Winter Speaks – A Slow Day, Take it Easy Day

Oak Leaves and Snow

Oak Leaves and Snow © 2013 Bo Mackison

The first full day of winter. It’s a winter speak day. Snow falls, softens the landscape, all mounds and drifting sculptures. Skeletal trunks poke from the showy hillocks. A few trees, the oaks, sport crinkly brown leaves, the accent color in all the white. Pastel blue skies peek from cloud cover. Even the streets and sidewalks have a glaze of glitter.

Winter speaks in hushed tones today, the snow muffles the sounds of bustling human activity. A slow down, take it easy day.

Writing Your Life Story, Part 12: Capturing Holiday Memories

Angels for Amanda

Angels for Amanda © 2012 Bo Mackison

When holidays approach, it can be a hectic time of year, crammed with to do lists, people to see, places to visit. And for all but the most stalwart of writers, composing anything beyond the grocery list gets lost in a haze of “I should write this down, but there’s no time.”

No worries.

Writing about the holidays is not a writing project that needs to be done in the midst of celebration. It’s a small project, best done after the holidays. And it’s a quick project, best done when the celebrations are winding down or over, but family and friends are still near. It’s a project that will reap big rewards when you are trying to recall a Holiday memory from the near or distant past.

This project can be done with any holiday. Although I discuss Christmas holidays, the writing prompts can easily be adapted to birthdays, summer holidays, Thanksgiving — any time there is a celebration.

I’ve been doing a holiday writing project since my mother gave me a small book 38 years ago. It was the first Christmas I was married and the title of the book was Holiday Memories. Filled with blank pages — four pages per year for 20 years — there were writing prompts to record each year’s memories.

Though my first book of Christmas memories was a commercially made product, I created a second one when I completed the first twenty years. It is simple to duplicate this idea in a blank book or journal. (You can pick up a holiday themed book – any holiday – when they are available.)

This Holiday Memoir Project is for the Christmas season. Each year, I adapt the questions to fit the situation of my family. You can adapt the questions to fit any holiday celebrations.

Write a few sentences to complete each prompt:

  • Decking the Halls. What favorites decorate your home – greenery? candles? stockings? indoor and outdoor lights?
  • Trimming the Tree. What does the tree look like? If it is fresh, what kind was it, how tall, how did you get the tree home? Who trimmed the tree? Are there new ornaments, hand crafted ornaments, heirloom ornaments?
  • Celebrating the Season. What special events are a part of the holiday season? Children’s activities? A play or concert? A dinner or caroling party? Get-togethers with friends and family? Traveling?
  • The Big Day. Where do you celebrate? Who are there? Meaningful gifts? Special menu? Religious or cultural traditions? Favorite moments to treasure?
  • Just for the Children. Copies of letters to Santa? A photograph or two? A holiday drawing or story from each child?
  • Memory Tuck-ins. Is there memorabilia to be gathered? A photo holiday card? Special cards or letters you received? Programs from concerts or shows?
  • A List of Gratitudes. What are you most thankful for? Take a moment to add this to your holiday writing. It helps keep the whole reason for celebration in focus.

One of our family’s holiday traditions includes reading the holiday memory book. Every Christmas night, when the celebrating is winding down, we read entries from past years. Then we fill in the events from the current season. This is one of our beloved family traditions.

We remember the Christmas Eve, thirty years ago, when Uncle Conrad came bearing gifts in a Santa Claus suit? We read about his Santa outfit, so filled with newspapers that he crunched as he walked, and that midway through his “Ho Ho Ho” greetings his Santa pants took a downward slide. A long downward slide! We laugh like Santa each time we re-read that story.

Our family looks at the drawings and re-reads stories our children wrote when they first put pencil to paper. Here’s an example from my son when he was five:

A little green ball is on the Christmas tree. The angel on the top has heart wings. And a cone that holds her up that high. The lights are blue and red and yellow and hot. There are boats and bears and angels hiding in the tree. I see them. I think the tree is pretty fine.

I encourage you to enjoy your holidays, celebrate in your special way, and when the holidays have passed, take time to capture the memories — in drawings, photos, and especially in your words and the words of your family and friends.

It will be worthwhile, years from now, when you read and remember these special times.

Abandoned Door – A Metaphor for Transition

Abandoned

Someone, and no matter who, inhabits my head like it’s an empty house, he enters, he leaves, he bangs each door behind him, powerless I put up with this ruckus.
Someone, and maybe it’s me, palms my most private thoughts, he crumples them, returns them to dust.
Someone, and it’s much later now, slowly walks across the room and, not seeing me, stops to contemplate the havoc.
Someone, and no matter where, collects the pieces of my shadow.
~ Claude Estaban, translated by Joanie Mackowski

Many photographers have an affinity and passion for capturing doors as a subject in their art.

