Pause – A Desert Wisdom Card

May 7, 2013 by 3 Comments
Pause - Desert Wisdom Card

Bench © 2013 Bo Mackison

In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It’s the place of reflection and contemplation, and it’s the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way.”
~ Angeles Arrien

Pause. Take a deep breath. A deep breath is the ultimate pause.

Ground yourself in the here and now. Quiet the inner critic. Quiet the constant media. Quiet the surroundings. Pause. Take a deep breath. Ground yourself.

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub. ~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

PAUSE offers questions/reflections for journal writing, an art prompt, and a call to PAUSE:

  • Journal about space. What does space look like in your life? Do you have enough space, too much, or too little?
  • Stop during the day and offer yourself invitations to pause. Allow time to listen to your inner voice.
  • Art Prompt – A labyrinth is a symbol of wholeness, and it has only one path. The labyrinth has a center; this is a place for pause before retracing your way.
    • Make a finger labyrinth. Begin with one or two packages of polymer clay. Flatten the clay into a square, approximately 6″ x 6″ using a rolling-pin. Draw a classic labyrinth pattern on the clay and make the imprint of the labyrinth path using a pencil’s eraser.  Bake as indicated on the polymer clay package.
    • “Walk” the labyrinth using your finger, pausing at the center. Repetition is often beneficial.

———————-

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Traveling in Arizona

April 30, 2013 by 2 Comments
Santa Rita Prickly Pear

Santa Rita Prickly Pear © 2013 Bo Mackison

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The neighborhood cactus, a lovely Prickly Pear named for Santa Rita Mountains where they grow abundantly, threw this goodbye party for me – a massive show of yellow blossoms amidst a multitude of purple pads. A finer sending-off gift I have never received!

It was sunny and a mild 71˚F when I left my home situated between the Sonoran Desert to the west and the Santa Rita Mountains to the east. The highest temperatures of the year were predicted for  the next few days — nearing 100˚ — and  so it was time to return to the Midwest for the summer.

Copper Country

Copper Basin Railway © 2013 Bo Mackison

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Though I love Tolkien’s writings, his words didn’t quite apply to my meanderings on my first travel day. I was wandering and I did get lost, but it was not for nought. I missed a turn and so ended up in copper country east of Phoenix instead of at my mid-day destination, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I did see some interesting countryside that I otherwise would never have seen – the benefits of wandering.

No worries. I did enjoy the sights on some new-to-me roads as I circled back towards Boyce Thompson Arboretum, and though my picnic lunch was delayed, the blooming gardens lived up to all expectations!

This view is of the Picket Post Mountains, one of the first Arizona sights that were etched in my psyche on my first visit to the area. Friends introduced Sherpa and I to the diversity and beauty of the desert at Boyce Thompson, and it was like coming home. Four years later, this view still evokes fond memories of my realization that I had found “my place”. And I hadn’t been aware that there was a place I needed to find!

Salt River Canyon

Salt River Canyon © 2013 Bo Mackison

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
~ Thomas Jefferson

I drove from Globe to Show Low, Arizona on the last part of the day’s journey, driving on sharp turns through the mountains, dropping deep into the Salt River Canyon, and then rising into the White Mountains. The views were spectacular, and since I was following my own schedule that allowed for plenty of interruptions, I pulled off at nearly every overlook, just to take in the scenery.

Nothing like standing on the edge of a mountain cliff, studying masses of white flowers on climbing vines that cover the white rock of the White Mountains, viewing a white rapids river thousands of feet below, watching the red tail hawks soar overhead, to remind me that I am but a speck of dust in this mighty Universe.

——————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.    She is traveling cross-country, and thinking about the Universe.

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

Reverence – A Desert Wisdom Card

April 25, 2013 by 4 Comments
Saguaro Cactus - Saguaro National Park

Saguaro Cactus Crone © 2013 Bo Mackison

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

———————-

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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

All Manner of Stripes

April 19, 2013 by 6 Comments
Stripes on Benches

Stripes on Benches ©2013 Bo Mackison

“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated. ” ~ August Sander

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

Stripes in Corners © 2013 Bo Mackison

Photography means ‘light writing’.~ L. Ron Hubbard 

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

Stripes on Roofs © 2013 Bo Mackison

The camera captures light, our minds capture images. ~ Anonymous

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

Stripes - Casa Grande National Monument's Visitor Center

Stripes – Casa Grande National Monument ©2013 Bo Mackison

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

~~~~~~~~

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.

Filed Under: Photography, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »