What if...

/

What if it was 1776, not 2026? After all 250 years ago is barely noticeable when you think that humans have been on earth for 6 million years. What would life be like for me in Richmond, Vermont, at 60 Wolf Lane? To start with I would be six feet under, since I never would have lived to nearly eighty; maybe half 80. But let’s say I did.

I’ve heard of the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen. They live and fight for freedom, a short distance away, but that is a long way to travel, even if I had a buggy. I am in the middle of a hotbed of revolutionary activity. I believe strongly in independence from Britain, but I detest war. What am I to do? How do I help, without killing anyone? It is hard enough killing the wolfs at the cabin door. It is hard enough cutting precious trees down to have the heat to make it to spring. It is hard enough trapping prey to feed the family. Spring, if I live that long, will provide rain and milder temperatures to till the soil and harvest fruits and vegetables - I dream of that. I dream of community with my neighbors, when I can get an opportunity to go the distance. How big is this world I live in? Is it different for others? I know it is different. I see it in my little world around me - Slavery - Blacks, women.

Snap out of it Mike, it’s 2026. Freedom, not perfect, but a lot better than 250 years ago! I have the technology, to reach the world with this blog. I have electricity. Eighteen inch walls surround me to make the heat loss efficient. I have a wood fireplace for aesthetics and a little extra comfort. I had the best meal of my life last night - 5 courses - raw tuna, cappelleita (or something like that), scallops, pastry wrapped swordfish. Each course enhanced with a flavorful sauce, and paired with fine wine. The last course was sharing a chocolate tort and special cake with my CLAUTTIA companion, Mary Lou. I finished with a cup of tea. The Starry Night Cafe is twenty miles away, but only took a half hour in my late model electric car, riding on asphalt (although, I do live on a dirt road). By the way I plan to fly to Great Britain for a vacation in 2026. I am grateful to Be now. Maybe I would have been 250 years ago, or 250 years in the future. Freedom to choose LOVE within, is, was, and will be.

Skylight

SIMPLY GIFT, DIVINE'S DESIGN draft on MikeSipe.com

/

There are about 175 of my favorite Divine gift images and 30 related reflections for the first draft of SIMPLY GIFT, DIVINE’S DESIGN. I rushed the draft. I was motivated by a Blurb promotion. I figured it was a 2026 project completion, but I got antsy to get something in print. It is a fulfilling project for me. I want to share the natural beauty with you. When you view on MikeSipe.com know that it is only going to get better and better, as I edit and continue to relate my joy and gratitude, capturing awesome gifts of Divine’s Natural Design.

LIGHT Within

Translucent

Serenity

To LIGHT for Patty

Christmas Kiss

Hard to Imagine

/

The universe is so big, it is hard to imagine. The observable universe is 93 billion light years, and expanding at faster than the speed of light. What?. A light year is 946673647280.8 km. And our spec of an inhabitable planet is one of maybe millions. Earth is far away from other inhabitable planets, probably for very good reasons. Who knows. It is hard to imagine that if we were 10% closer or further from our sun it would be too cold to survive or burn up. If the spin of the earth were a bit different we would spin out of control. And, gravity is so perfect we can move about, without floating off or stuck in place. The universe is a creation beyond my comprehension. Miraculous!

I am no astrologist, or even close. I am not even a night photographer. I am amazed by the night photography of some of the members in my photography group, http://www.northernexposurevt.net See https://www.magiclens.net Night photography is a specialty I am tempted to expore, but it is like burning the candle at both ends. I have to try a little though. It is hard to ignore as I think about my SIMPLY GIFT, DIVINE’S DESIGN photo project.

Good Night My Love

Barett’s COVe

Barett’s Cove 2

SIMPLY GIFT

/

SIMPLY GIFT, DIVINE’S DESIGN

WATER REFLECTIONS, and Skyward are two photo projects that were very meaningful to me. (See MikeSipe.com) SIMPLY GIFT, DIVINE’S DESIGN is my third book of images and reflections. This third project is most meaningful to me. In SIMPLY GIFT I reach to the soul, as I reflect on the beauty of simple natural designs I am privileged to witness. I am grateful to realize the wonder of Divine’s engulfing natural designs, as they go through seasonal costume changes. Being and connecting with surrounding living nature is spiritual to me. I quiet my mind. I meditate. I feel LOVE.  It is simply gift.

