Reverence – A Desert Wisdom Card

Saguaro Cactus - Saguaro National Park

follow site Saguaro Cactus Crone © 2013 Bo Mackison

https://opponix.com/hphv6skc7 By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life, we become good, deep, and alive. ~ Albert Schweitzer

 What is reverence?

https://www.mssbizsolutions.com/d9uufg486 It is deep respect. It honors the presence of the sacred in everything – people, animals, plants. This includes respect for the land and for those sustained by the land.

https://hereisnewyorkv911.org/sjq5rl8u When I look at this photograph of this aged saguaro, I see an ancient saguaro crone. There are small flower buds on the tips of her arms. She surveys the desert earth, thankful for the earth that sustains her, thankful for the flowers soon to bloom, for the bees and bats which will pollinate her flowers, for the fruit that will set, and for the birds and animals that will eat her fruits and spread the saguaro seeds, seeds of potential new life.

https://riverhillcurrent.com/4f5fp6v5n Reverence generates a simultaneous movement upward and downward within the interior of the subtle body, our deepest place of perception. The Upward movement brings recognition of a spiritual essence. The more mysterious Downward movement entails descent into the deep ground of Being. To inhabit both movements at once equates with reverence.
~ Karen Jaenke

The saguaro, one of the largest life forms in the desert, has wide roots in the desert earth.

https://bettierose.co.uk/gii9gmqs7 Her arms stretch high into the sky; she connects the earth and the sky. We admire these plants, the connectors of earth and the heavens. Yet, we too stand rooted upon the earth. We raise our arms into the air, our fingertips touch the sky. There is no line of demarcation between the blue skies we gaze at with awe and the skies that swirl about our very beings. We, with reverence, connect earth and sky.

Valium India Online Always and in everything, let there be reverence. ~ Confucius

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

  • Imagine yourself in the pose of the ancient saguaro crone. What are you holding in reverence?
  • How can you show reverence for yourself, other people, and the plants, animals and things that are present in your ordinary life?
  • Barry Lopez, in his book, Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, writes about his history by documenting the things his hands have done in his life. How might you tell a part of your story using the same idea as a creative seed? What might you use to document the exquisite miracles that your hands have performed? Would you use written words, an oral history, still photographs, a short video, or other media?

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source site 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 and a Sonoran Desert theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.

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All Manner of Stripes

Stripes on Benches

Buy Diazepam With Mastercard Stripes on Benches ©2013 Bo Mackison

https://www.saiidzeidan.com/ouqa94633 “In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated. ” ~ August Sander

Tramadol Ordering While visiting Casa Grande National Monument, I found plenty of opportunity to play with surfaces striped with light and shadow. And so that is what I did. I played!

Stripes in Corners

http://geoffnotkin.com/laygu/cheapest-valium.php Stripes in Corners © 2013 Bo Mackison

https://www.pslra.org/ec21xdvm Photography means ‘light writing’.~ L. Ron Hubbard 

source url I took these photos at the visitor center and the outside ramada where Park Rangers give talks about the ancient ruins of a Hohokam-era farming village and a four-story Great House.

Stripes on Roofs

https://www.iql-nog.com/2025/01/19/3lf134wzl7s Stripes on Roofs © 2013 Bo Mackison

http://foodsafetytrainingcertification.com/food-safety-news/ucywfm60a0c The camera captures light, our minds capture images. ~ Anonymous

follow link Blue skies, an Arizona hallmark, show through the slatted ramada.

Stripes - Casa Grande National Monument's Visitor Center

Buy Msj Diazepam Uk Stripes – Casa Grande National Monument ©2013 Bo Mackison

Photos have no narrative content. They only describe light on surface. ~ Garry Winogrand

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She explores the desert with her camera, and is mesmerized by the stripes of light and shadow.

Tackling Transitions

Twilight, Roosevelt Lake, Arizona

Twilight, Roosevelt Lake @2013 Bo Mackison

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs

Transitions! I’ve learned that when dealing with transitions, I need to give myself some space and some extra self-care. In order for me to keep moving forward, I take baby steps. Even then, I occasionally feel as if I cannot take one more step. What is uncomfortable becomes uneasiness, then verges on panic, and I want to cry out, “I can’t do this!” —  exactly the place I’ve worked hard to move away from.

So in the wee hours of Saturday, I decided that fretting about my upcoming transition from Southwest to Midwest was unhelpful. Worry seldom, if ever, leads to positive results.

I needed to get out of my head. One of the ways I’ve learned to do that is to get on the road. So I packed clothes, food, and my camping gear, and by mid-morning I was on a mini road-trip.

I traveled north, stopped to see an ancient Hohokam site at Casa Grande National Monument. I walked around the ruins, most probably a gathering place for these ancient Desert People. It was quiet and sunny, and the lizards and I enjoyed studying the ruins, imagining life as it was then, long days of work to provide the basics for living.

Then I headed east, through Globe, and followed the ascending road into Tonto National Monument. I walked the mile trail to another ancient site, the 700 year old Lower Cliff Dwelling. I wondered in awe at the Salado, the adaptable people who thrived in a dry and harsh environment and built housing with creative solutions for safety, tucking their homes high above the ground along the rim of a cave. I wondered how the young children and the elders managed the ladders and multiple levels of living space.

The wildflowers were blooming wildly and the riotous effect made me laugh. Orange, pink, bright blur, lavender, red, purple and yellow – a spectacle of colors!

Western Rattlesnake, Sunning Itself Mid-Road

Western Rattlesnake, Sunning Itself Mid-Road © 2013 Bo Mackison

As I was leaving the park, I saw a rattlesnake coiled, sunning itself in the middle of the road. I stopped to take some photos. I watched as an oncoming car sped down the mountain road and nearly hit the snake. With amazing speed, the snake transformed from sun-sleeping to its attack mode, an instinctive dance of sorts, rising up nearly vertical in the air, striking, rattling. I watched from my car, safe from harm, but it was an amazing show of the snake’s natural response to threat. I was stunned and thrilled, simultaneously.

Though I enjoyed the hikes and nature experiences, late afternoon began to turn to early evening, and the internal quiet I sought remained elusive.  Moving out of my comfort zone, I chose to camp in an isolated site, separated from other campers, and with a view high above Roosevelt Lake.

I lit a small camp fire – there was a pile of dry cedar at the site left by the last campers. I listened to a CD of Native American flute music, Walk Between Worlds, by Golana, gentle and evocative. The sun slipped behind the Superstition Mountains, and the reflected pinks and oranges and blue-grays in the sky were the very colors of the glowing embers in the fire pit.

Finally! The combination of setting sun, campfire, and flute music worked its magic. My heart stopped racing and my breathing calmed, and I sat there, thinking, “I am OK. I can manage.”

I’d paid attention, my instincts were good – they led me to a calming place.

While I watched the camp fire shoot sparks and dancing flames, I thought of lighting candles, lighting them with intention. My campfire was burning with intention, too. It reminded me that, even though I experience times of discomfort and feeling lost, I can hold strong my intentions that I am whole and good, and that through my creative efforts, I can make a difference in my life and in the lives of others.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She’s finding strength and inspiration in the desert, and she’s working on transition skills. (More photos of the National Monuments to come…)

 

The Essence of Desert

Yucca in Bloom

Yucca in Bloom ©2013 Bo Mackison

“I seek out places where it can happen more readily, such as deserts or mountains or solitary areas, or by myself with a seashell, and while I’m there get into states of mind where I’m more open than usual. I’m waiting, I’m listening. I go to those places and get myself ready through meditation. Through being quiet and willing to wait, I can begin to see the inner man and the essence of the subject in front of me… Watching the way the current moves a blade of grass – sometimes I’ve seen that happen and it has just turned me inside out.”
~ Minor White

There is a transformation that takes place when I sit in a place of solitude and wait.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps did construction projects in the Sonoran Desert. They built several picnic areas in the Tucson Mountains, tables of concrete and stone, each in a private space, each table protected from the heat of mid-day sun by an overhead ramada. One of these picnic sites, tucked far from the road, has become my perfect office space. I gather the requisites necessary for spending a day writing and taking photographs in the desert – camera, a few reference books, my old notebooks, but also water, protein snacks, a wide-brimmed hat, sunscreen, my hiking stick.

