I am playing with images in my catalog - I started from 2011, and am now on 2015. I fell in love again - with water on the Oregon coast. I filtered to my liking for affect. I love it. Visit recent work at my gallery MESipe.com
Passion
Flight
Haystack
Respite
Water Way
Streaming
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.
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
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
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 …”
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?
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.
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
2020 spoke to me, loudly - Love all I have. I hear you, and it is good - a lesson well implanted now. One that is applicable in so many ways for me this year - freedom, Patty, clean water, photography - all wasting. Yet I have hope, while loving what I have.
I speak hear, only to my photography, a strong passion of mine. It is a new year - the time that I review my images from last year and pick a few to display for my learning record. I have ten years displayed - a decade of top favorites - a decade to review growth and direction.
It is fortuitous that I captured no new images in 2020 to highlight. It provided the charge to review the 3000 or so images I liked over the last decade and tweak some that attract, using learned tools and techniques.
I am delighted with the results of the exercise. I only worked through 2015 to get images to work - over and display for the year as new images. I have more to look forward to if I have another dry year or so.
In fact, two of the old images rose to the twenty five images I have selected to print large on canvas for exhibits and sale. Click here if you are interested in viewing my best of the best, at least I as see it!
Moon Over Rock Dunder 2015
Oak Ledge Fall 2013
Another especially beautiful Fall - what’s up now? Happy Winter Solstice. I love to get beyond the darkest day of the year - each day is brighter now. And, Winter has it’s beautiful days too!
Road to Bountiville
Road to Bountiville is an image captured from our bedroom window - inspiration for a delightful dream. Shades down.
Christmas again - last Christmas seems like yesterday - time is moving so fast for me. Alzheimer’s has slowed life down. So why is time moving so fast? Is it because the shades go up at about 10am and down again about 3pm, the fact we are moving toward breaking our record of 14 hours of bed time, in a single night, or that time left with Patty is short?
Embrace, capture by Avi Sipe in November 2018
The image above, Embrace, captured two years ago, by my talented, award winning photographer granddaughter, Avi, is special to me - a telling tale, a rare capture of our love presence. Avi was smart to play some memorable music while doing a class photo assignment in our Bilder Studio. To me, I will always remember - Patty’s love presence.
My astute brother Richard, said upon his 80th milestone birthday: “The largest task of life is to love. And love is the only thing that lasts; everything else melts away… Age does have its compensations and perspective is one grace. Integrate or despair are the only real choices.”
Alzheimer’s accelerates aging - so many years in so few, albeit, a prolonging hardship. The grace is, a rewarding perspective on what’s important - the presence of love. I focus more and more as I age (faster than I would like) on prioritizing my love, my passions…. SCG… Self-realizing, Connecting, Giving. Thank you Patty for showing me the way with your love presence - what a wonderful life present - listening, caring, advocating - for me, others. It is of your love presence that you will receive Love!
Merry Christmas all, and love to you and yours.
I love that we all are unique, and yet, we all have the same color blood - we are all part of one humanity - taking separate paths, nature blessed us with. How boring and unenlightening it would be if we were totally the same.
I realize some paths are still poisoned by prejudice, even after so much progress in the last quarter millennium. Prejudice is stupidity. The definition of prejudice is ‘a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.’
Taking a notion well expressed by Martin Luther King - You can’t know a person by the color of their skin, but only by the ‘content of their character’. He expressed his wish for reason, as part of the famous, I have a dream speech on August 28th, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. May we all know reason - my parents did - a gift of reason to me.
I was in about sixth grade and my big brother Richard, when he had the opportunity, came home from the seminary with fellow students, to be welcomed, often impromptu, with a loving mother’s meal.
Charlie Cokley, native to the Bahamas, was my favorite. Mother never commented about his blackness - of course it was obvious, and maybe my first black acquaintance. But you know, it was no different than noticing the color of hair, or eyes, height or weight - just a notice - no opinion - no judgement. If there was any judgement by me, it was admiration, that these men were going to be priests. I had them all on a pedestal.
It was about the same time, sixth grade, that I noticed the Red Head, Nancy, during summer league baseball. I hadn't seen many redheads either - but I noticed and I liked. I ran into her in college. She mentioned that she noticed me too - my dark suntanned muscles shimmering from sweating boy activities, I suspect. We never connected - I never got to know the content of her character.
