Articles by Bo Mackison

Praise the Day – A Poem

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https://thelonelycreative.com/softcover-notebooks/ Tree in Yellow © 2014 Bo Mackison

Diazepam Online Purchase Praise the day, first light
illuminates tree tops,
then a glow glides through the leaves,
flickers upon the trunk, touches the earth.

Order Klonopin Online Praise the bird chatter.
Cacophony. Praise that word,
such a wild word, a burst of joy.

https://www.wjsmithconstruction.com/deck-building/ Praise the velvet acacias, yellow bloom,
yellow fuzz masks the pavement
encircling its shaggy trunk. Bees and stardust.
The tree alive with buzz and bee swarm.

source Praise the mountain, a silhouette.
Its face awakens, creased in purple and gray,
shadow and light.

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Valium 10Mg Buy Online Tea Kettle © 2014 Bo Mackison

go Praise the tea kettle, the tea, the water.
My cup with tea leaves clustered in the depths,
dispersed into shapes and symbols – a butterfly,
a beetle, a crescent moon.

source link Praise the ease, the work, the solitude.
Sip the tea and praise.

Order Tramadol Overnight The tree a storyteller; the bees her audience.
The tea a refreshment; the tea leaf a message.

Writing Your Life Story Part 5: Finding the Perfect Container

Open For Business
Open for Browsing © 2010 Bo Mackison

https://rmscherubimhealthcare.com/services/prescriptions-medical-refills/ Awareness is not the same as thought. It lies beyond thinking, although it makes no use of thinking, honoring it’s value and it’s power. Awareness is more like a vessel which can hold and contain our thinking, helping us to see and know our thought as thought rather than getting caught up in them as reality. ~~ Jon Kabit-Zinn

The Memoir Project invites you to take a writing break. Go on a treasure hunt instead.

This is a treasure hunt to find the perfect vessel to “hold and contain your thinking,” those bits of memoir writing and projects you are collecting as the months pass by. (Although if your schedule permits, you could both write a story or two and go searching for that special container.)

Your container can be as plain or fancy as you wish, as decorative or functional as suits your own temperament. Of course, you may already own a special container and simply need to re-purpose it. Or a trip to the local shops may inspire you to examine boxes, baskets, and bags.

Leather Bag - Antique ShopAntique Leather Bag © 2010 Bo Mackison

I scoured the antique shops for a sewing basket to hold my growing stash of memoir projects.

My grandmother, a seamstress by profession, had a varnished wicker sewing basket, maybe fourteen inches in diameter, with a flat wicker lid. The top was decorated with a tassel of threads and buttons. I record many memories of my early years when I lived with my grandparents, and it would be meaningful to find a similar basket for my memoir storage.

What kind of container is right for your memoir collection?

A cookie tin for the baker in the family? A pink vintage suitcase for the traveler or wanna be traveler? A picnic basket for the outdoors enthusiast?

Set of Pink Ventana Suitcases - Antique ShopPink Vintage Luggage © 2010 Bo Mackison

Maybe an old-fashioned doll trunk to hold a trunkful of childhood memories? A bamboo box for the naturalist? A quilted bag to hold an accumulation of old letters and memorabilia? Or one of these great hat boxes to hold reminders of the “good ol’ days?”

Marshall Field Hat Boxes - Antique ShopMarshall Field Hat Box © 2010 Bo Mackison

What container will you choose for your memoir stash?

When you find the perfect container to contain your collection of writings and other memoir media, why not take thirty minutes to write about your choice and how it relates to the life story you are recording.

Then gather your memoir projects and put them all in their new home.

Next: Part 6, Collect Memories in Letters

Desert Art – Chihuly Night Show at Desert Botanical Gardens

Red Reeds at Twilight

Red Reeds at Twilight © 2014 Bo Mackison

Chihuly’s art glass on exhibit at Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.

After dark, the installations are illuminated , and offer a totally different viewing experience.

Illuminated Purple Reeds

Illuminated Purple Reeds © 2014 Bo Mackison

Summer Sun by Chihuly, Night

Summer Sun by Chihuly, Night © 2014 Bo Mackison

Yellow Octopi in the Cacti

Yellow Octopi in the Cacti © 2014 Bo Mackison

Blue Sapphire Star at Night

Blue Sapphire Star at Night © 2014 Bo Mackison

 

Writing Your Life Story Part 4: Why Write Your Story?