I bring my writing office to the desert. I choose not to bring my computer or other devices that might tempt me with an immediate, continuous connection to the rest of the world. I choose  solitude instead. I write by hand, pen to paper, scribbling, crossing out, adding words, sensing the connection between brain and hand. I compile notes from a dozen notebooks, unravel bits of my life from words written during the past decade. I pull inspiration from these worn pages and curate them into the skeletal beginnings of my Desert Wisdom Cards.

I take frequent breaks to hike – a favorite trail begins fifty paces from my table and winds through saguaro-studded desert, in and out of several washes, then half-way up the side of Brown Mountain. There I stop and memorize the desert scene, burn its landscape into my mind – again. In a few weeks I will be in a far away state, and my heart will linger here in this lush desert stretching beyond the beyond.

Minor White’s quote struck a deep chord in me. I do connect with the world beyond my sight, I feel the essence of place seep into my cells. Sometimes I feel as if this sacred desert space turns me inside out, and exposes my innermost being to the desert in exchange for bits of desert wisdom.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is beginning a time of transition, and finding strength and inspiration in the desert. Her office, at least for a few more weeks, is in the Sonoran Desert.

Beginnings – A Desert Wisdom Card

Beginnings - Desert Wisdom Cards

Cactus Bud Opening © 2013 Bo Mackison

“A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it! Imagine!”
~ Henri Nouwen

Beginnings surround us.

Walk through any garden, along any sidewalk or road easement, and notice the many beginnings you see. This bright magenta cactus bud, still half closed and quite protected, will soon open fully, displaying its beauty, welcoming hummingbirds and bees to its nectar. They will collect pollen as they feed and then pollinate other flowers. New beginnings, life continues.

We constantly have opportunities for new BEGINNINGS.

We move through our days, experiencing life in new ways, again and again. When we lose our way or make mistakes, instead of punishing ourselves with shame, we can acknowledge our human ways with compassion, awareness, and gentleness. Then we begin again. We return again and again to the practice of living.

“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
~ Carl Bard

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

  • Have you ever thought about “your perfect day”? What would that perfect day look like if you could erase all of the responsibilities and commitments for today only? Write about your perfect day. Add people and places, sensory details and activities, or inaction if that is your ideal. Review what you wrote. Could you add (or subtract) one or more of the items in your imagined perfect day to today? If not today, how might you transform your typical days into days that include some of your perfect day components?
  • An ending is a new beginning. Is there an activity or behavior in your life that no longer serves you? If you stopped this activity or behavior, could you use that time to begin or renew a life-affirming practice?
  • Make a point of getting up early enough to sit and watch the sunrise — from the hint of dawn until the sun is well above the horizon. Each sunrise brings with it a gift of a new day and new beginnings. I frequently watch the sun rise. Afterwards, I read a chapter in an inspirational book, cup of coffee in hand. Do you have an early morning ritual to begin your day? If not, what might you consider adding as a welcome-morning-activity?
  • I first saw delightful perforated permission slips in Living Out Loud, a creative activity book by Keri Smith. Making permission slips are now a popular activity for writers, artists, students — anyone who likes the idea of giving themselves permission to do something they might be hesitant to do. Write permission slips that start with the words “I have permission to BEGIN ______.  Make a dozen permission slips from small pieces of paper, paint chips, or index cards. Paint, collage, or decorate the backgrounds. Or leave them plain and focus on the words. Whenever you need a boost to start a new project, pull out a permission slip, fill in the blank and sign it. Then … ready, set, BEGIN!

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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.