Contemplative Creatives Journey – Autumn 2019

August 15, 2019 by

ANNOUNCING THE AUTUMN SEASON OF THE CREATIVITY WORKSHOP THAT EXPLORES  – AND CELEBRATES – THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

This gently guided journey with Bo has infused my existing practices with renewed energy. Her exquisite leadership is informed by experience, training and soulful instinct. I consider her a modem mystic. ~ Mary Anne em Radmacher

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

  • Instead of schedules, I offer serendipity.
  • Instead of a planned curriculum, I offer surprises.
  • Instead of expectations, I offer possibilities.
  • Instead of formal objectives, I offer an always-available way to engage and interact with your world through art, nature and the written word in the company of a kind and supportive online community.
Contemplative Creative Practices – A Mandala ©2017 Bo Mackison

I combine my roles as curator of life experience, writer, artist, Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach, and Certified Miksang (Contemplative) Photography instructor to offer you a meaningful and fulfilling workshop.

In community and individually, we explore:

word * vision * place

WORD

We’ll play with words, explore words, and connect with nature and place using words. We’ll write poetry – tile poetry, collaborative poetry, and poetry art using found words and pictures. You don’t need to consider yourself a writer to enjoy these practices, but anyone with an established writing practice will surely delight in them.

VISION

Mandala making will include the practice of using colored pencils on black paper while exploring Autumn’s deeper palette of colors.

The photography component will focus on Miksang (contemplative) photography practices. This season’s practice will focus on our interactions with the ordinary and personal world. We’ll also explore Autumn’s unique qualities — its passions, moods, styles, symbols — as part of our Miksang practice. (All types of cameras and skill levels are appropriate.)

Example of Miksang Photography Collage ©2018 Bo Mackison

PLACE:

As AUTUMN approaches and the days shorten in the northern hemisphere, we’ll enjoy the practice of backyard phenology – the study of nature’s calendar, an ever-present, in-the-present survey of the cycles of plants and animals in your natural world.

An Example of a Phenology Practice ©2017 Bo Mackison

Bo has created a safe and sacred space for creativity to flourish, respite to abide, and healing to occur – no matter what is happening in our internal or external worlds. The vulnerable and honest sharing of her own creative practices has invited me more deeply into my own. I cannot recommend this offering or her heart on others’ behalf highly enough. ~ Ronna Detrick

MY AUTUMN OFFER:

Together we will explore themes and creative practices that inspire and encourage, elicit wonder and awe, uplift your spirit and feed your soul. This is not a practice that requires you to set aside a certain amount of time each day (unless that is your desire.) Instead, it is:

  • a set of practices that gently weaves itself throughout your day
  • practices that illuminate the extraordinary in the ordinary, celebrate the uncommon in the common
  • ways of interacting with “place” that highlight the wonders of and your connection with nature, no matter where you live, work and play

We begin September 15th, 2019 as autumn approaches and we’ll journey together until December 15th, 2019.

Together we will walk on a journey of increased awareness of the miracles and beauty of the ordinary, and a renewed awareness of the cycles of autumn as we move from the light of summer towards winter’s darkness. During this time we will explore dozens of creative and contemplative practices that will enhance your every day.

There is a strong community and collaborative aspect in the group, but it is always an invitation and opportunity, never a requirement.

Flight of the Autumn Leaves © 2017 Bo Mackison

Bo Mackison is an insightful, talented and inspirational art, photography and writing creativity coach and teacher. Bo’s wide range of artistic knowledge along with her life experiences makes her the artist and writer’s trusted advisor. I highly recommend Bo as a mentor, teacher, trainer and speaker. ~ Jeanette Richardson Herring, Author and Artist

QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU CLARIFY:  

Are you searching for a place of sanctuary, a place to recharge your inner battery so you can show up bright and energized for the demands of living in today’s world?

Would you benefit from a creative practice that can be done in free moments? What if instead of checking social media whenever a spare moment arises, you chose to check in with yourself instead?  Would you benefit from a contemplative practice that focuses on a stronger connection with yourself and with the present?