Polyvitro Chandelier and Tower

Polyvitro Chandelier and Tower © 2014 Bo Mackison

Friends, family, even strangers ask: “Why should I write down my life story?” “I haven’t anything important to share.” “Who would want to read about my life?”

So . . . why write my life story or memoir?

Different writers have different reasons, but here are a few:

Memoir writing can be therapeutic.

Writing your way through a difficult period of life, or writing about the learning of a challenging life lesson can help put the experience into perspective.

Memoirs provide teaching moments.

A good memoir focuses on an event or series of events that evoke a change in the author — perhaps a change of view, a change of feelings, a change for better (or worse.)

Memoirs provide for personal sharing and keep moments alive.

This sharing need not be for a large audience; the writing may only be written for family members or friends. It is a way of documenting a part of their lives, too. I recalled a poem I recently read that described a moment by a writer as he watched his words being read by another.

A day will come I’ll watch you reading this.
I’ll look up from these words I’m writing now—
this line I’m standing on, I’ll be right here,
alive again. I’ll breathe on you this breath.
~~ excerpt from the poem The One Certain Thing by Peter Cooley

Ask yourself. Why write about your life, your memories?

This makes a great writing prompt. Are you writing to resolve an old issue? Are you writing to share a major shift in your actions or way of thinking? Or like the poet, are you writing your story, even in a small way, for posterity?

Consider writing down your reasons and making it a part of your memoir collection.

Next: Part 5, The Perfect Container

Desert Art – Blue Fiori Sun

Blue Fiori Sun, 2013

Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison

Chihuly in the Garden is the second exhibit of glass artist Dale Chihuly held at Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Gardens.

I was lucky enough to attend Chihuly’s first exhibit, The Nature of Glass, in the winter of 2008. I fell in love with his signature hand-blown glass art sculptures. When I discovered a second Chihuly exhibit was returning this winter/spring, I knew I would be back, too.

This time I went better prepared, with six more years of experience with photography, and the proper equipment — a tripod — to handle low light, long exposures. (Still processing the night photos — coming soon!)

Blue Fiori Sun, 2013

Blue Fiori Sun Amid the Desert Green © 2014 Bo Mackison

This exhibit is Chihuly’s twelfth installation in an outdoor botanical garden setting.

There are 21 installations in the Phoenix exhibition. I saw 16 of them in a whirlwind 4 hours. I wasn’t planning on making the trip to Phoenix again, and so I tried to see as much as I could — not the way I prefer to see art in any setting. I did take extra time at each installation,  just to take in the art glass in desert surroundings, but I seldom had as much time as I would have liked.

Now I’m planning a return visit, determined to build more time into the visit for pure appreciation.

Blue Fiori Sun, 2013

Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison

The exhibition is strategically placed on  55 acres of the 140 acre garden.

There are 21 installations. Major installations are at the entrance, groupings of slender reeds follow pathways, and large works of art highlight the desert landscape. The Blue Fiori Sun, completed in 2013, is one of two major installations at the entrance.

A 2010 creation, Sapphire Sun, greets all visitors as they walk through the gates.  Just beyond that global wonder in the Blue Fiori Sun set amid cholla, barrel cacti, and yucca.

Blue Fiori Sun, 2013

Close Up Blue, Fiori Sun © 2014 Bo Mackison

[Chihuly] “produces the psychedelic experience of a magical, glowing, and sparkling, brilliantly alive panorama without drugs. This enchanted glass world has as much to do with Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz as it does with the great Renaissance and Baroque festivals that sovereigns arranged to entertain their courts and subjects.”
Barbara Rose, Dale Chihuly’s Paradise Regained

Blue Fiori Sun, 2013

Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison

 I love how the glass art nestles into the nearby landscape, giving it the appearance of a desert life form.

A highly unlikely blue color, but still, the art looked as if it truly belonged there, as if it had grown organically from the desert ground. I love the natural desert, solitary walks in the wilderness desert, but Chihuly offers a unique, mind-stretching experience in a desert based garden.

More Chihuly: The Night Show