Poppies in the Desert

Golden Desert Poppies

https://www.iql-nog.com/2025/01/19/j8qqke0ye Desert Poppies © 2013 Bo Mackison

https://www.prestoavenuedesigns.com/save/buy-valium-cheap-online.php Notice how present a flower is, how surrendered to life. ~ Eckhart Tolle  

https://tvnordestevip.com/0ris9v887rw It is a beautiful place, the desert.

follow url I never realized its fullness of life, its diversity
until daily I walked its paths,
treading on mountain peaks lightly frosted in mid winter
climbing in its washes torn asunder by summer’s flash floods.

source link Walking its rocky trails, aware of each footfall,
threading my way through a maze of deep crevices in the earth.

follow Reaching towards a saguaro to steady my bearings
only to pull back in mild alarm
imagining my hand pierced with the thorns of a saguaro.

watch Standing in its washes in spring, yes the desert has its seasons,
admiring the waving yellow poppies, their throats flushed with red,
their roots grounded in a chaos of rock and grit,
their silken petals a delicate offering amidst so much ruggedness.

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source Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She repeatedly discovers inspiration in the desert. https://www.saiidzeidan.com/i229nduhcg0

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus

enter Organ Pipe Cactus ©2013 Bo Mackison

source site “We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ~ Henry David Thoreau from Walden
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watch We traveled west. Warnings of high winds — 40 to 50 mph — and dust storms, downed electrical lines and zero visibility were more than enough reasons for us to curtail our planned expedition to California’s Joshua Tree National Park, and stop only three hours west of the Tucson area.

enter site I’ve been to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument several times over the last few years, but Sherpa had never visited this park, so it seemed like a wise alternative. Sunny, a bit of a cooling breeze and temperatures in the mid 70s to mid 80s, fit the description of a suitable camping destination.

get link I am the tent camper; Sherpa is the reluctant camper in any type of camping set-up. He considers a tent a fine place to store the camping equipment while he checks out the nearest motel. But he was a super trooper these past few days, and we spent an uneventful two nights protected by a tent while we slept.

Buy Diazepam 2Mg Online Uk (Sherpa has every right to have hesitations about tent camping — he has camped through torrential downpours, collapsed tents, wildly spirited neighbors with loud music, ambitious families with terrified toddlers, and even a near miss by a tornado.)

http://foodsafetytrainingcertification.com/food-safety-news/8wnsp0j Organ Pipe’s campground played the perfect host. We had a tent site at the edge of the Sonoran Desert and set up so we could watch the sun rise over the saguaros and organ pipe cacti. The stars filled the sky and we had a clear view since the moon delayed its rising until way after midnight. A cloudless, moonless night of star watching in a dark desert wilderness surely is a life changing experience. We spread a sleeping bag on the picnic table and couldn’t stop staring. There were so many stars, and such a wide swath of the Milky Way, we swore we could hardly find a black bit in the sky. The sky is ALL stars!

see We hiked during the day – including one 3 mile hike that I misread as “easy and meandering.” Sherpa read the same sign which correctly described the hike as strenuous and difficult, but he didn’t say a word when I suggested we hike to Bull Pasture. Well — it was one of the more magnificent trails I’ve hikes since we tackled several out-of-the-way hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains when we were in our twenties.

https://www.prestoavenuedesigns.com/save/buy-diazepam-cheap-online.php Suffice to say that I was gratified to see that my new self-care program of healthy eating and exercise paid off.

follow site As for the Organ Pipe Cactus, what a spectacular plant! I promise many more photos from our travels, including entire mountain sides of Organ Pipes mixed with Saguaros.

go here Tomorrow!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Nothing makes her happier than trips to explore the many protected wildernesses across America – the National Parks and Monuments. Buy Valium Sleeping Tablets

Ocotillo at Dusk

Ocotillo at Dusk

Ocotillo at Dusk © 2013 Bo Mackison

There is a simple practice that we can do to cultivate forgiveness. First we acknowledge what we feel–shame, revenge, embarrassment, remorse. Then we forgive ourselves for being human. Then, in the spirit of not wallowing in the pain, we let go and make a fresh start. We don’t have to carry the burden with us anymore. We can acknowledge, forgive, and start anew. If we practice this way, little by little we’ll learn to abide with the feeling of regret for having hurt ourselves and others. We will also learn self-forgiveness. Eventually, at our own speed, we’ll even find our capacity to forgive those who have done us harm. We will discover forgiveness as a natural expression of the open heart, an expression of our basic goodness. This potential is inherent in every moment. Each moment is an opportunity to make a fresh start. ~ Pema Chodron, from The Places that Scare You

This weekend I have set aside time to study the above text from Chodron’s book. Again. In this single paragraph, there is a lifetime of work. It is work that I have not only resisted, I’ve also refused to acknowledge the presence of the work, the need for the cultivation of forgiveness.