I noticed Halle Berry too - Not her blackness, but her beauty - one of the mot beautiful, along with Elizabeth Taylor. But these are mind game attractions - I don’t know the content of their character.
I do know real beauty is more than skin deep, or any other physical feature! Reason Rules. And, I love Color.
Color
I am happy to announce that preorders are now being taken for the public version of OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water.
Thanks to donors, we are giving a number of books to interested students of clean water. And, we are selling the book for $25 to others- substantially reduced from shelf-value.
Order your copy by clicking HERE
Publication of the book is targeted for 12/15/2020.
Lake Champlain - Rock Dunder, Four Brothers, September 21st, 2015
From gratitude comes exhilaration - climatic and sustaining. Exhilaration is of the greatest of emotions, and there is no price to obtain - just our choice.
I go to my internal world to contemplate my passions and priorities - the mind is a mysterious thing. Attitude can transform a mood from bad to good - I am grateful to have experienced it.
Thanksgiving 1997, my brother-in-law, Jim said All is gift - those words have marinated with me since. The concept contributed to my revelation of the importance of a personal focus on Self-realizing, Connecting, and Giving. Jim died two weeks after that personally impacting Thanksgiving of 1997.
This Thanksgiving season, my sister Bernadette was asked - What are you grateful for - she responded - Everything. Bernadette was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and is moving into assisted living.
It seems that potential imminent loss of life prompts appreciation for all we have, and all we are able to give back. Really, life is relatively short for all of us - an attitude check, anyone?
Happy Thanksgiving. Here’s to gratitudinal (my word) exhilaration!
Transformation
Have you ever had a day when everything looks more beautiful, and you feel higher than usual (naturally, of course) ?. This is one of those days, for me.
I woke up this morning with my Inner Wisdom telling me that my title for my next book should be PASSION PRIORITIES, Three Ways to Living Purposefully. Don’t count on that title, just yet, though. I’ve changed the thought a number of times over the last few months. At this rate I will get to the first chapter by my 80th birthday.
I feel good about moving away from using the words Love Priorities to using Passion Priorities. I feel so good about it that I changed my blog title to Passion Priorities. Chris Ryba-Tures, sometimes known as Chris Fischtaur, the family professional wordsmith, who edited ADVOCATE PLANNING, To Do What You Love To Do for me, frequently said to me - FOCUS Uncle Mike. After years of writing my Love Priorities Blog (un-edited), I’ve decided, this day, that Love, is too big of an idea - I need to focus - Passion is now my focus. What pops up, in my Inner Wisdom, will likely not change, but the word passion is more likely to connect.
I am convinced that my Protirement (a positive period where one is free to play and produce as one pleases) is the most wonderful period, for me. I believe I am learning more meaningful lessons than in any other period of my life. Don’t tell me you can’t teach old dogs new tricks!
Highly prioritizing one’s passions is the path to SCG - Self-realizing, Connecting, and Giving. I introduced SCG activities in ADVOCATE PLANNING. The ideas were derived over ten years ago, and are, more than ever, cemented in my life ideals. I am determined to connect my personal passion priorities planning ideas with me, prior clients, friends, family and even others. ADVOCATE PLANNING was a start, PASSION PRIORITIES will be the finishing touch.
I’ve been reviewing my image data base and love this image that I reworked using my latest tools. I think there are more to rework and love - Covid is not going to keep me down.
Adirondack Sunset Sail
Thanks to many, we are publishing 1000, public version, copies of OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water. The more money we raise, the more free copies we can provide to students and other interested people, who appreciate the no or low cost. We believe the palatable price point is $25 per book. If we can, we will make the price lower. We will be eliminating the ‘middle man’ to keep the price low. Please direct any interest, to have a copy before Christmas, to me at mike@mesipe.com. I plan on having a preorder page on www.MikeSipe.com within a couple weeks. The book is targeted to be available by December 15th.
Only a few copies of the Contributor’s edition are remaining. Thanks to all involved. You can still contribute and receive a book by ordering at www.MikeSipe.com/buyprints.
My involvement with OUR BASIN has been wonderful. It has evolved my interest in concentrating my photography on minamalistic large canvas water images. I am presenting reviewing, previously captured, images in my data base to revisit and rework. I love it.
