Imagination – A Desert Wisdom Card

May 10, 2013 by 4 Comments
Imagination - Desert Wisdom Card

Ocotillo Birds ©2013 Bo Mackison

But if we learn to read the signs of life all around us, and if we discover that we are indeed created to be creative, then we can rediscover the power and resourcefulness of imagination — another aspect of soul.
~ Marjory Zoet Bankson

Ocotillo bloom throughout the Sonoran Desert.

They are one of the most reliable flowering plants in the Sonoran Desert, so reliable that migrations of hummingbirds rely on its nectar for sustenance. The bright orange spires pop from the ends of the ocotillo branches in wildly imaginative clusters.

Whenever I see clusters of ocotillo in bloom, my imagination awakens.

I see images of fluttering birds, or celebratory pennants waving twenty feet in the air. When the spent blossoms drift to the ground, I imagine the pavement studded with orange sapphires or paper confetti. What a rich life one has with an imagination unleashed!

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and, therefore, the foundation of all invention and innovation…it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”
~ J.K. Rowling

Imagination not only allows us to expand creative thinking, it also encourages new thoughts, connections, and understanding. It allows us to travel where we have never been, to dream of possibilities, and to identify with strangers as fellow members of humankind.

Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.
~ Gloria Steinem

IMAGINATION offers questions/reflections for journal writing, an art prompt, and a call for action:

  • Imagine the life of an acquaintance or even a stranger. In your imagination, compare and contrast your lives. Reflect on the above quote from J.K. Rowling as she equates the power to imagine with the power to empathize.
  • Spend fifteen minutes (or more) letting your mind wander. Imagine “what if?” Day dream. Doodle or draw while you are noodling with your mind. Yes, doodles can count as journaling, but also include words or phrases, if desired.
  • Art Prompt: Try this activity on a sunny day when you are indoors. Notice the shadows that reflect on the interior walls from the window light. Capture these shapes with a camera or sketch them on paper. Let the wall shadows trigger your imagination. Embellish the shadow photos or drawings using your imagination.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo is creating a deck of Desert Wisdom Cards for exploration and discovery, using photography, with a Sonoran Desert theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.

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Crossing Colorado

May 9, 2013 by 8 Comments
Black Canyon National Park

Juniper High Above Black Canyon © 2013 Bo Mackison

The Fourth Day – East Across Colorado

A half-dozen times I’ve circled Black Canyon National Park on vacation maps
and a half-dozen times we lingered too long at Arches or Canyonlands,
and Black Canyon was scratched. Who even knows there is such a place as
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park anyway?

Now you can count me among its visitors, I’ll keep its secret.
Here are steep cliffs, ancient rock, craggy spires,
and walls streaked with dragon outlines, erosion’s art work
on rocky canvas 2000 feet from flowing river to cliff edge.

Black Canyon National Park

Black Canyon National Park © 2013 Bo Mackison

Oh, the quiet places, open spaces, vertical wilderness
shared with soaring hawks and eagles.
Cloud cover kept the canyon in shadow, but the river’s song
sounded on the high mesa and wildflowers bloomed
in the roots of twisted junipers.

Twenty years getting here and I had only half a day
to see what I had missed, a half day to know I’ll return.
When the wind gusts spiked at 50 mph, I knew I’d pushed my luck,
but a tail wind pushed me half-way across Colorado.

Stranded Boat Dock - Curecanti NRA

Stranded Boat Dock © 2013 Bo Mackison

Colorado has fine scenery, but those low gray clouds packed with snowy potential
overwhelmed my yearn to pull over and explore.
Still, there was plenty to see –
the up and down rhythm of mountain, valley, mountain.
Tumbleweeds skirted the highways.

Cimarron, Colorado. Conjurer of Wild West.
Lakes half filled, driftwood sculptures lace the sandy edges.
And colors bleached by winter’s touch take on color — 
greening grasses, tree twigs in muted yellows, pinks, rusty reds,
Weeping willows in yellow-green tangles.
Calves snooze in muddy pastures,
content as their mothers graze nearby.

Dust Storm at Curecanti NRA

Dust Storm at Curecanti © 2013 Bo Mackison

Dust clouds swirl around my car at Curecanti.
I stop at another ranger station,
it’s a slow day for recreation, the staff ply me with coffee, maps,
highlight the safest route through the eastern mountain passes.
Another hawk sweeps past my car, hawks are my companion bird this trip.

San Isabel National Forest.
Steepy Mountain.
And then Monarch Pass. Fitting, Monarch is the pass to bid me farewell
as I cross the Continental Divide and head towards the plains.

Salida and a stop at Sally’s Cafe for coffee.
The road follows the Arkansas River,
running with spring melt, thunder-crashing into protruding red rock.
Fly fishermen queue for prime locations.

In the high desert town of Cañon City
I watch the last hawk of the day —
dancing, sky diving, it welcomes the evening.

———

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. A cross-country traveler by day, and an occasional poet. This is a poem in nine parts, because the trip lasts nine days. This is day four!

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Crossing State Lines

May 6, 2013 by 8 Comments
Mountain Ranch

Red Earth, Blue Skies © 2013 Bo Mackison

On Sunday, the Second Day

On the day I travel from mountains to plains,
I cross the state line, and sing-song
“Goodbye, Arizona; Hello, New Mexico.”