The process of Being in nature, camera in hand, to witness magical natural designs, and reflective processing, resulted in me simplifying my daily affirmation to: I live LOVE by Being present; focusing on and loving people, the process, the positive, the pristine, and my passions. I live LOVE by listening intently to my Inner Wisdom, and that of others. I live LOVE by contributing my unique goodness. I accept the uniqueness in myself, as well as that in others, without judgement, with respect, patience, forgiveness, and a sense of humor.

mediterrean light

Bird’s view

Scotish Blue

Magenta

stairway

uniting

Magic of Light

/

White Wall, a photo processor, speaks to the magic of light, on their website: “In the world of photography, light is not just a source of brightness. No, it is a magic that touches our souls, makes our hearts beat faster and fills our eyes with enthusiasm. In the wonderful world of images, where reality meets art, light is the brush with which we paint the canvas of our imagination.” The team at White Wall captures exactly how I feel presently as a landscape photo enthusiast. Photography is painting with light. Light is the most important element. I recently decided to look first for meaningful light, then color, design, and story. I call this LCD’s. I am new to this. I see the focus already affecting my captures. I love it.

First light Scotland

Simply Gift

Seeking light

Lighting our way

Hug the Lake

/

I love to walk at Shelburne Farms - a nature museum to me. They have miles of trails for the public to enjoy a saunter, walk, run. I have sauntered many of the trails, but find myself mostly on trails hugging Lake Champlain. There are miles to saunter along the shore - at least it seems like that to me. I have enjoyed strolling the way, and stoping to capture images to process, at dawn and dusk, and in-between. Exercise - a bit of, but mostly a soul-filling adventure. It appears different to me every time - the subtle changes of beauty nature offers.

What is it about being near, in, on, or under water that refreshes the soul? Water is the most precious resource we have, for the body and the soul. I am grateful.

DAY LIGHT

HUG THE LAKE

The tree

Where there is DARKNESS, LIGHT

/

What if there is all the LIGHT within me to BE who I am? LOVE. What if the LIGHT I seek is me, waiting to be released, to lighten my sky? To LOVE?

I drive the rural roads of Vermont. There is darkness, no moon to help light the way. I come to a crossroad. I look left - pitch dark. Is there a blind turn, an unknown force, to be my ruin? The speed of the potential force allowed is great. With extra acceleration, a deep breathe, I make a turn into the darkness. As I turn into darkness, my way is lite. I relax. I feel at ease now that I can see my way.

Darkness to LIGht

Where there is darkness, light

seeking light

Simply Gift, Divine's Design

/

Home is the place you Be. I have been in many places over the last eighty years - almost too many to count. Some don’t believe it, but there has always been a good reason for the moves - over twenty different places, reasons. I don’t need to get into the past to enumerate. It’s the present I want to Be.

I feel more at home, present, than I ever have. Maybe it is connecting daily with nature, nature inspired imaging, walking Walnut Way. Reflecting in nature brings me home, to the moment, to the mystery of living earth, to my essence, to LOVE.

Home skylight

Wake up

morning mist Richmond

Overcome

/

I am overcome by LCD’s - Light, Color, Design, and Story. I tell myself to look for LCD’s. I rise with the Sun. I see what I look for - believing is seeing. Walnut Way welcomes me daily. What a treat to absorb nature, capture an image to view again, and play artist. It is a bit of bliss. I am Grateful.