Golden Pond
Eagles Pond
This is not my normal blog, but I am compelled to pass on the timely message anyway. Enjoy!
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Forty-five
A Love Ethic
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Because of my background, my language about love is often biblical, theological, psychological, and personal. While these are necessary and helpful frames, they certainly aren’t the only ones we should use. bell hooks (sic), a Black feminist scholar and activist, suggests how truly living by a “love ethic” could bring about much needed societal change.
Culturally, all spheres of American life—politics, religion, the workplace, domestic households, intimate relations—should and could have as their foundation a love ethic. The underlying values of a culture and its ethics shape and inform the way we speak and act. A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well. . . . Individuals who choose to love can and do alter our lives in ways that honor the primacy of a love ethic. We do this by choosing to work with individuals we admire and respect; by committing to give our all to relationships; by embracing a global vision wherein we see our lives and our fate as intimately connected to those of everyone else on the planet.
Commitment to a love ethic transforms our lives by offering us a different set of values to live by. In large and small ways, we make choices based on a belief that honesty, openness, and personal integrity need to be expressed in public and private decisions. . . . Living by a love ethic we learn to value loyalty and a commitment to sustained bonds over material advancement. While careers and making money remain important agendas, they never take precedence over valuing and nurturing human life and well-being. . . .
Embracing a love ethic means that we utilize all the dimensions of love—“care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge”—in our everyday lives. We can successfully do this only by cultivating awareness. Being aware enables us to critically examine our actions to see what is needed so that we can give care, be responsible, show respect, and indicate a willingness to learn. . . .
Domination cannot exist in any social situation where a love ethic prevails. . . . When love is present the desire to dominate and exercise power cannot rule the day. All the great social movements for freedom and justice in our society have promoted a love ethic. Concern for the collective good of our nation, city, or neighbor rooted in the values of love makes us all seek to nurture and protect that good. If all public policy was created in the spirit of love, we would not have to worry about unemployment, homelessness, schools failing to teach children, or addiction. . . .
To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous. Learning how to face our fears is one way we embrace love. Our fear may not go away, but it will not stand in the way.
Congratulations Joe - I knew you could do it.
I am beginning to understand my mother’s position - Don’t say who you voted for, or ask others who they voted for - It’s their private business - that way you don’t get sideway looks, or requests for reparation.
For me, I’ve grown to Independence - I mean I am an Independent. This feeling has become stronger in recent years. Although, I have long struggled with the idea that any ‘Party member’ could possibly be in agreement with the full party’s platform. For me, it comes down to who lines up best with my present priorities.
I decided to limit (try to) my discussions with others to policies and not personalities. Unfortunately, I have not been very successful in finding many friends and family to discuss in detail their positions on various possible public policies. I take personal responsibility for this - I really haven’t tried that hard. It’s unfortunate, because it is always nice to hone my fifth agreement with myself - listen to others to understand separate realities.
Here is a list of my present public positions, in no particular order. Guess which Presidential candidate I voted for - I won’t tell though.
I BELIEVE IN: Clean Water, Clean Air, Pro-life, no walls, legal immigration, path to citizenship, strong military for defense only ( kind of a pacifist myself), law and order, deficit reduction with strong GDP (say 4%), strong incentive to private sector for self-realization and the public good, low taxes, capital gains incentive, investment incentives, small government - with strong (and maybe only) mandate for protecting public, all nature’s lives matter, truth and consequences, integrity. And more, but I don’t want to bore you. Well, that feels good, I got it off my chest.
I also feel good about my newest canvas Moon Over Rock Duder, even though, truth be told, I did a little photoshopping that you may notice if you remember my post of June 8th, of the same image, not photoshopped.
Moon Over Rock Duder
I admit it - I’ve been a bit of a Pollyanna my first three quarters of a century. It hits me, with a wave of depression - I am not so much that way now. Maybe contributing to it is I am now helping Patty put on clothes, while I used to help her take off her clothes.
I feel betrayed - I have always known there are stained souls, that earn their eventual penalty - maybe I was taught that realty by the institutions that betray me. I guess my institutions’ power play helped me tow the line (a little Pollyanna-ism coming out!).
