Amidst the Water Lilies, the Sky, the Clouds…Replenishment

Water Lilies and Reflection

Water Lilies and Reflection © 2014 Bo Mackison

“What call thou solitude? Is not the earth with various living creatures, and the air replenished, and all these at thy command to come and play before thee?” ~ John Milton

Becoming aware of limits. Of the need for time to rest and replenish.

How much can I schedule in one day or one week or even in one month or one season? And when I have completed my work, how do I replenish, refill my well?

By slowing down. Leaving space in my day and my evening time. Planning, in necessary, twenty minutes of nothing time. Just observation and awareness time. No phone, Facebook, email checking, messaging. No television, music, sports in the background. No reading, writing, or ‘rithmetic!

“I cannot have enough of the hours of silence when nothing happens. When the clouds go by. When the trees say nothing. When the birds sing. I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.” ~ Thomas Merton

Day dream. Watch the outdoors through a window. Notice how the wind swirls through the leaves of nearby trees. Or how the clouds drift across the sky.

Better yet, connect with nature by heading outside.  Stand barefoot in the grass and connect with Mother Earth. Close your eyes and hear the sounds in the environment. Silence, when listened to closely, turns into chattering and trills, a bird symphony. Breezes rustle the dancing leaves in the trees and shrubs, and whispers through the taller grasses.

I have put slowness into my photography practice. A time when I purposely keep my camera is in its bag and I sit and just watch. Watching the water garden, I noticed dragonflies and damselflies flit across the reflection pond. Bees sipped nectar from the water lilies and a turtle glided underwater, occasionally breaking the surface of the water. Clouds slid across the pool, reflecting sky in water.

Replenishing my well.

Twilight Gifts of Autumn

Pool at Sunset

Reflection Pool at Sunset © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Every day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbon.’ ~ Ruth Ann Schabacker

A walk through gardens in an autumn evening is a gentling walk. The colors are muted, less brilliant than in full summer sunlight, yet they take on a preciousness of their own. Nuances of colors, the mark of changing seasons. A few late season flowers bloom in full glory, surrounded by dropped petals and browning blossoms of flowers past their prime.

The reflection pool, at rest in the evening pause, takes on the autumn colors of yellows, oranges. The last water lilies are in bloom. The grasses, seeded, shimmer in gold and silver. Leaves fall, catch the slightest of breezes, and quiver through the air.

It is a peaceful time, this transition time from sunset to twilight.

Lilies in Monet’s Garden

Lilies in Refection Pool

Lilies in Monet’s Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. ~ Claude Monet

The current exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens is Monet’s Garden, located in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory on the grounds, truly a spectacular site for this themed exhibit.

NYBG’s website describes the exhibit as such — “Claude Monet was an avid gardener who once reflected that perhaps flowers were the reason he became a painter. This exhibition explores the legacy of his idyllic garden in Giverny, France, transforming the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a floral masterpiece of diverse plants, bold colors, and dramatic design . . . Monet’s most famous subjects, water lilies, many of them the varieties he grew, are featured in the Conservatory Courtyard Pools.”

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory opened in 1902. This Victorian-style glasshouse is home to A World of Plant which is its permanent exhibit – a series of gardens that takes you on a tour of plants found around the world. After walking through the crowded Monet’s Garden exhibit – yes, our only chance to visit was on a Sunday afternoon! — we also walked through the permanent gardens.

I could have wandered through the many displays for days and days, but I only had a few hours, hours I was grateful for. Such an opportunity to fill the well of my senses –  fragrances, textures, colors. Ahhh.

I could not resist the challenge of taking photographs of a few of the lilies that are now in bloom in the courtyard pools. The reflection of the conservatory in the pools added an element of grandeur and a vintage look to the photographs of the water lilies.

The New York Botanical Gardens, including its many historical structures, is a National Historic Landmark.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She spent a glorious afternoon visiting and photographing the New York Botanical Gardens, and highly recommends a garden visit if you are in the New York area.