Why My Online Workshop – Contemplative Creatives Journey – Is Like a Box of Chocolates

March 16, 2022 by
CCJ is Like a Box of Chocolates © 2020 Bo Mackison

Every three months I send out my newest offer for my online workshop and community, Contemplative Creatives Journey (CCJ). It’s part Miksang (contemplative) photography course, part mandala making, part poetry writing. There are a lot of moving parts of CCJ and they come together, incredibly, to create a container for exploration, discovery, sharing.

There is shared content almost daily. The practice has evolved to include Tile Poetry Tuesday, Phenology Friday, and a Sunday Miksang Photo Prompt. In between, there are deep-dive explorations into the practices of artists and poets… think Emily Dickinson, Anne Ryan, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Emily Carr. (If you don’t recognize these creative folks, you might want to look them up. I promise you’ll be inspired. And if their creative work sings sweetly to you, you might really love the Spotlight Artists in CCJ.)

Now, if this all sounds like way too much to add to your already complicated day, no worries. Truly, you could fully participate and spend only 10-15 minutes a day on creative explorations. But more importantly, no one is ever expected to create according to a schedule or create at all. It’s all self-paced. Some folks create and write and share in the group almost daily; others peek in and are inspired by the group, but never participate. Most are somewhere in between. It’s all good!

CCJ is like a box of chocolates. You don’t open a box of fine chocolates and eat every single piece at one sitting. You pick and choose your favorites to enjoy first, and then you might sample a couple of new-to-you-flavors. And there are those few jelly-filled chocolates that you give away. CCJ is like that box of chocolates — there will be a few favorites, you might sample something totally new, and there will be a few practices you’ll let others enjoy.

And one of the best parts of CCJ? The supportive and kind community of participants will cheer your efforts, share in your discoveries, and expand your creative connections.

If this sounds interesting, check out my Spring offer. We begin on the spring equinox, on March 20th. Registration is open through March 25, 2022.

Filed Under: Contemplative Creatives Journey, Creativity, Nature Explorations, Photography, Writing Practices Tagged With: , , ,

Contemplative Creatives Journey – The Winter Season

December 9, 2021 by
Two Views Mandala ©2021 Bo Mackison

WINTER SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP
FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES – AND CELEBRATES –
THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

CCJ has been a soft landing space for me. One in which I explore beauty while learning so much about art & in the process, myself. Bo consistently introduces us to concepts, artists, and exercises that foster creativity.

~ Liz Amaya-Fernandez

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

A Variety of Winter Welcome Mandalas ©2021 Bo Mackison

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, satisfies the senses, and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore winter’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang Photography Mosaic created by CCJ Autumn ©2021 Bo Mackison

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Winter, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of Winter’s Progression ©2018 Bo Mackison

There are also deep-dive explorations into the practices of artists and poets. In past seasons we’ve been inspired by folks like Carmen Herrera, Bisa Butler, Corita Kent, Andy Goldsworthy. (If you don’t recognize the names of all these creative folks, you might enjoy researching them. I promise you’ll be inspired. And if their creative work beckons to you, you’ll love the Artist Explorations coming in Winter CCJ.)

Bo Mackison’s seasonal CCJ offerings are both balm and spark for the creative soul. Come play and discover what inspires you to make: poetry, photography, collage, mandalas, stories and observations, the lives of artists! You’ll find a no-pressure, quietly supportive community that welcomes whatever you choose to share.

~ Pascale Parinda

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2022, and we journey together until the eve of the Spring Equinox, March 19th, 2022.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Winter Season. The first weeks of our practice will include an introduction to collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the practice of phenology (weekly nature observation).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art studio or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see/ create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration, and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout.

~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The WINTER journey is 11 weeks long. New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2022 through the eve of Spring Equinox, March 19th, 2022.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on our private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however, and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

Downloadable PDF booklets of each theme are also provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The cost for the Winter journey and our active sharing community remains at the all-inclusive price of $99.00.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until January 15th, 2022.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

Filed Under: Contemplative Creatives Journey Tagged With: , , , , ,

WELCOME TO CONTEMPLATIVE CREATIVES JOURNEY – AUTUMN 2021

September 1, 2021 by

JOIN ME FOR THE AUTUMN SEASON OF THE ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN THAT EXPLORES–AND CELEBRATES–THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

WELCOME!

Contemplative Creatives Journey gives me a calm, safe place to renew and rejoice and connect with uplifting humans. I can’t imagine life without it. ~ Linda Bannan

If the words contemplative and creative have sweet juiciness for you and you’re interested in a different sort of online workshop, read on:

There is no set curriculum but plenty of opportunities to explore, play, create, muse, share, enjoy. There are no expectations or catching up, but lots of serendipity and infinite possibilities. There are no formal objectives, but an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature, and the written word.

I combine my roles as curator of life experiences, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and Certified Miksang (contemplative) photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling online workshop with a well-established active community of fellow journeyers.

Contemplative Creative Manifesto © 2019 Bo Mackison

In community and individually, we explore these themes:

word * vision * place

WORD

This practice focuses on how to connect — to the world, community, and self — using words. We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and collage poetry using found words and pictures. You don’t need to call yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone who has an established writing practice will doubly delight in them.

VISION

We’ll create mandalas, individually and collectively.

A Sampling of Tree Mandalas by Summer CCJ Participants © 2020 Bo Mackison

What does a mandala practice look like? It can be:

  • a time-out practice from the often-too-busy world
  • an art practice that is grounding and meditative, satisfies the senses, and soothes the mind and spirit.
  • a practice that can be done easily with minimal financial investment.
  • a journal practice and/or a pocket practice, one that can be tucked into tiny pockets of your day – for calming, creating, and connecting with self
  • less about art and more about meditative or personal discovery (though art sometimes happens!)