Today is a desert day, in the literal and figurative sense. I will walk the desert trails, the arroyos. Again, I will follow the desert lines of the labyrinth. I go in search of space and quiet, of brief exile–if only for twenty-four hours–in an attempt to move towards a portal leading to a fresh start.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines. She is also walking the way of the desert, following its lines, in search of opportunity.

What Did I See Today?

Agave Tip

Agave Tip © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore. An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day?”
― John O’Donohue , from Anam Cara: A book of Celtic Wisdom   Valium Bula Anvisa

What did I really see today?

When I’d been taking photographs for a year or so, I thought the mere act of carrying my camera and recording my days on digital media qualified me as a person who sees her world. I thought I was one up on this quest.

I spent my day looking, assessing, finding the perfect subject for a perfect photograph. I didn’t leave the memory card in the camera, or file it away on my computer. I meticulously sorted and processed the images; I shared the ones with which I felt a connection. First I shared my photos on Flickr. Eventually I printed my photographs and sent them out into my world. It was a beginning, I think it was a very good beginning.

I looked closely at my world, documented the wave of a flower’s petal, or the lines of a historic building, or sun rays streaming through a forest falling upon the soft earth.

Then I read a quote by William Carlos Williams, the well-known poet, who said he always carried a note card in his pocket, even after years of observation and years of writing a visually intense style of poetry. He had a habit of writing down “something new” he had noticed that very day.

Williams’ statement reminded me that observation should never become complacent. Simply because I take a few photos every day does not make me an observer of my world. I fulfill that call when I practice slow photography. When I sit with a subject, examine it, perhaps journal about it, even watch other people who interact with the same subject.

When I observed and then photographed the agave plant featured above, I observed not only the plant, but the microcosm surrounding it and its habitat, even its interaction with other creatures, be they insect, animal, or human.

The agave is a desert plant that is imbedded with desert lines.  The plant, with its sharp teeth and spikes, is so tightly compressed before it opens that imprints of a leaf’s outline are left on the adjoining leaves. It is a favorite of mine.

Some days, I observe not only the agaves, but also the people who stop to look at them. I listen as they comment about its sharp spike or its wicked teeth along the edges of its leaves. Only rarely does someone notice the lovely imprints of the agave’s outline on the front and back of each leaf.

Interesting.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Creating the Future

Opening

In the Present © 2013 Bo Mackison

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created — created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. ~ Deborah James

The word for desert is derived from the Greek word, eremes which, literally translated, means abandoned. The desert has often been described as a place where one meets life and death — face to face.

A place where one goes to face themselves. The desert provides a container in which one can eliminate distractions and experience deep encounters with the self. There is not much escape in the desert, though when I first made my frequent treks into the desert spaces, I felt as if I were escaping from many of life’s expectations. As I acclimated to the desert landscape, I found it was not an escape, but an invitation to dig deeper, to experience the intricate balance of life, death, and rebirth.

Every desert plant does the most intricate of dances to stay alive, to regenerate, to seed the earth and create the next generation of its species. Timing, luck, and chance weather play a part in the plant’s continued existence.

I once imagined I’d live life in the desert more as a contemplative than as a contributor. But contemplation, good for the mindful creation of dreams and goals, doesn’t have much of an action component. To bring those dreams to fruition — to allow the seeds to reach the earth, germinate and grow — requires workable steps of action.

I discovered that thinking and planning are only stage one. Stage two is active  — scheduling, meeting deadlines, connecting with other people, visiting sources, taking workshops, collaborating on ideas.

Stage one is necessary. Stage two is vital in order to create rather than only imagine the future. Action in the present is critical for the success of any plan, no matter how small or grand.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series featuring desert lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.