Calling Forth Courage while Contemplating Lessons from Nature

Bridge over Starkweather Creek

Bridge over Starkweather Creek © 2014 Bo Mackison

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused…

If I did surrender to the earth’s intelligence?
Surrender to the earth itself, like a seed dispersed in autumns’ winds.

And drop upon the earth – dark, dank, ripe. Drop upon the earth
and settle in, as layers of leaves and autumn litter cover me, intact, protected.

Footbridge

Crossing the Footbridge © 2014 Bo Mackison

So like children, we begin again…

to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

This seed of me, it embraces the darkness
and in the waning light, holding my stories of decay and decline,
enters a period where the only light source is that of inner reflection.

Embraces shadow as darkness makes ready the parts hungering for new life.
Waiting, waiting
in anticipation of unlimited possibilities.

Geese at Sunrise

November Sunrise

November Sunrise © 2011 Bo Mackison

Geese in flight as the sun light begins to color the trees in a luminescence. This is autumn – flying geese, the natural world slowing down, and by slowing down they start their preparation for the coming winter.

We have our autumnal times, too. periods of our lives when we slow down, gather our thoughts and energy — and perhaps our courage, too —  in preparation for more difficult times. But all the while we prepare, we know that just at sunrise follows the dark, springtime follows the harsh winter. And that even in the darker seasons, there is always a light to guide us.

The cycle of seasons, the cycle of life.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.   Nature — such a wise teacher.

Salmo Pond in November

Salmo Pond

Salmo Pond © 2011 Bo Mackison

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.  ~ Marcus Aurelius

November – the month when the brilliant colors of October change to muted hues of yellows, greens, browns. Tree skeletons appear. Grasses that waved tall and proud are now brittle and bent to the ground. There are days when the sky is blue and sunshine gives nature a soft glow, but these days are outnumbered by cloudy gray days, days of rain and wind.

November is all about change. This is the time of year that offers us lessons in acceptance — offers us glimpses of nothingness, provides  us with daily reminders that nothing stays the same, and challenges us to practice the art of learning how to say goodbye.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  It is November, perhaps the most contemplative month of the year.