Christmas Traditions

Nativity with Vignette © 2012 Bo Mackison

Nativity with Vignette © 2012 Bo Mackison

When I was a small child, barely old enough to stay awake through Midnight Christmas services, I was allowed to place the baby Jesus in the crèche upon our return home from church. One magical night, as we left the church, laughing and wishing our neighbors a Merry Christmas, large, soft snowflakes began to fall.

This was nearly a miracle in the central Illinois town of my childhood – there were many more brown/green Christmases than white Christmases, and I always celebrated with a little more enthusiasm when Christmas outside looked as I expected – all white and wintry.

I went to an amazing lecture from a woman in Tucson, author and cultural historian Patricia Preciado Martin, who spoke on the Christmas traditions of the Mexican-American people. She related many stories, from years long ago,  when Christmas was not celebrated in the stores or with a pile of wrapped presents. It was celebrated with ritual and family traditions, as Patricia beautifully told.

She brought many of the Christmas items that decorate her own home during the Christmas Season, including this Naciemento,  hand-built and sculpted by a well-known Mexican potter. Quite lovely, very meaningful to Patricia’s family.

Tomorrow, for those who celebrate Christmas, may you celebrate with wonderful traditions. Merry Christmas.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She will be spending tomorrow with family. Wonder if anyone will accompany her for a snowy Christmas walk through the nearby woodlands?

Twisted Trees – The Desert Mesquite

Twisted Tree Grove

Tree Grove ©2012 Bo Mackison

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.” ~ William Blake, 1799

Mesquite trees are an Arizona symbol – tough, adapted to desert living with a root system that grows deep into the earth. A tap-root can extend as far as 150 feet into the ground in search of moisture.

They bring flowers to the desert, first in spring and then again after the monsoons, and provide nectar for bees which then produce a sweet mesquite honey. The seeds are ground into flour in many desert cultures, a practice that has lasted for centuries, and continues to this day.

The mesquite improves the soil in which it grows, as it is a nitrogen stabilizer. A natural fertilizer.

The grove of trees in the above photograph grows next to the mission church at Tumacacori National Historic Park.

They may not be tall and stately like the California Redwood, nor provide a spectacular display of autumnal color like the Eastern and Midwest hardwoods, but there is a fascination with the gnarled, sharply angled branches extending from the mesquite’s thick trunk.

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

Gates to the Orchard

Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori

Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori @2012 Bo Mackison

A man does not plant a tree for himself, he plants it for posterity. ~ Alexander Smith

In 2004, Tumacácori National Historical Park acquired adjacent property to the park, including  the original 5-acre mission orchard and a portion of agricultural area, and their goal was to replant the Spanish Mission Era orchard and garden.

They decided to use fruit tree stocks (cultivars) traced to those introduced to that area in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by the Jesuits and those introduced a century later by the Franciscans.

Mission Gate at Tumacacori National Historic Site

Mission Gate at Tumacacori National Historic Park ©2012 Bo Mackison

Though I can find no written information on this gate, the Park Ranger I spoke with said the gate had been newly erected. Built by a local metal works craftsman after much research, the gate is in the Mission style of the 18th century and thought to be similar to the original.

Gate to Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori National Historic Site

Gate to Vintage Orchard at Tumacacori and Beyond ©2012 Bo Mackison

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”  – Hermann Hesse, Wandering

The orchard can be seen beyond the vine-covered gate. It’s a lovely space, near the Santa Cruz River and the ten thousand foot forested mountains in the Coronado National Forest. On the far eastern edge of the historic site, there are a few benches for some quiet time in a pastoral setting.

After days of hiking in the more rugged canyons of the nearby deserts and mountains, I found the orchard a place filled with an orderliness with a purpose. It was a different kind of space, yes, but the perfect interlude and space for reflection and writing.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is grateful that there is a time and place for quiet meditation, sitting by an orchard in the shade of the mountains.

 

Desert Walking – A Meditation

Desert Mountain Trail

Desert Mountain Trail ©2012 Bo Mackison

Every soul innately yearns for stillness, for a space, for a garden where we can till, sow, reap, and rest, and by doing so come to a deeper sense of self and our place in the Universe. Silence is not an absence but a presence. Not an emptiness by a repletion. A filling up. ~ Anne LeClaire

When I want to do deep thinking, ponder the questions that, as of yet, have no answer, I head to the desert, walk one of the trails through this bountiful wilderness. I do some of my most productive thinking here, walking the desert path. Alone. In this deep stillness, the only sounds are far off – coyote in song.

Trail in the Sonoran

Trail in the Sonoran ©2012 Bo Mackison

The desert is my garden; it is where I till, sow, reap, and rest. I walk the paths carved around the desert plants, trees, climb in and out of washes, struggle with the changes in elevation.

Ideas come out in plain view for consideration. I dissect my goals into tiny seeds, doable baby steps. Plans ripen, lead to commitment to action.

Desert Tree

Desert Tree ©2012 Bo Mackison

My gratitude for the life I lead is huge. I speak to the desert, and so I, too, speak to the Universe. My list of gratitudes — people, places, events, things — is long. I give thanks, I cry at the wealth in my world, I sing a song of thankfulness, while wondering if the coyotes hear my off tune melody.

Nurse Tree to Young Saguaro

Nurse Tree to Young Saguaro ©2012 Bo Mackison

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. ~ John Muir

When I walk with nature, my world expands, I see where I stand in my life’s journey. I stand upon the Mother Earth, grounded, and feel connected to a greater plan for the greater good.

Saguaros

Saguaro Forest ©2012 Bo Mackison

 To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have a place to live, music, art — it is all a miracle. I have adopted the technique of living life miracle to miracle. ~ Arthur Rubenstein

Tucson Mountain Park

Tucson Mountain Park © 2012 Bo Mackison

Our way is not soft grass, it is a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upward, forward, toward the sun. ~ Ruth Westheimer

Couple of Cactus

Couple of Cactus © 2012 Bo Mackison

I speak to the tall saguaro – tell of my plans, my hopes, my fears. I ask for courage and patience and understanding. The desert responds in its steadfast stillness, yet answers and awareness boomerang towards me on rays of sunlight.

Desert Moon at Sunrise

Desert Moon at Sunrise ©2012 Bo Mackison

If you look for the truth outside yourself,
it gets farther and farther away.
Today, walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are.
~ Tung-Shan

Strength. Courage. Understanding – all desert teachings, all are gifts from the desert.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo walks the deserts in Arizona, and pays attention.

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Rise Up Rooted

Sycamore III

Sycamore in Black and White ©2012 Bo Mackison

. . . if we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.

This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

-Rainer Maria Rilke from Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

I traveled into the mountains this morning, and walked along the edge of Madera Creek. The creek was dry, or so I imagined, when I began my descent at 5,000 feet. But by the time I had walked a half mile, I noticed damp Sycamore leaves, recently shed from the overhanging trees and dropped into the creek bed.

Another hundred yards and the creek pooled in deeper crevices. Dark and bubbly, it followed a circuitous route as it descended the mountain.

I watched the water swirling around large piles of leaves. Single leaves danced along, bobbing on the water’s surface. I listened to the creek’s song, low and splashing, accompanied by an occasional bird’s song.

The sounds of life, the language of nature.

As Rilke wrote, “if we surrendered to earth’s intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees.”

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She continues to explore some of her favorite places and read some of her favorite poets.