Overcome

Source

Light Beam

Coma

Divine Design

Walnut Way Wonder

/

The last few months I have been walking, meditating, photographing, wondering, along the sixty Black Walnut trees I planted on the rolling hills of our precious Purple Lark Farm in the foothills of the Green Mountains. I call the maze, through the natural habitat, Walnut Way. The time along the Way is a more meaningful day starter than I could ever have imagined. I believe the awe of it comes from being in nature, with my maturing Walnut trees, repeating my new Mantra - LORD, as us, is LOVE, seeing beauty to capture, and praying that I may live LOVES Will.

I wonder if the trees are talking to me - silent and accepting what is. Their aliveness is particularly evident with Season change and growth spurts. They each are the same, but unique. Some yield a lot of walnuts, some none. Some are small. Some are tall. Some leaves drop early. Some leaves still green. They connect and talk, beneath the surface. They support each other. They know comparisons are odious. They know success is the realization of all they are able to give.

Walnut Way Path

Green to Yellow

Walnut Way Wonder

Colorama

Light Drops

Milkweed Coma

A Fine Line

/

I do not want to proselytize. I do not want to judge. I want to accept what is with others. I want to listen and learn from others. There is so much truth and wisdom with people I am now meeting and befriending. This is freeing to me. I however want to influence the recognition and practice of LOVE. I feel like I am walking a fine line. I feel uncomfortable using the words us and we, instead of I and me. I have moved to the inclusive from the separate in my Mantra, because I desire thinking united, not separate. I wish to realize interdependence, not alone, competing with others. I wish to be non-dualistic in my thinking. All this is not easy for me. I am gradually evolving to ‘oneness’ though. It is good. It feels right. I know LOVE is the answer to all issues. I know Lord, as us, is LOVE. May we do LOVE’s Will!

Ok, I’ve said it. I will do more photo talk with future blogs. There is much to love in nature. A new season is upon us. Vermont is a wonderful place to Be in Fall.

lost in the fog

Revision Again

/

Mantra and Affirmation

9/15/2025

 

Live LOVE

         Lord, as us, is LOVE

LOVE is answer to all issues

We LOVE by Self-realizing, Connecting, and Giving:

Learning, Serving, Mentoring, Exploring, Relating, Playing, Protecting, Contributing, Transferring.

And Personally,

I am present. I listen intently to myself and others. I accept the uniqueness in myself and others, without judgement, with respect, patience, forgiveness, and a sense of humor.

Light in the fog

A Want-to-Be Painter

/

My photography has moved more and more to altering images to look like paintings. I smile when I hear - Is that a painting? Usually I use a small percentage of a filter to enhance my center of interest, which I leave unfiltered. Sometimes I feel like filtering to the hilt. There are many options. I play with a number of the artsy filters until the image is pleasing to me. I don’t know about anyone else. I guess it only makes sense to play my game to satisfy me. If others like it, that is a bonus. Thank God I am not trying to make a living with my photography. That would take the fun out of it.

Summer at Rolig havn filtered

Summer at Rolig havn unfiltered

Simplifying

/

In my photography, as well as in my life, I believe less is more. It is easier for me to see what is important to focus on if I zero in on that which is most attractive and meaningful to me in the moment. Everything else is clutter. That which surrounds the focus must enhance, not detract, from my attention. This is easy to say, not easy to do - both in life and photography. This I believe, is important for me to remember, if I want to realize the most joy. Both, my ego and my photographic eye want to devour it all, often missing what is most pleasing to me and connecting to others.

Below is a photo on the Marginal Way, on the coast of Maine. I like the broad image, but it is not usually me. I looked at my favorite images and concluded that I do not wish to crop any of them more than I did. In the Marginal Way image I saw a half dozen images to simplify my viewing focus. Take a long look.

Marginal Way

PASSION

/

Playing your passion can get out of hand. You love it, and sometimes you do seemingly irrational things in the process. At least, I have with my photography passion. A few examples: Climbing a mountain with heavy equipment, in the dark, to be in the right spot at sunrise, paying exorbitant amounts of money for just the right equipment, being still for a long, long time, while waiting for the right light, or the clouds to move in.

The fisher in the image below seems irrationally passionate about putting a pole in the waters imaged. I suspect he was loving the moment. I reflect on two rare fishing trips I initiated with my father while he was in his eighties. Fishing was an, earlier in life, passion for my dad that I missed. I have a passion for connection with family. Lake Michigan salmon and Canadian walleyes were the attractions that brought the desired connection. I remember I was admonished for putting down my fishing pole and picking up my camera - funny really, but telling. I also remember being told you just don’t leave a hook on your pole while flying on a small bush plane into camp on a remote lake in Canada. It is interesting what I remember. I do remember the rare events fondly. I am grateful to live my passions. I feeling I was right promoting passion living in my planning career.

Passion

Uniting

/

Imagine there’s no guns, no military too. What if there were a universal heightened priority, and available resources, for humanity’s common good - air, water, food, shelter, education? A lot of talk about this, that, and the other thing causing an existential event - really? Powerful politicians rhetoric is comical. Personal gain seems to be driving public policy. Don’t they know that Love is the answer to every issue? Let’s get real. I got to believe deep down ‘people’ know this.

Where is a Bill Wilson when we need him/her? We need another AA - Assholes Anonymous, for those who can’t control their power and/or greed.

What if country diplomats talked like this: We know your natural resources are important to you. We’ll help you preserve them. We are working on renewable energy technology. Great, we have a few experts who can help you. Wonderful. We will share the knowledge we gain. We will work together for the common good of all. Thank you. Let’s crack this nut together and be good stewards of all the world’s natural resources.

Personally, I know that “it is in giving we receive”. My ego doesn’t believe this, but my heart does. The Golden Rule is not so pervasive for no reason! We know that putting others first is a fruitful practice, but it is hard to do. Try living LOVE. I have been working on it, and when I can live LOVE it feels good. It really works.

uniting


Simply Gift, Divine's Design

/

Lord, as us, is LOVE. Love is the answer to everything. We live LOVE by Self-realizing, Connecting, Giving.

I reflect on the third principle, Giving. Jim the Jesuit says, “All is gift”. Francis of Assisi says, “It is in giving we receive.” In the mystics mind doing what’s best for others is best for us. In any case The Golden Rule is a simple universal truth, that when practiced generates peace, joy, and the feeling of unity.

To put others first is easy to say and hard to practice. The Ego says separateness, out for oneself. The paradox of thinking first of others is it is quite satisfying to do.

I think about the Serenity prayer, “..grant me the serenity to accept what I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We most often can’t change the way it is. By acceptance, enduring pain, as it is, and knowing that All is Gift, gain, as aftermath, may very well be the result.

It’s all simply, Divine’s design. If you want to ‘look for the gift’, look to nature. It’s all around us - beauty to behold. I am grateful to be able to capture natural beauty and play as a want-to-be artist.

The wave

CONNECTING

/

As I am realizing that Lord as LOVE is in me, us, I am more easily motivated to love and accept others. I am more patient, non judging, forgiving. Meditation helps me open up to my Inner Wisdom, higher self, and ability to see the higher self of others. My mind, thoughts, ego, clutter up my path to my deeper consciousness. Silence and mantra break me from my busy mind. to connect with a place in me deeper than I knew I could access. I have been quite left-brain, literal, logical, and matter of fact. It is new territory for me to hear my intuition and experience energy flow.

The work I did years ago with my publication of ADVOCATE PLANNING, To Do What YOU Love To Do (see MikeSipe.com) with the revelation of SCG, Self-realizing, Connecting, and Giving, has deeper meaning to me now than when I wrote it.

I reflect on CONNECTING: I define the value attributes for discussing Connecting as Exploring, Relating, and Playing. I now see Relating as the most problematic, and the most rewarding. People are polarized. Hatred is strong. Warring is not waning. The ego encourages our separateness, power, greed. Paradoxically, people long for community, closeness, connection. Love, unity, knowing our interconnectedness is desirous, at our core. I believe this more now than ever. Am I now growing into my self? Recognizing my essence? I hope so. Which path to take is more obvious now than ever.

Which path to take?