Sanctuary – A Desert Wisdom Card

Sanctuary

Garden Sanctuary ©2013 Bo Mackison

 Our spiritual energy needs to be renewed each day. Our soul needs to be uplifted, and our wounded or tired spirit needs periodic regeneration. Finding sanctuary in a lovely and peaceful garden setting – one that seems to enfold the soul in magic, celebration, art, curiosity, and contemplation – can do the job. ~ Christopher McDowell

A sanctuary is a sacred space.

The word sanctuary comes from the Latin word sanctum which means a place of sacrosanct privacy. When we create the space especially for our personal use, we give ourselves permission to take time from our hectic day and retreat into the quiet, to enter a place of slowing down, a rejuvenating space for body, mind, and soul.

A garden sanctuary can take many forms.

It can be a space with a strolling path, flowers, shade trees, a bench; a chair next to a tree or garden plot; a balcony with a flower box; even a potted plant near a window in your home. In the desert, a garden sanctuary can be as simple as a shaded space offering protection from the sun with a view of ground hugging succulents or the raw beauty of the desert colors.

My garden sanctuary is an arroyo, rocky and dry, with prickly pear cacti, chain fruit cholla, and palo verde trees.

At dawn and dusk the trees shimmer with birds – orioles, cactus wrens, hummingbirds, cardinals. Road runners and quail hurry along the edge of the arroyo a few paces from where I sit. There, I reclaim my spirit surrounded by the sacred.

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.
~ Herman Hesse

SANCTUARY offers these suggestions for contemplation:

  • Combine a quiet space and nature and you create a sanctuary garden. A place where the busyness of the world can spin without you. A place for contemplation of the simple things, of the beauty of life. A place to renew your energy. A place to practice reverence and gratitude. Can a place be all those things? Make it your intention. Embrace the sacredness of you and your space, and your sanctuary will be the retreat you envision.
  • Thomas Moore writes in his book, The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life, “Entering a garden is like passing through a mystical gate. Things are not the same on the other side.” Visualize your passage through a garden gate, perhaps after a busy or stress-filled day. What do you see in your mind’s eye that is soothing, uplifting, rejuvenating, or inspirational?
  • Begin a sanctuary practice with a ritual to mark the transition from frenetic activity to reverential pause. The ritual can be simple – preparing and enjoying a cup of aromatic herbal tea, repeating a favorite mantra, holding a smooth stone. Choose something meaningful to you.
  • Create a simple book, a few pieces of paper folded together is sufficient, and make notations on your relationship with your sanctuary time weekly for several months. Limit yourself to one or two sentences. Notice how your story unfolds. Notice how your words reflect sanctuary. You are your garden’s story keeper, the container of your sanctuary.

 

Letting Go – A Desert Wisdom Card

Letting Go - Desert Wisdom Card

Coral Aloe © 2013 Bo Mackison

Simply trust;
Do not the petals flutter down,
just like this?
~ Issa

The coral aloe is a common desert garden plant.

Its eye-catching blooms are striking in their bright orange radiance, with tips that glow iridescent blues, greens, and whites. But after the blossom is spent, the tubular flowers drop, often getting caught in the curvature of the succulent leaves.

In the letting go of petals, there is the promise of seeds and new life.

The letting go is necessary: the flowers are pollinated, they drop from the plant, the fruits grow, the seeds of the fruit are dispersed by animal, wind, or other means. New plants emerge from some of the seeds. The cycle of life continues.

We also face situations when “letting go” is a necessity.

We have no more control over situations which involve other people’s choices than flowers have control over their ability to continue clinging to the stem. But we do have control of our own choices to let go.

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation,
unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”
~ Steve Maraboli in Life, the Truth, and Being Free

This is not about letting go of dreams, goals, practices that serve you well, and are life affirming.

This is about the release of those things which are life-depleting. Letting go of the past, of emotions or beliefs which no longer serve a positive purpose, makes room for living in the present and anticipating the future.

