Orchid in Profile © 2012 Bo Mackison
Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Do not claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent. ~ Rumi
This is an indeed an excellent day to simply observe the world around me, notice the artistry in nature, and be silent. Some days it is wise to be the observer, not the speaker.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.
The Path © 2012 Bo Mackison
How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky?
Anyone knows they are.
How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm,
the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute?
No, you cannot explain.
So you walk.
~ Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, “The Walk,” 25 October 1965
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Since Bo is in the big city at an art fair, she is visualizing this lovely walk int he woods.
Peony © 2012 Bo Mackison
The need to listen carefully creates its own stillness. ~ Toni Packer
Quiet. Solitude. Stillness.
When I am out in my garden with my camera, I wait for stillness, for the wind to quiet enough so that my photograph, or at least the portion of the photograph that I want in focus, is in focus.
On a calm day, it is easy to take photographs outside. But on a breezy day, I decide if I want to add some extra work into the photography equation. From which direction is the wind blowing? Is it gusty? Can I block the wind with a building or a fence or the clear acrylic panels I built into a wind shield?
Some of the time, I choose to out wait the wind if it isn’t blowing steadily. And while standing or kneeling or even lying on the grass, motionless, that is when I begin to hear all of the sounds of minutiae. (Can I use the word minutiae in that way? . . . Well, I just did.)
First, I notice how incredibly loud the wind is, especially when I want it to die down so the swaying peony will stop its dance and hold still so I can take its portrait. But wind can be really loud. And of course all of the bushes and leafy branches are twirling about. Even the grasses I am resting upon are brushing against each other and sound like the swishing on a snare drum. Then I start to listen closely – do I hear the wind itself or only that which is tossed about by the wind’s movement?
And while I am listening so carefully, I notice all the other noises that I prefer to consciously block. The low hum of a neighbor’s lawn mower, a car engine revving as it passes on a side street, the loud thrumming of a descending airplane heading to a nearby airstrip.
Suddenly I am thankful for the winds’ blustery sounds, glad that its whooshes and whispers let me focus on the sounds in nature.
Eventually I get my photographs, one way or another, or change my plans. There is never a dearth of subjects for me and my camera.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She has discovered that when carrying a camera outdoors, she discovers much that hasn’t a lot to do with photography.
Thistle © 2012 Bo Mackison
The faster one goes, the more strain there is on the senses, the more they fail to take in, the more confusion they must tolerate or gloss over — and the longer it takes to bring the mind to a stop in the presence of anything. ~ Wendell Berry
Not so long ago I had a reaction to a medication. Instead of making me drowsy, as had been predicted, the chemicals from the medication flowed throughout my body and made it utterly impossible for me to quiet myself. The reaction – medically termed akathisia – makes it impossible to quiet oneself both inside and outside.
My body had to move. I paced. When I sat, my leg jumped about. You’ve heard the term “crawling out of your skin”? That was exactly what I wanted to do. My insides seemed intent on crawling to the outside. Yes, I called the pharmacist. Then I called the doctor on call. And within a few hours, I had a second medication that was supposed to diminish the side effects of the first. Unfortunately it didn’t take effect immediately.
However, there was a big change. I now knew what was happening, and I had been assured that my frantically moving body would return to normal. I just had to hang on and tolerate the ride until everything returned to normal.
Wow — easier to say than to do.
After another hour of pacing and near panic, I finally hit upon a solution. My body, and therefore my mind, too, were racing along and I couldn’t keep up. I had to s-l-o-w-t-h-i-n-g-s-d-o-w-n. Yes. Slow. Things. Down.
And then I discovered a work-around. I went outside and took gulping breaths of sweet May air. Then I slowly paced myself so I was breathing deeply, slowly. And finally, I noticed that I was standing barefoot in thick, not-recently-mowed grass. Deep tufts of grass. I stood there. I concentrated on my feet coming into contact with the black earth. And there I stayed.
For nearly an hour, I stood and breathed. And realized this utterly amazing thing. I was standing on the earth, the planet Earth. And so was every other person on this huge earth – in some way or other. All seven billion plus of us – all connected to the earth. So not all of us earthlings were in solid contact, as I was, but all were still connected. No one was going to fling away from Mother Earth, suddenly unleashed by her gravitational hold.
Isn’t that an amazing thing? Wherever you are, anywhere, always, we are attached to the earth or near it. We can always reach down and touch that huge planet rolling through space. You imagine a photo of the earth from a satellite or NASA mission, and see the swirling earth planet, and then realize you can TOUCH it. With your feet. With your hands. How awesome is that!
That is how I managed to calm my body. I touched the earth. I repeated that I was okay, that I was connected to everyone and everything by the mere presence of all of us together on this huge traveling earth in the unimaginably huge universe. I concentrated on feeling a part of the whole.
Gradually, the feeling of connection took over, and I stopped hurtling through the barrage of out of control feelings and movements. I slowed down, way down. I re-connected to all. And there I stood. The side effects lessened and I felt okay again.
I also learned a valuable lesson. I was able to manage the out of control feelings and connect to the present moment by connecting to the physical Earth, by accepting life as it was at that moment, and by slowing myself down.
Wow, right?
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Sometimes she puts down her camera and just stands in the grass.
What is the good of the stars and trees, the sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into your daily lives. ~ E. M. Forster
Welcome to the office space I set up on my screened porch in my home in Wisconsin.
We’ve never had a table on the porch overlooking our back yard and our perennial gardens, our lilacs and our special trees – white birch, sugar maples, mountain ashes, towering pines – all planted for special occasions. (When we moved into this house over 25 years ago, there were two trees on the property – a straggly silver maple and a city tree near the street that was wilting and browning in August.) Each year we have added, replaced, cared for all the plants and trees in our space, and each time I look out into our yards I am filled with gratefulness for the nearness of nature.
Prior to my make-over, the back porch was used as an evening haven, a sitting down space after the work of the day was completed, a place to share stories, plans, ideas with family and friends. There were plenty of sitting spots, though if we ate dinner on the porch it was always a lap affair.
Last week I stood on the porch, and thought about the “winter office” I had arranged in Arizona – a table and chairs on a covered patio, a hook up for internet, a pitcher of iced tea or water. I had loved working in the outdoors. Then I realized that I could, with a little scrounging and re-arranging, have the same sense of working in the outdoors in Madison.
I found a Bistro table and chairs on clearance at Target. Perfect. I’d recently read a study about the benefits of standing for at least part of the work day. With this height table I could alternate sitting in the higher chair or standing. I prefer standing, so I was pleased how simply I could accommodate both choices.
I removed all the chairs except for a glider that I fancy — nothing like sitting in the dark, listening to the night sounds, swaying back and forth in a gentling, readying-for-sleep rhythm. I added a cloth basket on small table near the door so I could store all the cords that are required for computer, phone, photo transfer, etc. That allows me to bring my office supplies inside when threatening weather approaches.
I don’t do photo processing on the porch — way too bright –but I can get a lot of the business part of my art done and I write and read on the porch. And the screen protects me from the many wasps and other stinging insects that make my home their home, too.
A grand solution, so far. We’ll see how things progress as summer moves through July and August…
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She creates with the camera and the computer, and finagles a way to spend as much time outside as possible!
