Stepping Out on World Sauntering Day

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones © 2013 Bo Mackison

This is a post assembled partly while thinking about last night’s dream and partly while checking my emails this morning — makes for an interesting juxtaposition of ideas.

The dream? A long walk across water on huge, irregular stepping-stones. The stones could have been a replica set designed by the creators of Stonehenge, the ancient English site of healing, ritual, and worship, but also a funerary and a celestial observatory. In the dream, I cautiously, tentatively, cross a sparkling turquoise-blue bay, intent on reaching the shore of pebbly rocks that always are just out of my reach.

Then came my morning message from Tut, a humorous, motivational email that I read every weekday. It informed me that today, June 19th, is World Sauntering Day. Tut provided a link as confirmation, and sure enough, today IS National Sauntering Day, a day dedicated to the art of sauntering.

According to Wikipedia – a source I trust on this sort of trivia – World Sauntering Day is thought to have started at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan in the 1970s. “The Grand Hotel has the world’s longest porch, 660 feet in length. It was a counter response by W.T.Rabe to a growing movement toward the recreation of jogging. The idea of the day was to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the world around them.” Love the idea of a sauntering day!

According to Thesaurus.com, synonyms for sauntering  include:

amble

linger

meander

mosey

promenade

ramble

roam

sashay

tarry

traipse

wander

So today I intend to take a saunter around the neighborhood pond, wander through the grocery store, and meander in my garden. It will be a nice counter-point to the arduous struggle I encountered in my dream, leaping from one low stone to another, then swimming to the next stone, taller and angular, which I climbed with the strength of a fingernail grip.

Now I only wish I could promenade on the 660 foot long porch of The Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island this evening as sunset drifts into twilight.

Maybe in my next dream…

————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She explores wherever she travels, even in her dreams.

A Vision of the Mind

Opening to the Earth

Opening to the Earth © 2012 Bo Mackison

What is seen by the eye is transformed and colored by the vision of the mind. ~ Robert Wade

Another macro view, this time highly abstract, so it’s hard to identify the flower.  It’s a different view of the hybrid lily photographed at the Test Gardens west of Madison, Wisconsin. Aren’t these colors amazing, almost like a blazing fire.  A perfect match for the fiery days of August!

August Break 2012

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

Take a Seat

Table and Chair

Take a Seat © 2011 Bo Mackison

. . . and you find yourself alone
and you must speak to the stars
or the rain-filled clouds
or anything at hand
to find your place.

When you are alone
you must do anything
to believe
and when you are
abandoned
you must speak
with everything
you know
and everything you are
in order
to belong.

If I have no one to turn to
I must claim my aloneness.

If I cannot speak
I must reclaim the prison
of my body.

If I have only darkness
I must claim the night.

And then,
even in the closest dark
the world
can find me.”

~ an excerpt from “What I Must Tell Myself” by David Whyte

‘Queen Charlotte’ Anemone

Queen, Center Stage © 2010 Bo Mackison

This simple purple flower, a Japanese anemone, is formally known as ‘Queen Charlotte’. I was attracted to this particular flower because two of the yellow stamens have bent towards the center of the flower. With a little imagination, I can see a little butterfly kiss. This flower is also called a windflower.

Photographed at Allen Centennial Gardens on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison.

Composition in Rock Garden

Hens and Chicks in Rock Garden at Allen Centennial Garden on UW Campus

Composition in Rock Garden © 2010 Bo Mackison

Macro-photograph of Hens and Chicks in the Rock Garden at Allen Centennial Gardens at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.