Sense of Place
If I had a nickel for every time someone mentioned the concept of “place” in conversations recently, I would be able to buy a venti café mocha. As a spiritual director, my genuine curiosity and desire to clarify my understanding of such a subjective word must ask the question - “what does place mean to you?” . Through differing yet thread-like answers, I have come to understand the importance of place in people’s experience and why claiming place seems to be so crucial during this moment in time when things seem to be shifting so quickly under our feet.
There are numerous perspectives. For some it is an origin story that tethers them to something very relational and large - land, kin, history, roots. Others describe it as a season or a chapter which has no particular timeline. For some, it is discerning how much of who they are was formed by where they were or are now, whether environmentally or emotionally. It seems it can be a memory container for others, full of attachment and nostalgia. However, most describe it as an internal space that anchors them to the Holy, whether they understand it fully or not. This “place” might have been influenced by an external sacred site, but not usually. It seems less about geography and more about an encounter of the heart, a ‘thin place’ as the Celts call it, where the boundary between the natural world and God seems especially permeable. “Place” seems to be so meaningful to name and claim.
Spiritual Direction questions for reflection:
How do you define place?
Does claiming place help you settle into the existential questions of the spiritual life such as: Who am I? Whose am I? Where am I? How am I?
How does this famous quote from T.S. Elliot touch you?
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all exploring will be to arrive where we started and know that place for the first time.”
