Articles by Bo Mackison

Great Horned Owlets

Great Horned Owls

Ambien Buy Online Great Horned Owls © 2013 Bo Mackison

source link It’s note-worthy when golfers stop their game long enough to stare into the high boughs of a nearby cottonwood. Not that they watched for long, but I watched foursome after foursome check out the tree top as they queued for their tee-time. (I had been given a hint as to the owls’ whereabouts by a dear neighbor who knows my penchant for photography.) Lucky for me, I knew where to look!

Order Lyrica Online What a thrill! Two Great Horned Owlets, not quite ready to fledge their nest. They kept their backs towards me and their feathers over their heads as I aimed my long lens towards their nest, but when Sherpa made a sort of screeching sound, they popped up and kept a steady eye on that screeching human on the ground. Plenty of time for me to take a few baby portraits.

https://thesentinelgroup.com/autism-and-apap-use/ ~~~~~~~~~~

Order Ativan Online Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She explores Arizona with her camera, aided by neighbors’ helpful hints and Sherpa’s noise-making abilities.

Prickly Pear in Bloom

Prickly Pear in Bloom

https://drbatayneh.com/about/ Prickly Pear in Bloom © 2013 Bo Mackison

Buy Klonopin Online Overnight “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.”
~ Georgia O’Keeffe

go Not that I would want to take a flower from a cactus in my hand, but I understand Georgia O’Keeffe’s remark about having the world for a moment. When I stop on a desert path or in a desert garden, I feel as if the world opens before me and I see the beauty, the complexity, the order of the Universe.

https://thesentinelgroup.com/about-us/ ~~~~~~~~

follow site Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio. She is beginning a time of transition, and collecting the beauty of the desert – in her memory and in photographs.

All Manner of Stripes

Stripes on Benches

Stripes on Benches ©2013 Bo Mackison

“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated. ” ~ August Sander

While visiting Casa Grande National Monument, I found plenty of opportunity to play with surfaces striped with light and shadow. And so that is what I did. I played!

Stripes in Corners

Stripes in Corners © 2013 Bo Mackison

Photography means ‘light writing’.~ L. Ron Hubbard 

I took these photos at the visitor center and the outside ramada where Park Rangers give talks about the ancient ruins of a Hohokam-era farming village and a four-story Great House.

Stripes on Roofs

Stripes on Roofs © 2013 Bo Mackison

The camera captures light, our minds capture images. ~ Anonymous

Blue skies, an Arizona hallmark, show through the slatted ramada.

Stripes - Casa Grande National Monument's Visitor Center

Stripes – Casa Grande National Monument ©2013 Bo Mackison

Photos have no narrative content. They only describe light on surface. ~ Garry Winogrand

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She explores the desert with her camera, and is mesmerized by the stripes of light and shadow.

Rootedness – A Desert Wisdom Card

Rooted - Desert Wisdom Card

Rooted © 2013 Bo Mackison

Through our willingness to be the one we are, we become one with everything.
~ Gunilla Norris

Plants that live in the desert have evolved to thrive in a land of little water.

Some plants develop deep, thick roots that reach many feet into the desert soil. They use water sources that are far below the earth’s surface.

A deep root system provides other benefits as well. With strong roots, plants stay grounded and maintain a firm footing on the earth, even when buffeted by harsh desert winds and monsoonal storms. And the plants do not require rainfall to survive, they have adapted to withstand drought using adaptive, internal structures.

We are also beings on this earth. We are connected to the earth.

We require roots to stay grounded, to keep a firm footing, to survive and thrive. To take optimal care of the self, it is essential that we tend our roots — deep roots of connection that are life-sustaining.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.
~ Simone Weil

ROOTEDNESS offers questions/reflections for journal writing, art prompts, and calls to action:

  • Perform a grounding ritual. Find a convenient space outside where you can actually make physical contact with the earth. Not a piece of pavement, but the earth – grassy yard, meadow, sandy beach, desert soil. Stand quietly, feel the solid earth beneath your feet. Bare feet produce great results, but wear foot covering appropriate for your environment and comfort level.
  • Just as a desert plant has a core root for sustainability, we have core values that keep us firmly established, that define who we are and sustain us. Reflect on several of your values that are the essential you. How are they life-sustaining? How do these values show up in the routines of your daily life?
  • My grandmother’s parents immigrated from Germany, and German was her first language. Decades later, my grandmother spoke only English, but she remembered the songs and ditties from her youth. When her children and grandchildren were young, she soothed them lullabies and children’s songs in German. I remember the feelings these melodies in an unfamiliar language evoked. They communicated a message of love and belonging. What childhood songs, rhymes, or games do you remember that rekindle a deep feeling of belonging, of rootedness?
  • Connect to your inner core by doing activities you enjoyed in your youth. Did you jump rope, hula hoop or play hopscotch? Try one of these activities. Muse, draw, or write about your experience. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to add some activities from your youth to your exercise routine.
  • While chalkboard chalk is becoming a thing of the past, sidewalk chalk is an easy-to-find art supply. What might you do with a box of colored chalk? The obvious — drawing pictures on sidewalks — is great fun, and since expectations are minimal, you can easily lose yourself in this expressive process. Add an uplifting message. Write a famous quote or a few lines from a favorite poem. Add an observation. The options are endless.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo is creating a deck of Desert Wisdom Cards for exploration and discovery, using photography, with a Sonoran Desert theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.

Tackling Transitions

Twilight, Roosevelt Lake, Arizona

Twilight, Roosevelt Lake @2013 Bo Mackison

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs

Transitions! I’ve learned that when dealing with transitions, I need to give myself some space and some extra self-care. In order for me to keep moving forward, I take baby steps. Even then, I occasionally feel as if I cannot take one more step. What is uncomfortable becomes uneasiness, then verges on panic, and I want to cry out, “I can’t do this!” —  exactly the place I’ve worked hard to move away from.

So in the wee hours of Saturday, I decided that fretting about my upcoming transition from Southwest to Midwest was unhelpful. Worry seldom, if ever, leads to positive results.

I needed to get out of my head. One of the ways I’ve learned to do that is to get on the road. So I packed clothes, food, and my camping gear, and by mid-morning I was on a mini road-trip.

I traveled north, stopped to see an ancient Hohokam site at Casa Grande National Monument. I walked around the ruins, most probably a gathering place for these ancient Desert People. It was quiet and sunny, and the lizards and I enjoyed studying the ruins, imagining life as it was then, long days of work to provide the basics for living.

Then I headed east, through Globe, and followed the ascending road into Tonto National Monument. I walked the mile trail to another ancient site, the 700 year old Lower Cliff Dwelling. I wondered in awe at the Salado, the adaptable people who thrived in a dry and harsh environment and built housing with creative solutions for safety, tucking their homes high above the ground along the rim of a cave. I wondered how the young children and the elders managed the ladders and multiple levels of living space.

The wildflowers were blooming wildly and the riotous effect made me laugh. Orange, pink, bright blur, lavender, red, purple and yellow – a spectacle of colors!

Western Rattlesnake, Sunning Itself Mid-Road

Western Rattlesnake, Sunning Itself Mid-Road © 2013 Bo Mackison

As I was leaving the park, I saw a rattlesnake coiled, sunning itself in the middle of the road. I stopped to take some photos. I watched as an oncoming car sped down the mountain road and nearly hit the snake. With amazing speed, the snake transformed from sun-sleeping to its attack mode, an instinctive dance of sorts, rising up nearly vertical in the air, striking, rattling. I watched from my car, safe from harm, but it was an amazing show of the snake’s natural response to threat. I was stunned and thrilled, simultaneously.

Though I enjoyed the hikes and nature experiences, late afternoon began to turn to early evening, and the internal quiet I sought remained elusive.  Moving out of my comfort zone, I chose to camp in an isolated site, separated from other campers, and with a view high above Roosevelt Lake.

I lit a small camp fire – there was a pile of dry cedar at the site left by the last campers. I listened to a CD of Native American flute music, Walk Between Worlds, by Golana, gentle and evocative. The sun slipped behind the Superstition Mountains, and the reflected pinks and oranges and blue-grays in the sky were the very colors of the glowing embers in the fire pit.

Finally! The combination of setting sun, campfire, and flute music worked its magic. My heart stopped racing and my breathing calmed, and I sat there, thinking, “I am OK. I can manage.”

I’d paid attention, my instincts were good – they led me to a calming place.

While I watched the camp fire shoot sparks and dancing flames, I thought of lighting candles, lighting them with intention. My campfire was burning with intention, too. It reminded me that, even though I experience times of discomfort and feeling lost, I can hold strong my intentions that I am whole and good, and that through my creative efforts, I can make a difference in my life and in the lives of others.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She’s finding strength and inspiration in the desert, and she’s working on transition skills. (More photos of the National Monuments to come…)