Meditation – Walking Fern Canyon in Coastal Fog

Coastal Fog

Coastal Fog ©2103 Bo Mackison

“In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties!” ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

In fog. I am standing near swirling waters
gushing through Fern Canyon
towards the Pacific Ocean.

The creek’s container
Cliffs fifty feet high,
The creek’s container,
dressed in dripping ferns.

Sword ferns, five finger ferns.
The creek winds under fallen redwood trees,
twists along rock formations. Bubbling.

I walk east,
fording the creek on narrow wood planks.
Wet seeps through my hiking shoes,
The planks sag in the middle and frothy creek water
gushing over make-shift bridges.

My eyes follow the cliffs’ ascent,
atop there are skinny trees — not redwoods,
those giants grow further inland
— here are the skinny trees. In the fog. In swirls of dense ocean
these tree trunks gleam dark and wet.

Primeval. The scent of moist
and deep and old. An ancient call.

In Fern Canyon
the creek is the glory, the cliffs and the ferns
dripping, slurping, singing with water,
gushing life, this, nature’s glory.

Connecting with the earth and her waters.
Her message.
Take care.

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Bo Mackison is photographer, book-maker, collector of stories, naturalist, curator and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  “I believe nature offers opportunities for connection, the arts offer opportunities for self-expression, and life offers continual opportunity for growth and self-discovery.”

Wonder – A Prairie Wisdom Card

Sunflower in Detail

Sunflower © 2103 Bo Mackison

“Could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; and you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.”
~ Kahlil Gibran

If you ever have a chance to see a giant sunflower, up close and personal, you will notice that the sunflower seeds always form in a spiral pattern. Each successive seed placement approximated the golden angle, (137.5˚) and so fully covers the space.

What a wonder-evoking sight. We know nature is filled with patterns and sequences, but often they remain hidden from our unseeing eyes. The sunflower, another natural things like pine cones, the leaves on a stem or the branching of a tree, the fronds on a fern, even the tippets covering a pineapple, follow this mathematical formula.

The beauty of the pattern, in part, is a result of the precise play of the positioning of each concentric layer, and the creation of an eye-pleasing spiral. Gifts of wonderment!

“This very moment of your life, if you experience it fully, will show you astonishing wonders and exquisite delights.” ~ Martha Beck

The WONDER card offers activities for contemplation, art, and writing and a call to action:

  • Journal prompt: Compile a list of things that are common to our culture – for example, a vending machine, a super-sized grocery store, the subway. Choose one thing and write about it, writing from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with such conveniences.
  • Art and contemplative activities: The circular mandala often is used as a symbol for the Universe, for the whole. Seeds are the tiny packages filled with potential.
    • Gather seeds of any kind — choose one kind of seed, or different colored and sized seeds. Begin with a seed for the center, then create a circle with seeds, much like the sunflower with its closely packed seeds in ever-expanding spirals.
    • You can create this in nature as a temporary art installation in miniature. Or you can glue the seeds to cardboard for a more permanent mandala.
    • As you create the mandala, consider the potential of each seed, and consider the potential that exists within you.
  • Call to action: Take a walk in nature and look for some of the countless patterns in nature. Express your wonder with each discovery: “What a wonder-filled world!”

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo is creating a set of Prairie Wisdom Cards, second in a series of cards based on natural habitats, and used for exploration and self-discovery.

Garden Party – Emerging Coneflower

Coneflower, Emerging

Coneflower, Emerging ©2013 Bo Mackison

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” ~ William Blake

 

And here
is the flower
not yet unfurled

petals not yet drooping
on the edge of a breeze
like the flutter of a heartbeat

a spark emerges from the depths
and disappears in the heated haze
on a sun-drenched July morn.

~~~~~~~~~

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.   Her exhibit, Garden Party – A Celebration of Botanical Photography, is at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin and runs through September 5, 2013.

On Watch

photo(21)On Watch © 2013 Bo Mackison

A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature.
It is Earth’s eye, into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Skies hint of purple,
the sun withdraws.
Winds calm in the heavy summer air.

A tumble of rocks deep
disappear in gray shadow.
Ghost carp glide under the dock.

The spirit trembles, shaken, then
regains its equilibrium
On watch for the first star.

Garden Party – Vintage Coneflower

Olbrich Garden

Garden Party – Vintage Coneflower © 2013 Bo Mackison

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” Victor Hugo

Coneflowers have quite the joyous attitude, the dancing ballerinas of the prairie. And I love the thought of prairie land at my feet, standing amidst coneflowers swaying in a soft breeze, while stars twinkle in the far beyond.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.   Her exhibit, Garden Party – A Celebration of Botanical Photography, is at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin and runs through September 5, 2013.