Sunrays on the Valley

January 29, 2013 by 9 Comments
Oro Valley Sunset

Sun Rays over Oro Valley

The weather has been volatile in southern Arizona the past few days. Layers of billowing gray clouds, scattered puffy white clouds, rain, icy mix, a bit of snow, lots of wind, a few periods of bright blue skies.

This is the type of weather changes I’m accustomed to in the Midwest, but my weather watching skills had gotten a bit stale. When I looked at the weather graphics over the Arizona map, there was usually a sunny sun. occasionally a sun with a few clouds, infrequently a chance of rain. It is easy to love a blue sky day.

But these past few days offered opportunities in sky watching that were unmatched in my brief history of Arizona sky watching. Wow. The clouds hovering atop the many mountains peaks or obliterating the mountains themselves in gray swirly masses are captivating. Rainfalls in the desert bring a certain sense of glee, suspending all manner of plans and sensibilities.

And the cloudbreaks, just as the sun is setting are enough to make me stop the car, haul out my camera gear, and capture the sun rays spreading far across Oro Valley.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday she took a day trip across southern Arizona, was enthralled with the scenery and the pageantry in the skies.

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Life is Like a Puzzle

January 8, 2013 by 10 Comments
Tree Silhouettes

Tree Silhouettes © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”
~ Yoko Ono

On my month-long break from the Southwest, I returned to Wisconsin’s winter, and discovered this year’s snow season felt more brutal than in the past. The nearly two feet of snow that fell during the earlier part of my visit has had no opportunity to melt. The snow is as deep as the day it fell, though it has been swept aside from walks and roads to make it more manageable for travel.

Even so, my outdoor explorations were limited to walks around the neighborhood and a few sojourns by car. There is no such thing — for me — as a wander in a forest or a tramp through a field or prairie if I have to plow through depths of snow with each step I take.

And so the photos have been few. They all fall into a single category – trees in snowy winter. I do love the trees in winter, the branches exposed, the skeletal trunks and limbs showing the soul of the tree. Even the conifers have a minimalist feel to them.

This morning’s sunrise  – I’m watching it as I write – will be my last in wintry Wisconsin for quite a while. It’s a pale sunrise this morning, as if the cold has frozen the rays into a cool white light.

The snow is a beautiful sight from my windows, but I miss being in the middle of nature, in the midst of the weather and the breezes, tramping on the land.

There is much I miss when I am away from Wisconsin and living in the Tucson area. There is much I miss when I am away from Arizona and living in Wisconsin.  Life is rather like a puzzle — you fit the tiny pieces in as you find them, not sure of the big picture. Each day is a new puzzle piece, and they all fit together to make one huge whopping, incredible, messy life.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Tomorrow is a transition day – travel, comings and goings, many opportunities ahead. Keeping my eyes open in anticipation.

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Ocotillo Sunset

January 29, 2012 by 4 Comments
Ocotillo Sunset

Ocotillo Sunset © 2012 Bo Mackison

“Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder…”

~ Hafiz, The Gift

I have desert dreams. They are not as tidy as I would like, but perhaps they are tidier than one would imagine. My desert is a tidy place with a tidy habit. No dense, tangled tropical paradise. In the desert there is room to move. Space for movement. But even more important to me, there is space to see.

Vision is not blocked by billboard or building. When I look, I can see afar. It is not unusual to look across the desert and see a mountain thirty or forty miles away. There is space to form thoughts, to search for answers. My desert dream affords me a polite habitat, nothing to tangle my feet and make me fall, no hidden roots to trip me, no overgrowth to hide my path.

There is room for all to grow, for me to grow.

In my dreaming desert, I do not cut myself on the spines of the cacti, the thorns on the shrubs and trees. I do not step upon desert earth that has rotted from beneath the surface, that gives way with the weight of my step, and sucks my leg into a gaping hole in the desert floor. The desert in my dreams has been sanitized for my night time journeys.

Awake, the desert is wild and streaming a series of ever more deeply saturated color. There is the silhouette of the ocotillo and its thorns, long and sharp. I watch the sun disappear, it drops below the horizon, and the layers of red, orange, purple linger until night’s arrival blackens the sky.

The sun sets. I breathe in tempo with the still warm desert. I inhale, the desert earth inhales. I exhale, the desert earth exhales. Heat stored in the desert’s earth meets the night’s cooling air, and the desert pulsates with energy.

Desert rhythms. I stand and watch, supporting myself with my walking stick while gripping tightly to my world.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is in the Sonoran desert.

Filed Under: Art of Healing, Photography, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Silhouette of Stillness

August 30, 2011 by 7 Comments
Sunburst Chairs

Silhouette of Stillness © 2011 Bo Mackison

There are moments when you absolutely need someone to show up like magic, not because you need something nice, but because you need your world view transformed. You need some hope to be born in you. You need to know in one moment that someone believes in you. You need a kindness midwife to hold the space so you can show up like magic for someone else the next time around.  ~ Jen Leman

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

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Glass Ceiling

December 13, 2010 by 6 Comments

Glass Ceiling © 2010 Bo Mackison

Glass ceiling. Swirls of sculptured snow.
Blue skies. Bare branches.
Diving, twirling origami birds.

Photographed at Olbrich Botanical Garden, Madison Wisconsin.

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