Hidden Beauty

Hidden Beauty

Hidden Beauty © 2013 Bo Mackison

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks . . . we learned to do what only the students of nature ever learn, and that was to feel beauty. ~ Luther Standing Bear

I recently read a post on Facebook, someone asked the question, “What do you do when you feel down? How do you once again find your happy?”

There were lots of suggestions, and many great ones for restoring balance to your mood: watch old movies, dance, practice yoga, listen to oldies music, garden, journal, hug a friend, meditate, reflect, create, read a good book, watch a comedy, slip into a hot bath,  cry, play with children, let it be, unplug.

Several people replied with answers similar to what I probably would have said — take a walk, get out in nature.

I add another step to going for a walk and immersing myself in my world, something that I’ve found to be my mood brightener. When walking in nature or perhaps just in the neighborhood, I concentrate on finding beauty. Not necessarily beauty that is easily seen, but beauty in  everyday sorts of things, in the unexpected places. A wabi-sabi sort of beauty.

The photograph of the yucca stalk above, tipped over, browned, gradually decaying, wasn’t an obvious choice for noticing beauty in nature. But as I walked by this yucca, my attention was captured by the patterns of overlapping leaves, some still upright, a few turned down, falling back to the earth. Then I looked even closer and noticed the textures, the fibrous strands, the mottled marks. And finally I was captivated by the amazing colors in the shadows – the turquoise blues and eggplant purples in contrast to the wheat golds and rusty oranges.

I love the challenge of finding beauty in the least obvious of places, in the tiny details. It always gives me a surge of pleasure.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Apprehension

Barrier of Branches

Barrier of Branches © 2013 Bo Mackison

There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than in reality. ~ Seneca

Windswept

Windswept

Windswept ©2013 Bo Mackison

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

And that when we no longer know the way which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

~ Wendell Berry

My old ways, my tried and tested ways, no longer seem to fit. What happens when the stories I’ve lived these many years feel too small and restrict my breathing, my feelings, my actions? There is a spark on the edge of the shadow, and it shimmers.

The wind sweeps in, brushing away the old, allowing space for the new to take seed, grow and thrive.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Possibility

Tumbleweed in Barbed Wire Fence

Tumbleweed Fence © 2013 Bo Mackison

Winds that once blew free,
now scatters dust to the sky.
~ lyrics from The Cowboy, by Randy Newman

Wandering, I am lost.

I speed along the washboard dirt road, skimming its ridges,
Don’t jar me, bumping along dips and rises.

Earth so dry, wild and unsettled winds sweep orange dust into roiling vortexes,
chase tumbleweeds across the grasslands.

Hello, tumbleweeds, caught in the barbs and fence lines,
impaled on gnarled mesquite.

Globes of sun-bleached gold, you can no longer travel on wind’s breath,
whipping forces crumble your desiccated skeletons.

Tumbleweeds, no more wandering and skittering across this land.
I know how it feels to be trapped, too, unable to roll away.

Ominous clouds, they are possibility.
Desert rain is never a promise, yet
when seeds swell with moisture, they open.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Ocotillo at Dusk

Ocotillo at Dusk

Ocotillo at Dusk © 2013 Bo Mackison

There is a simple practice that we can do to cultivate forgiveness. First we acknowledge what we feel–shame, revenge, embarrassment, remorse. Then we forgive ourselves for being human. Then, in the spirit of not wallowing in the pain, we let go and make a fresh start. We don’t have to carry the burden with us anymore. We can acknowledge, forgive, and start anew. If we practice this way, little by little we’ll learn to abide with the feeling of regret for having hurt ourselves and others. We will also learn self-forgiveness. Eventually, at our own speed, we’ll even find our capacity to forgive those who have done us harm. We will discover forgiveness as a natural expression of the open heart, an expression of our basic goodness. This potential is inherent in every moment. Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start. ~ Pema Chodron, from The Places that Scare You

This weekend I have set aside time to study the above text from Chodron’s book. Again. In this single paragraph, there is a lifetime of work. It is work that I have not only resisted, I’ve also refused to acknowledge the presence of the work, the need for the cultivation of forgiveness.

Today is a desert day, in the literal and figurative sense. I will walk the desert trails, the arroyos. Again, I will follow the desert lines of the labyrinth. I go in search of space and quiet, of brief exile–if only for twenty-four hours–in an attempt to move towards a portal leading to a fresh start.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines. She is also walking the way of the desert, following its lines, in search of opportunity.