Doors are a popular subject, their metaphorical power captures our imagination, wonder, and sense of questioning, too.

Locked? Unlocked? Barred? Ajar? Abandoned?

So many questions. Doors symbolize a transition, a passage, entering from light into dark, or the opposite, leaving by way of a door, and entering into light from a dark interior. The bride once was carried across the threshold of her new home by her new husband. There are doors guarded by fierce creatures – temples come to mind, but I have seen many a library graced with twin, growling lions, or even scarier creatures.

I photographed this door on an abandoned farmstead in eastern Pennsylvania a few years ago.

I cataloged and labeled it, but only recently pulled it out for a serious look. I fell in love with the greens and reds, with the combination of the parallel slats and the vertical panels on the door. And I liked the way nature was gradually taking over the man-made structure, adding to the abandoned feeling.

Do you photograph doors, or notice doors, or use doors in your art or writing?

Do you ever focus on other passages or transitions — gates, windows, tunnels, stairways?  Places that lead to other spaces?

Seeing Red and Green – Photography as Metaphor

Red and Green

Seeing Red and Green © 2011 Bo Mackison

The title of this post is a bit of a puzzler.

Sure, the leaf is green with red veins. Seeing red, seeing green.

But the phrase “seeing red” has a common meaning. I checked with an online, viewer-written dictionary, and this was an accurate summary of the word and its derivation:

The etymology of the word refers to bullfighting. It is well-known that a matador uses a red cape to engage with and then infuriate a bull. When the bull gets agitated, it charges the matador, but it tends to aim for the cape and not the man. “Seeing red” refers to this situation of being so angry, your anger controls you and causes you to feel enraged.

This photo is a good visual reminder for me when I am struggling with angry feelings.

I do not want to ignore my anger, but I don’t want anger to control my actions either. I needed a ritual to help me through difficult moments.

This is what I came up with:

When I look at the green leaf, I visualize “seeing green” which I associate with feeling calm and in control. There are lines of red through the green, acknowledging my “seeing red” feelings, but most of the photograph reinforces the “green” calming.

I imagine my anger as that central red spot (hot spot) in the photo.

Then I visualize my anger flowing through the cool green, and the anger becomes cooler and less intense. It flows away from that hot spot and I imagine my anger dropping off the edge of the photo.

I also discovered a quote — one of those “oh, so true” quotes — to help remind me of the good that comes from staying calm when I feel anything but calm.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow. ~Chinese proverb

And deep, cleansing breaths are always a great way to relax and shake off too much tension.

I found that the combination of distraction, visualization, using the quote, and deep breathing to be helpful when I want to move from “seeing red” to “feeling green.”

I am discovering that some photographs have a deeper meaning than that which is first seen.

Plans, Changes – and a Discussion with My Inner Gremlin

Yucca - Boyce Thompson State Arboretum

Yucca Tree © 2013 Bo Mackison

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. ~ Lao Tzu

Recently I’ve been working with change.

This season is already a bit too hectic for a hardcore introvert, with the approaching holidays and much anticipated visits from relatives traveling to the Midwest from “sea to shining sea.” After the holidays, there will be whirlwind packing, cross-country travel, and then a transition from snowy Wisconsin to sunny Arizona. (Yes, though I am looking forward to Arizona, it is still change, and even a much wanted change requires time for adaptation.)

And if this wasn’t enough for a busy December, I also chose to take big steps in my business. I launched my new website, one that feels in sync with who I am, and what I want to offer. I announced my intentions for the coming year – Focus Sessions, workshops, and a Desert Wisdom Retreat.

And then I heard my inner gremlin say, “Just what the heck do you think you are doing?”

It was a perfectly understandable question from my gremlin. (Her name is Miss Patsy, by the way, and she is a re-incarnation of my third grade teacher who had very high standards, never to be met in this world or the next.)  Yes, this was a typical response to lots of changes, to stepping up my game, but it caught me off guard and threw me far off-balance. I felt as if I were staggering everywhere I walked.

Eventually I stopped and took a great many deep breaths. Then I invited my inner gremlin to join me at a local coffee shop, pen and paper in hand, and I began to free write, letting Miss Patsy take turns when she had something to say. While Miss Patsy kept flinging words at the paper, like “imposter” and “too big for your britches”, I explored my present, where I have been, and where I want to go. And finally, my inner gremlin quieted. And so did I.

I re-affirmed that I am on the right path. This is indeed my journey. I will journey on my own timetable, but I will journey.

And as I squirmed in my seat and got myself comfortable, I settled into the changes. It felt just right.

I discovered new energy and creative determination, and yes, a lot of excitement and grand anticipation, as I take my next steps, one baby step at a time. Hope you will be joining me!