I believed that institutions were pure. That’s what I was told growing up as a Catholic. And, it was insisted, in regard to all authorities, starting with parents and including local and federal “authorities” - all authorities -elders - were to be heeded. I don’t blame my teachers. I do have a mind of my own - I take personal responsibility - I am just a little slow. I mean, come-on man, I am nearly 75 years old.
Truth be told, my come to Jesus reality check has been happening slowly over the last half century. The straw (maybe not so much) weight that currently depresses is a result of watching too much political news - or should I say opinions. There is no such thing as news any more - As they say - opinions are like assholes - everyone has one.
I now have no faith in the press, local and federal government, even the ‘untouchables”- federal agencies above reproach.
After seeing proof beyond a doubt, I knew there was sexual abuse by priests and monks, but it took me too many years to see the ‘Spotlight’ on the horrific systemic abuse by the powerful authorities in the Catholic Church. Now, fifty years or so after the barrage of ‘mortal’ sins it has come home to roust a huge, ‘holy’ institution.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the Catholic Church who abuse their power. For God-sake, even the Boy Scouts. Sexual abuse is a symptom; the real sin, I feel now, after listening too much this political season, is the abuse of power.
Is power so pulling, like gravity, that those who have it, can’t rise above the fray, and really be righteous? Power is the Apple. Who can avoid the bite? Few, I am afraid. May God forgive the weak powerful.
Personally, I am going to go with what I’ve got - ATTITUDE - my new inner compass. With authorities I may ‘trust, but verify’ - cynical I know. My focus is to my Inner World, and not so much to my Outer world - what I can control, not the uncontrollable. I choose to thrive and be happy with what I have…. and that is good.
Presently, I am sleeping during the Golden hour, not nature inspired imaging, When I desire a click of a camera, I shoot with my compact, not my PhaseOne. This will be the first year in ten that I don’t have a dozen or so of new favorite images to share on www.MikeSipe.com. However, I am excited about my current focus of printing old favorites as large canvas images. I love it! I am focusing my interest to large canvas water images - this is a nice compliment to my strong interest in clean water and our public release of OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water.
Three Clouds
By the way, I did vote….. hope, for something better, I guess.
‘Which way now’? - A phrase I adopted for Alzheimer’s walks a few years ago - The ‘Whichwayers’ team. I used the phrase because I heard the question from Patty while walking in nature, or on unfamiliar paths. I hear the question less frequently, if ever, now - our walks together are short, slow and a on common paths. I am grateful we have them.
However, I am now able to have some personal time since Ashley, our new caregiver, is here for 6 hours, on Wednesdays and Fridays. Ashley is the first caregiver that Patty accepts. I hope to increase her time to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I am realizing that the personal contemplative time is important to my sanity.
Yesterday I ventured a walk in the woods out our front door - I loved it - indescribably wonderful - images apart from Sunrise - a new experience for me that delights. I walked and walked and walked on a wonderful marked trail in the Green Mountain foothills, with clear site of Camel’s Hump, a well known Vermont mountain marker.
Green Mountain Foothills - home
The trail ended. I must be close to an outlet near home. I wasn't going to back-track on the trail - it was too far. Which way now? I took out my iPhone (thank God for technology) and checked the compass and map. I pointed the blue dot to the red home marker and started trail blazing. I encountered downed trees, deep ravines and Johnny Brook, which borders our land. It would be hard to follow the brook, because it meanders too much. I found a place to cross the brook and go like a crow. My last hurdle before reaching my neighbors property was a large (for me) ravine.
I made it home just in time for Patty’s Bone Density Infusion and meeting with Rheumatologist. I was right, Patty’s PMR is showing up again - the doctor prescribes steroids - Patty won’t take, unless it hurts enough. When the hurt is gone, she needs to slowly reduce the steroids. Of course, she won’t want to continue to take anything. Well, ……
Which way now?
Patty is down to 108 lbs (Don’t tell her I told you). The Rheumatologist says I should talk with the Primary about putting on weight. She does have a meeting in November. I have been offering a lot of ice cream, chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate. I eat a lot of her meals and am gaining the weight she is loosing. I figure what’s important is Patty eats when she is hungry and she has enjoyment, to the extent possible. I would not be surprised if she breaks 100 pounds soon. No feeding tubes. Nature will take it’s course.
Which way now?
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