We’ll explore the practice of Miksang Contemplative Photography, focusing on color, pattern, and texture. We’ll also explore autumn’s qualities — its passions, moods, style, and symbols — as part of the Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are perfect for this practice.)

A Miksang (Contemplative) Photography Mosaic © 2020
created by the participants of CCJ Summer 2020

PLACE:

Throughout the changing days of Autumn, we’ll continue our weekly observational practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar. It’s an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world that is accessible to all.

A Weekly Snapshot of Autumn’s Progression © 2018 Bo Mackison

Participating in the last few CCJs has given me many things; a regular creative practice that takes multiple forms, a cohort of people sharing their experiences and processes, new ways of seeing, introductions to new artists, experimenting without the pressure of product outcome. ~ Deb Reynolds

MY AUTUMN OFFER:

Together we’ll explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul.

This is a practice that:

  • gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • illuminates the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrates the uncommon in the common
  • offers ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonder of and connection with nature, no matter where you live, work, and play.

We begin on Wednesday, September 22th, 2021, the first day of Autumn, and we journey together until Monday, December 20th, 2020.

New participants are welcome to join CCJ during the Autumn Season. The first weeks of our practice will include introductions to the practice of collaborative poetry writing, how to create a mandala practice, the basics of Miksang (contemplative) photography, and an introduction to the study of phenology (Nature’s calendar).

If you’re searching for sanctuary, a place to recharge so you can show up re-energized for the demands of living in today’s complex world, this might be the workshop community that offers what you most need and desire.

Whether you have a fully equipped art room or a box of simple supplies you store in a closet, you’ll find new ways to create. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and all practices are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

What I love about CCJ is that it’s familiar but new, every season. Sometimes I’m all in with the week’s subjects and explorations, sometimes life calls me away and that’s fine. Over the seasons it has grown to live inside me with gentle noticing, relishing, photographing, and doodling the truth of my life and has become a gentle touchstone throughout. ~ Liz Crain, ceramicist

WHEN:

The AUTUMN journey is 13 weeks long. September 22nd through December 20th, 2021.

HOW:

We gather together in a private group on Facebook. All content is shared on this private group page. You’re encouraged to share your discoveries and experiences in the private group, however, and whenever you choose.

This guided and easily accessible process allows you to engage in the practice in whatever way is best for you.

PDF booklets of each theme are provided for your personal use.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence, my enthusiasm, and my ongoing daily contemplative practices. The all-inclusive cost for the Autumn journey and the active sharing community is $99.00.

THE DEBI BRADFORD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP:

Debi Benson Bradford, a dear friend and member of CCJ, passed away on May 4th, 2021. Debi was an extremely talented photographer, a Master Gardener in her beloved North Carolina, and a lover of all things in nature. She had a long-standing daily practice of sharing her photographs taken along the NC coast and adding words of inspiration. In her memory, I will be offering 2 scholarships for CCJ Autumn 2021. If you also share Debi’s passion for adding beauty and kindness to the world, please reach out to me at bomackison (at) Gmail (dot) com for the brief application form.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is open until September 30, 2021.

Register here through PayPal. Thank you.

~~~~~~

BO MACKISON is an artist, poet, photographer, certified Kaisen-Muse creativity coach, Nalanda Miksang photography instructor, hands-on workshop presenter, and a woman who has spent her entire adult life surviving/thriving with the help of the creative practices she now shares. She is the founder of Contemplative Creatives Journey, an Online Seasonal Workshop. Bo has been offering creative and contemplative programs for women since 2014. She’s been told her workshops have changed people’s lives for the better; personally, she knows this to be true.

Filed Under: Contemplative Creatives Journey, Creativity, Nature Explorations, Photography, Writing Practices Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

A Sense of Wonderment

December 10, 2019 by
Vintage Ornament ©2018 Bo Mackison

Diane Ackerman in her book Deep Play writes,

“Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time.”

I might add, from personal experience, that a tiny fleck of wonder can also act as a powerful drug which can drop a dollop of hope into a bucket of despair… and make a difference.

Maybe you’ve read some of the words on my website or followed my presence on social media; perhaps you’ve taken an in-person workshop with me where I’ve given much credit to the restorative properties of my creative practices.

It seems as if some of the greatest challenges in my life can somehow be balanced by a constant awareness of the smallest of wonders. I am not sure how this works, the alchemical properties of wonder. How can observing the fancy lace of early morning frost on a windowpane or the glitter of raindrops on a spider’s web make any difference? What miracles are freely dispensed when listening to the whirr of the geese’s wings as they skim just above the roofline? How can observing the rising moon as it breaks through a low misting mist offset a heavy heart and an edging sense of despair?

I do not know how it can be enough to make a difference, but usually, it is. Wonderment taken in small doses throughout one’s day does make a difference.

There is a century-old ornament hanging from the boughs of a tree in my living room today, infusing memories into the room of a grandmother who hung that same ornament on her Christmas tree! A source of wonderment! What WONDERMENT showed up in your world today?

*** This is the kind of question that is asked, the sort of practices we share together in Contemplative Creatives Journey. We explore our close-in world through words, collaborative poetry, art, and much more. We begin the 10-week Winter session on January 15, 2020. Here is the link to my offer.

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Walking the Earth – A Miksang (Contemplative) Photography Collaboration

November 26, 2017 by

walk the earth – a collaborative practice © 2017 Bo Mackison

A Miksang Photography collaborative practice. We create together in the Contemplative Creatives Journey workshops. We begin again December 15th, 2017. Here’s the offer.

Filed Under: Contemplative Creatives Journey, Photography Tagged With: , , , , ,