I keep my place on the map by noting the washes I cross,
Federal highway signs break the monotony of the endless I-system.
Querino Wash, dusty and dry,
Carr Lake Wash, dusty and dry.
Meandering water gives the Little Colorado River’s name veracity.
Rivers most commonly run dry in the Southwest
and imagination replaces river-water.

I turn north, follow the Trail of the Ancients, Navajo Nation,
Cinder block homes and sweat lodges. Horses stand in the shade of ramadas.
Winds blow fierce, flying dust covers the road,
I steer my car by the tracks of the pick-up truck ahead
and rocks rise in mystery from a nothingness, silhouettes in swirling dust.

Near Shiprock, NM – yes, a rock clipper ship rises from the plateau –
a wailing dog circles its dead companion rigid on the roadside,
nudges the head matted with dark stained dirt.

Briefly I think of Sunday School Bible verse contests,

“For you were made from dust, and to dust you shall return,”
but I prefer the astronomer’s explanation –
“You are star-dust, the heart of the star.”

Towards evening I reach Four Corners, a geographical nameplace
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado touch with 90˚ precision,
An accuracy of borders esteemed by politicians and mapmakers.

I choose to pass the concrete historical marker
and the surrounding neon-lit gift shops,
intent, instead, on reaching my destination before nightfall.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. A cross-country traveler by day, and an occasional poet, — this is a poem in nine parts, because the trip lasts nine days. Day One is here.

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Crossing the Country

May 3, 2013 by 3 Comments
Car on Historic Route 66

Old Car © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
~ Miriam Beard

Saturday:

It is sunny and 71˚ and 8:03 a.m. when I lock the door,
jam my last bag in the car.
No need to memorize the blue of the sky, it is already mine.
A red tail hawk dips into the arroyo,
I catch his wide sweep as I turn north.
Prickly pears and yucca bloom extravagantly,
Spent blossoms of the ocotillo litter the curbside.

In three hours I have detoured twice,
a little lost, I follow Arizona Scenic Highway signs
like dropped bread crumbs in a dark forest,
curve along the edges of copper mines,
open pits of rock, miners in yellow hard hats maneuver
front-loaders along the narrow ledges.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park

Boyce Thompson Arboretum © 2013 Bo Mackison

I walk the paths of the arboretum at noon,
detour through Miami’s mission district at three,
at four I descend into the Salt River Canyon.
Hawks soar high above the road, I follow their shadows on the asphalt.
Red Tails are my trip totem,
Road cuts expose the white rock of the White Mountains,
Vines and creeping flowers line the rough rock.

5:02 p.m. and I stop in Show Low,
the motel is on Deuce of Clubs Street, the main drag.
Can’t show lower than the deuce of clubs.

Scattered Petrified Wood

Scattered Petrified Wood © 2013 Bo Mackison

Sunday morning:

Gas at Safeway is 3.42 a gallon,
two fishermen lean against their truck, boat in tow,
and argue about late starts and wasted time.
The older guy draws on his cigarette while pumping gas.

North of Show Low the topography is Illinois flat,
the soil is Utah red.
Dead River.
Querino Wash.
Four Mile Draw, Five Mile Draw, Six Mile Draw.
Godawful flat and dusty,
Telephone poles are distraction.

Past Holbrook, outcroppings jut like layers of floor sheeting.
It’s a land of rock, a many-layered fossil cake in rainbow hues.
Entrance signs greet and command:
“Welcome to Petrified Forest National Park.
Do Not Remove Rocks Under Penalty of Law.”
I take only photographs.

———-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. A cross-country traveler by day, and an occasional poet in the evening.

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Delight – A Desert Wisdom Card

May 2, 2013 by 12 Comments
Torch Cactus Flower

Torch Cactus Flower © 2013 Bo Mackison

We have won a moment in an unfolding universe. Isn’t that worthy of our notice? ~ Hannah Hinchman

The Torch Cactus blossom is guaranteed to delight with bright petals, upright stamens, and its appeal to the senses.

The flower blooms on a rather undistinguished cactus, and each individual flower opens for a single day. But the glory of the torch cacti is its propensity to occasionally bloom en masse. This is a sure opportunity for delight!

There are three tasks that matter in this lifetime. The first task, though not the most important task, is to quiet the busyness in your mind. The second is to find your song. And the third task is to sing your song. ~ Mark Lesser

Delight – it’s a feeling that is transitory, fleeting.

There is no need to prepare for delight – simply be aware. Delight in the flower you see in the garden, the song you hear on the radio, or the soft towel you pull from the dryer. What makes you smile in delight?

Invitations to experience delight are quick and easily accessible. Take up delight’s offer and notice its gift.

The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. ~ Julia Margaret Cameron

DELIGHT offers questions/reflections for journal writing, art prompts, and calls to action:

  • Delight is a simple gift, easily discovered, a tiny moment. Notice when you smile or laugh in delight.
  • Compose a line poem. Each line consists of a few words about a person, place, thing, or happening that prompts delight. Begin and end the poem with the one word line, “Delight!”
  • Play a game of DELIGHT. Draw a nine square grid, as if you were making a line drawing for a game of tic-tac-toe . Write the word DELIGHT in the center. Each time you notice something that delights you, write a brief description or sketch a picture in one of the squares.

———————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo is creating a deck of Desert Wisdom Cards for exploration and discovery, using photography, with a Sonoran Desert theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.

Filed Under: Desert Wisdom, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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