The Spirit of Mike Blanton.

I did not know Mike well at all and I really should not be the person to write about him. I only met him once. Briefly. We met him for a minute at Brussel’s sale. But we got to talk some on Facebook. He used to post pictures of a different tree he worked on every couple of days and I was getting jealous about how good his life must be working on bonsai every day. Then I learned that he had stage 4 lung cancer and it all looked very differently. At some point I started wondering if that is what it is going to take for me to start doing what I love doing and I decided to take more time to spend with my family and my trees. If I got a better perspective, in part, it is due to him and his spirit.

I got to think about Mike today because of a present I got in the mail from a friend, Jeremiah Lee, whom I know through Peter Tea and Facebook. But first the back story.

In March 2013 I was fortunate to spend my 40th birthday at Aichi-en. It was repotting season and we got to go work on clients’ collections. One of those clients was the owner of Shinpukuji Temple who happens to be a big fan of Bunzan pots. We spent two days in Shinpukuji and the first day I spent putting drainage screens in many Bunzan pots. Here are some pictures

When I got back I was able to get a Bunzan pot from … Boon. I always thought it was a funny combination – Boon bringing me a Bunzan pot. When Mike was getting weaker I decided to send him that Bunzan pot as part of a care package. I guess I thought maybe bright colors would brighten his day a little. I hope it did.

So today, when I got a package from Jeremiah and found two Bunzan pots in it I thought of Mike again. I am very thankful to Jeremiah for his generous present, which is a thank you gift for a tiny favor I did for him. And also for helping me to spend an evening thinking about Mike. I don’t know where we go after we die. I hope he is having fun working on bonsai wherever he is now.