there - but I say, if it is on your mind, and important, ask… and listen carefully.

As a planner I learned the importance of questions. I learned how to ask ‘five questions deep” - why this and why that. My grandson, Emmett, asks why, incessantly. I suspect he learned it’s effectiveness, naturally. I learned about the possible damage of assumptions and ‘leaps of abstraction’.

Now, I have to learn how to, not ask questions. With Patty’s Alzheimer's, questioning results in, never really getting anywhere - it ends up in frustration, anxiety, and even anger. ‘Back away from the questions’ - it is trouble, for me and for thee! Can you image - not having any short-term memory, and having limited long-term memory? What about not finding the words to express yourself? And, not knowing shit from shinola?

THE QUESTION - can you see the ? mark?

OUR BASIN book excerpt

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Trevien Stanger, the curator of the nearly twenty, in the know, authors in the book OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water, is worth paying attention to!. He relates to clean water and the environment in a way that is inspiring and interesting to read - like Thoreau to me.

Following is an excerpt from one of the three articles he scribed for OUR BASIN, titled TEN INVITATIONS INTO THE WATERSHED, FOR MY DAUGHTER, FERN:

4. A Unit of Perception. But other than knowing the name of your home watershed (the Winooski, which is within the Champlain Basin), how can you develop an intimacy and a sense of belonging within it? The waters themselves will teach you. Try this at least once a season: choose a spot on the Winooski in which you see another stream entering the river (a confluence) and ask: what is that water? From where does it come? Through what types of landscapes and land-use patterns does that stream run to get here? What stories does that water tell? And then, either on foot or by boat, by car or by bike, start exploring that sub-watershed as much as you can. Those water paths will invite you up through many places seldom visited, some of them profoundly beautiful and others quite unremarkable; some of them full of pollution and heart-breaking negligence, others exploding with Nature’s exquisite resilience. In the process, you’ll learn this territory, not as a confused tangle of roads and town names, but instead as an orderly learnable, dynamic place in which humans are truly but one part of the process. You may also arrive at a similar conclusion to the Californian writer and restorationist Freeman House - ”A watershed is a unit of perception.”

Our Johnny Brook

Our Johnny Brook, flows by our, certified organic, Purple Lark Farm, to the Winooski, to Lake Champlain. I have been lost in the nearby woods. My six year old grandson, Emmett, gave me a compass, for the next time I explore the woods along the waterway - what a wonderful adventure.

Order your copy of OUR BASIN for a discounted price of $25 by clicking here and than clicking on book cover image. And, if you know a student of the environment, let me know - Mike@mesipe.com, and I will send them a FREE copy of OUR BASIN, as long as there are copies still in print.

They All Look the Same to Me

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Snowflakes - they all look the same to me. Along the way someone thought to look closely at individual snowflakes and found that each one is miraculously unique. WoW! Can you imagine that?

What is similarly miraculous is that all of us, humans, are unique. Billions of us, each different from the next. WoW! Can you imagine that? Unlike snowflakes, skin deep differences with humans are quite noticeable. Deeper than that though, (we are Nature’s most complex, and gifted souls, ya know), it takes careful listening to free, open, honest expression of separate realities to understand others. Wouldn’t it be boring if we were all the same? Natural diversity is divine. Thank God for diversity.

Waiting Water