Ocotillo Sunset

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.

—————-

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

Cold Front Sunset – Arizona Silhouette

Cold Front Sunset

Cold Front Sunset © 2011 Bo Mackison

In the nine days since I’ve been in Arizona, the skies have seldom had any clouds. So when I saw clouds forming as a cold front approached, I headed for the nearest mountains. I’d spent the day south of Tucson exploring the Old Tubac Presidio and Tumacacori National Historic Park, and so I stopped at Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains.

I had a long wait. The sun was quite high in the sky when I pulled into the parking area for the trailhead to Elephant Head. But it was time well spent. The sky took on more and more color as I watched, and then the clouds turned a brilliant orange as they caught the sun’s reflection. Elephant Head is the highest peak towards the center of the photograph, and the Santa Cruz Valley is beyond the mountains.

Arizona sunsets. Wow!

Grand Canyon Sequence at Sunset

Grand Canyon 7:23 PM

Grand Canyon 7:23 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:26 PM

Grand Canyon 7:26 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:29 PM

Grand Canyon 7:29 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:31 PM

Grand Canyon 7:31 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

October 7. Sunset was 7:38 PM Mountain Standard Time.

Grand Canyon 7:46 PM

Grand Canyon 7:46 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:48 PM

Grand Canyon 7:48 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:51 PM

Grand Canyon 7:51 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:52 PM

Grand Canyon 7:52 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Desert Sun – A Poem of Faith

Arizona Desert

Staring into the burning desert sun. Desert heat
rises, sears my soul, the searching soul, seeking light.

I sink into the sand-earth, the desiccated cactus roots unable to support me.

Be not distraught. Reach out. Stand upright.

The sun drops off the edge of the world, night slips in quietly, settles,

A star shimmers.
And another.

I have journeyed long,
watched sunrises and sunsets, the ascents and descents of many moons.

Now a multitude of stars alight the heavens, milky streams of light, and with faith
I await the return of the sun.

~~~~~~~~~

This is a contribution to the poetry challenge being run by the Abbey of the Arts: Entering the Desert’s Fire.  In the invitation to share a poem Christine writes:

I invite you this week to write a poem about your own invitation to enter the refiner’s fire – in alchemy lead is transformed into gold through heat and this becomes a metaphor for the human soul.  What is the lead within you ready to be transformed into something treasured?

Cherry Orchard in Winter

Door Countys Famous Cherries

Door County is Famous for its Cherries

Door County is famous for its cherries. Orchards have been planted throughout the county since the 1800s. Lake Michigan and Green Bay keep the weather conditions ideal for both the cultivation of cherries and apple – warm days, cool night. Perfect.

Door County has nearly 2,000 acres of cherry orchards and another 500 acres of apple orchards – 1/10th of the land in Door County is planted with fruit trees. The air is filled with the blossoms’ fragrance in the spring and the harvests fill farm stands with luscious fruit from August through October.

In winter, the orchards make great subjects for photographs. Love those red tinged trees in the drifted snow.