Do you thrive with to do lists? Do you do your best, most creative work on a schedule while meeting deadlines? If your answer is yes, then this workshop will likely be a different sort of experience. Are you ready for this kind of change? Then come along and explore the creative and contemplative life with spaciousness and spontaneity.

Do you have the right kind of supplies? You create with the simplest of supplies, things you likely already own or can obtain at minimal cost.

  • Paper of any sort, i.e. sketchbooks, a journal, ephemera. Black paper will be used for mandala making.
  • Any sort of mark-making media you already have, i.e. pens, pencils, markers, pastels, paints.
  • A camera of your choice (Cell phone camera is fine.)
  • Mixed media supplies such as old magazines, household ephemera, a glue stick.

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. Surprises and nudges will get your creative juices flowing. Hints on how to see or create in new ways will offer you unlimited possibilities for exploration and are easily incorporated into your everyday routine.

WHEN:

The Autumn journey is 14 weeks long.  September 15, 2019 through December 15, 2019.

HOW:

Private community on Facebook. Everything is delivered to a closed Facebook group page and may show up anytime. Surprise and serendipity! You are 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 wherever and whenever you choose.

THE COST:

I offer you my knowledge, my skills, my presence and my enthusiasm. The cost for the 14 week journey and an active sharing community is $99.00.

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE:

Registration is now CLOSED. The winter session will begin December 15th, 2019.

Click here to register through PayPal 

~~~~~

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 with others. 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. She believes this to be true.

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

The Listening Tree

November 15, 2013 by 3 Comments

Spanish Moss on the Tree that Speaks

Spanish Moss on the Tree that Spoke © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.” ~ Hermann Hesse

I visited Airlie Gardens while visiting Wilmington, North Carolina.

I admired the antique camellias in bloom and studied Airlie Oak, one of the oldest live oaks in North Carolina estimated to be 467 years old. I sat in century old gardens by the sea, watched as several swans acrobatically supped from an algae covered lake, and played in a bottle house – a house constructed of thousands of colored glass bottles – dedicated to local artist Minnie Evans. And all the while, as I strolled through the 67 acre park with fellow member of the Thoreau Sauntering Club, Debi Bradford, I searched for a tree.

I thought, quite certainly, that the tree I wanted to touch and listen to would be one of the magnificent live oaks. Such majestic trees, ancient, hovering over our heads, draped with Spanish moss. But I passed dozens of oaks. I thought them beautiful and stretched my hands upon several of their trunks. But I didn’t really feel the right connection.

And before anyone begins to think, “woo – woo, she talks to trees”, well . . . I do not talk to trees. But often I do listen to trees. Truly, I do.

Even Hermann Hesse understood the practice of listening to trees.

After an hour of sauntering, we came upon a small formal garden, the Pergola Garden. The structure was built from coquina, crushed shells, in the early 1900s. Water in a three tired fountain gurgled; the leaves on the nearby live oaks rustled.

There, on the fringe, buttressed by the wooden beams, stood a pine tree.

Crushed stone covered its roots which were stretching towards Airlie Lake. It had thousands of pine cones, a few strands of Spanish moss dressed its bare branches, and it didn’t have many needles. An old tree.

It was a sunny space, and since the wind was blowing chilly, we stopped to rest in the sunlight. I reached out, as is my habit, and placed my palm on the pine. Nice. There was a pleasant energy about the pine. So I put both hands on the tree, leaned my head upon the bumpy bark.

Listening to the Pine © 2013 Debi Bradford

Listening to the Pine © 2013 Debi Bradford

I stood there a long time, long enough that my sauntering partner respectfully walked another path, a kindred offer of time and space. I stood there, soaking in the sun, letting my mind wander, and studied the pine, her branches, the moss, the cones and needles. The wood beams squared against her trunk. I waited.

Finally, I searched in my camera bag for pen and paper, found a torn piece from an old check book cover, and scribbled these words:

There is perfection in imperfection.
What you think you must have is not always what you need.
There are alternatives and workarounds.
What I seek while I journey about, I often discover on the journey within.

That is how I listen to a tree.

Filed Under: Nature Explorations, Photography, Travel Tagged With: , , , , ,