I remember hearing the word "vista" the first time when I was a high school sophomore. I worked as a laborer at an estate perched on a large sand dune overlooking Lake Michigan. One of my duties was to cut an opening through the trees to create a clear line of sight from the main house to the lake - a vista.

Recently I returned to that estate to snap these pictures of that vista. My first impression was of the tunnel effect caused by the overlapping branches. Each successive image I shot moved me toward the vista until finally I walked around the small tree in the center and stood on the edge of the bluff looking at Lake Michigan (the picture at top).

Point of Reference

Something was lost when I walked toward that vista. As I moved closer to the lake I experienced the sound of the waves and the smell of the fresh water, but I lost the perspective of the vista. I actually walked away from it. The vista is the view from afar, the vision of the distant lake framed by the opening between the trees.

Words often have more than one meaning. The word vista has two definitions: 1) a distant view through or along an avenue or opening, and 2) an extensive mental view, as over a stretch of time or a series of events. To the Colleagues of Vista Collegium a vista is a perspective of time, a mental view, an apprehension of life. Vista is a grasp of reality - what an individual understands is significant and valuable. It includes a person's character, attitude and manner of thinking about what they believe really matters. Vista is a personal quest for an integrated understanding of integrity and spiritual reality.

Each person's life has a unique purpose which is part of our context for living. Such a frame of thought forces each of us to focus on our perspective of life - our vista. This interpretation of reality with your individual context is your vista. A vista is your view of life.

Everyone is different physically from anyone who has ever lived or will live. Since each cell within our body is engineered and built by our DNA it is impossible for two identical codes for life to exist (an exception is "identical twins"); and even with the anomaly of identical twins it remains true that no person is physically the same as you or ever will be.

I am uniquely different from every other living thing that has existed or will live. You and I share that bond: we are unique, one of a kind. Nothing like us has ever been or will ever be again. Each of us is unequal to anything else. We are unique individuals.

What you have experienced as your life has unfolded has made you more diverse. Your body and what you have experienced have shaped your mind and how you think. There is a process within each of us where we constantly compare what we sense to what we remember having experienced. Some of this thought is merely a response to an immediate hunger or "itch" that requires satisfaction.

Long-range planning requires deeper thought. Even when you decide to take a walk, a plan is necessary to find your way home. Without a perspective some of the most ordinary activities would be dangerous. Because we are all different physically and have had diverse experiences; we each understand life differently and have a dissimilar focus on life. Therefore, we each have our own unique vista.

Because each individual is one of a kind, it seems logical to believe each of us is special - in a larger reference, each of us exists for a particular reason. Some would argue with that premise, saying that no two snowflakes are alike and thereby attempt to trivialize their uniqueness as "just the way it is." I remind those detractors that the very nature of the universe, everything that exists, is built upon an infinite process of selection and that even something as mundane as water crystals demonstrate the ultimate plan and design of the physical world.

Anyone's grasp of reality can be similar to viewing that lake too closely - we can lose our perspective of life. As demonstrated with the pictures above, when I walked ever closer to the bluff overlooking the lake I actually moved away from the vista. There is potentially a similar difficulty of our losing our grasp of what is real by being too involved in the sensations that are close at hand and not concentrate our capacity to view things in their true relations and relative importance.

It is possible to lose our perspective when viewing some material thing, such as a beautiful tree studded view of Lake Michigan. Likewise in our attempt to grasp the significance of reality, a vista must encompass more than seeking knowledge of what we experience as real and what is reported to us by others to be believed. A vista requires a perspective - a plan (map for the journey). Long-range plans require deep thought. Since everyone has a dissimilar focus on life, we each must have our own unique map or plan, our own independent vista.

A Vista can be thought of as a journey. When we attempt to discover our viewpoint of life we find such a pursuit requires constant affirmation of what is important to maintain a focus. As we plod along our individual path we will find it helpful to seek the encouragement of others who are experiencing similar trials. A journey is always more comfortable when companions travel along side.

A Vista is a personal quest for an integrated apprehension of truly personal integrity and spiritual reality. Vista Collegium is a leadership institute that motivates, guides and advocates for Vista participants on this journey. This company of seekers (age 15 through 18), is an association of youth called Vista Colleagues and refer to themselves as the "Vcoll". The word "Vcoll" is from the first letter of the word "Vista" and the first four letters of the word "colleague." Vista Colleagues, who share this quest, singularly and together encourage one another to be authentic, develop harmonious relationships, become leaders and pursue wisdom their entire life. [The Vista Poem]

A Light Shines

Prior to the founding of Vista Collegium, I had a dream repeat over several nights. I named this identical dream A Light Shines because it was about a brilliant light shining from the rim of a plateau on top of a mountain. During this dream, I felt driven to climb the mountain side to see the source of that light. After that repeating dream, Vista Collegium created the Latin motto in lumine Dei "in the Light of God" that is pronounced in lu-mi-nay day-ee [accent on first syllable of second word].

Vista Colleagues seek reality with integrity in accordance with their heartfelt deepest promptings while projecting an encompassing circle of spiritual light broad and inclusive enough to embrace the faith of others in lumine Dei "in the Light of God".