LETTING GO offers questions/reflections for journaling, art prompts, and calls to action:

  • What are you ready to let go of that no longer serves you? What can be released to serve your higher purpose in life? Consider your daily living activities — your sleep or eating habits, too much clutter (material clutter or clutter on your to do list), choices of leisure time activities. If you choose to make a change, celebrate the change. View it from the strength of positive thinking, not from the victim-hood of habit or self put down.
  • Do you need to let go of excuses that cripple your intentions for change? Excuses steal your power. Taking responsibility for your day-to-day choices breaks the excuse machine. Write a dialogue between a habit that no longer serves you —  the size 8 dress hanging in the closet, the chocolate cake at the bakery department, a dysfunctional relationship — and your desires to let go. Write out all of your excuses and answer them with new resolve. Write a good-bye letter. Tear the letter in pieces and throw it away or burn it in a fireplace, letting the message drift far away.
  • Distraction can prove a helpful diversion. Get out of your head and into your body. Dance, sing, garden. Ride a bike or swim. Physical exertion demands your full attention and leaves little room for obsessive worry.
  • Create a mandala. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle or completion. Mandalas are all around us — in our cells, nature, the earth, the Universe. Carl Jung, the founder of psychoanalysis, said of mandalas, “In the products of the unconscious we discover mandala symbols …and whenever we wish to express wholeness, we employ just such figures.”
    • Create a mandala by tracing a circle and then use art media of your choice — colored pencils, pens, markers, paints — to fill in the space as you focus on “letting go.”  The colors, shapes and representations used in the mandala’s creation express emotions and feelings.
    • When the mandala is complete, journal any reactions you experienced during its creation or your reactions to the mandala’s colors, lines, and figures.

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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 self-exploration and discovery, using her photography and the Sonoran Desert as a theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.

Blooming Desert

Sonoran Desert, Saguaro National Park

Sonoran Desert, Saguaro National Park © 2013 Bo Mackison

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air. ~ Paul Hoffman

Blooming Poppies

Mexican Poppies

Mexican Poppies © 2013 Bo Mackison

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts. ~ William Hazlett

In the seed.

Creation explosion,
Mystery  and heritage.

Sacred place; festive space.

Sensory sanctuary.
Rejuvenation.

In the garden.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Season of joy – poppies blooming in the Sonoran Desert.

Attention – A Desert Wisdom Card

Palm Leaf

Guadalupe Palm Abstract  © 2013 Bo Mackison

The choice of where we put our attention is ultimately our most powerful freedom.
~ Jan Kata and Russell Taq in Toxic Success

As I sat on a bench at Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, overhead fans of palm leaves caught my attention.

I watched as clouds passed quickly in front of the sun and the intermittent sunlight danced amidst the palms. The interplay of light and shadow in the pleated fans created dozens of opportunities to create abstract photographs.

I created the ATTENTION card based on this play of light and shadow.

All palm trees are tropical plant, including the above Guadalupe Palm, and palms cannot tolerate freezing weather or dry soil. Since the palms found in the Sonoran Desert require moisture, they are found in desert oases (natural water supplies) or in wet canyons, typically in the southern or western reaches of the Sonoran Desert.

The existence of palms in the desert southwest is testimony to the desert’s ancient tropical connection, a concept that requires our  imagination. The more I closely examine the desert today, the more I can see traces where the ancient oceans once existed.

The leaves of the palm tree are often used to make thatched roofs of rainproof shelters that are incredibly sturdy and can last for years. The palm is a favorite habitat of small creatures as it has many layers of palm leaves perfect for hidden nesting and resting places.

For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.
— Evelyn Underhill

ATTENTION offers questions/reflections for journal or art prompts, even a few calls to action:

  • What lessons can be learned by adding the practice of attention to today? To each day?
  • What are some of the gifts one can receive by practicing attention?
  • Connect these seemingly disparate ideas: 1) the practice of attention and a desert oasis or 2) the practice of attention and creating a shelter. Journal, draw a mind map, or write a few lines of poetry about your discoveries.
  • When can the practice of attention be added to the day? In an early morning or late evening ritual? During meals? During routine chores such as dish washing, sweeping the floor, cleaning mirrors? During a walk around the block, a walk in the park, a hike in a natural setting?
  • Action: Focus on a single object. Observe a single blade of grass, a flower, a tree for a set period of time – perhaps ten minutes. Jot down a few notes, either  during the observation time or immediately afterwards. Include any of the sensory responses – what did you see, hear, smell, touch, taste? How did you feel or react?
  • Sometimes a prop is useful while intentionally practicing attention. Bringing a camera, sketchbook, or journal on a short walk often provides a visible reminder to slow down and look at the details.
  • Consider adding a “slow practice” to your day. It may be the ritual of preparing a cup of tea or a mid-morning snack. Watch the sunrise or sunset, paying attention to the light-show of changing colors. Set an intention to stop and pay attention.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is creating a deck of Desert Wisdom Cards for self-exploration and discovery using her photography and the theme of the Sonoran Desert – its myths and stories, cultures and history, and the desert’s remarkable natural resources.