Water Rush

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Zoom is quickly becoming the next Kleenex or Scotch Tape - everyone is using it, and it is becoming the standard. I Zoom with Siblings and their Significant Others (about ten people), every week - our social outlet while big-brother ‘ordered’ us to ‘shelter in place’. Thank you John (The Celebrator) for arranging the connection - it is rare for us to connect so often - a benefit of the quarantine.

You can imagine how difficult it is to have an orderly, meaningful, conversation with ten people while video chatting. My (The Quiet One) idealism speaks it is possible, but really not - with my family - maybe any family. Consequently, the need for a facilitator and a theme topic.

The theme this week is travel pleasures, suggested by Elizabeth (The Travel Lover). She, and husband John have been travel beasts, planted in a wonderful place to access world treasures - Trieste, Italy - on the beautiful Adriatic. Thinking more about the amount of travel, maybe Steve has traveled more, but loved more, I do not know.

Love - you can not compare, only feel one’s own emotion. My mother (The Character Builder) used to say (her sayings were the theme last week) “comparisons are odious” - astute - a wise woman - and with only an eighth grade formal education.

The theme this week - travel pleasures - really struck a cord with me. The realizations therefrom is a real rush - a water rush. I say water rush because I realize that my life’s travel pleasures largely involved bodies of water - Balsam Lake, our family cabin, to start with. Then there was Gull, Sagatagan, Rhine, Mosel, Grand, Whitefish, Mille Lacs, Leech, Superior, Michigan, Boundary Waters, Hubert, Itasca, Mississippi, Snake, Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Como, Garda, Walden Pond, and of course, for the last, nearly twenty years, Lake Champlain.

I have yelped skiing over water, been awed snorkeling under water, sailed on water, watched fireworks over water, fished in water, and mostly photographed ever changing waters. I took three fishing trips with my father - two to Lake Michigan and one Canadian fly-in!

I am sure I left out many bodies of water I have pleasured in the past. Water is wonderful. There is no wonder I am excited about producing OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of living with Water.

Nature inspired imaging is my photographer tag, and water images represents the bulk of what I capture. www.mesipe.com. I am honored to have fifteen water expert’s articles, curated by Trevien Stanger, in the coffee table book. The well known marine biologist, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols of Blue Mind graces the book with his words of wisdom in the Foreword. I am grateful for his inspiring message.

Clean Water Advocates, a Vermont Nonprofit, is publishing a Contributors Edition. We are creating an ebook also. It’s nice to share images of water I love, but the real benefit of the book are the motivating words explaining why and how we care for clean water.

Mediterranean Blue