The Sacredness of Place as a Doorway to Belonging
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
There are lessons that we learn abruptly in life, as we navigate new territory and develop our experience of the world. And then there are those lessons that are only to be grasped through time, reflection and the evolution of our own spirit and understanding of what’s available to us on our journey. The appreciation for the concept of home is one such lesson. At least it has presented itself in that way for me, slowly over the expanse of my life experience as it has widened in shape and perspective.
I’ve always felt as though home was a place I yearned to move on from. A place that would always exist, but wasn’t really there to serve my desire for growth and exploration of life. I spent much of my early years, and even into my 30’s using home as a place to rest in between grand adventures. A place that would always catch me in times of distress or great transition. But never saw it as the place that could also hold me while teaching me the ways of staying. The ways of finding your footing as you navigate the mundane parts of yourself and your daily world.
As time has expanded and I have sat in place through challenges I couldn’t have imagined, something beautiful began to happen. I began to feel a sense of safety that I had never known before. Or perhaps, if I really go back, a safety I only once knew as a child in my family home. I knew the backyard and the trees and the curves of the pool in summertime like the back of my hand. I knew when we would make certain meals in the year and how the cycles of each day would unfold as we shifted from daytime movement to evening rituals of dinner with music resounding all through the house. With a gentle nap in the family arm chair occurring as the threshold to the wind down each long day as the sun shifted towards the horizon. Didn’t it feel as though the days were so much longer back then? Maybe we were simply more present. The time suspended in thin air as we noticed all the small things of our much smaller world.
And in this way, I’ve begun to find this safety and calm once again. As I have softened into the atmosphere of the home I now reside in. As I have settled into the ease of constant seeking and yearning for what comes next. I’ve finally found the ability to be here, now. To find solace in place. An almost forgotten space that our modern world seems to overlook in lieu of digital “spaces” and remote work. A disconnection we’ve all felt as our worlds become more connected and yet grow farther apart each day. We wonder why we’ve lost our footing and feel as though we are floating in a sea of possibility and options, when all the while we have literally detached our lives from the ground we inhabit. From the communities that lie just outside our front doors. Our world and awareness is global, yet we’ve lost touch with the life that lives in our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces, and our natural spaces. The ones that were once meant for communing with one another and learning about ourselves through relationship.
This is the balance I have slowly and quietly been rebuilding over the years here, where I find myself now back at home. So many things I never noticed before. Like how my favorite flowers had become the California Poppy, because they existed and blossomed in my favorite places and seemed to guide me along the way as a symbol of correct course and direction. In the places I longed for most of the time. But never seemed to realize that they bloom each year, right here in my own backyard. Were they always there? Did I simply overlook them? Or did I already have a relationship perhaps with them because they were familiar in far off places?
I feel as though my memory has begun to trace an image of the trees in my yard as the fall settles in and the leaves begin to curl up in dehydration and cover the ground beneath my balcony. And also the first sign of new growth unfurling quietly as the warmth of spring begins to break through the heavy coastal air of winter. And the patterns of grasshoppers and stick bugs and hummingbirds that emerge as the wind ushers in the seasonal shifts of abundance and new growth. The pepper trees embark on the endeavor of turning small buds into bundles of vibrant pink peppercorns. Even when the palm trees begin to release their pollen that begrudgingly covers everything in the yard for a few weeks at a time. It all serves its purpose. And I have begun to find kinship with each one of these cycles that I have come to know so dearly.
It has reconnected me to both myself and the land in which I stand on, in a way that I never knew I was missing. It has enveloped me in familiarity and resource and relationship that has cultivated safety in myself and the world I live in. However scary it may be, I know the seasons and their offerings. I know this place that I have become one with over time. The place that holds me and welcomes me in with all of her changes. Just as I change. Just as I look to honor my own inner landscape and rhythms of life.
So I invite you to take a moment here in this beautiful abundance of spring and begin to simply notice. Notice what is offered to you at this time of year. Bring your awareness to the smallest details of a familiar tree or blossoming plant or landscape that surrounds you. To the way the air feels in the morning, and how it shifts over the hours that carry us through to dusk and that sun kissed golden hour. How does the light stretch differently at this time of year? How does your energy ask differently of you in response to these rhythms?
And as you begin to notice, you will be softly cultivating a peace and safety within the place you reside. The earth, the land, the community, the home, and your own inner vessel that carries your existence. Within a deep understanding and sense of place, you will begin to see the belonging you have always inhabited. The anxiety for what’s uncertain, for what the future will hold and for the sense of support and community that we all so greatly desire, may start to dissolve. You may begin to feel held in a way that you have only known within the warmth and nourishment of your mothers embracing womb. A feeling we are meant to move through life with as we find and create our own embracing culture and sense of belonging.
This is the way of living with ease. When you know that you are a part of what exists around you. Not separate from it. Not moving in friction with it. But moving alongside it. As your environment supports and nourishes you through the ebb of flow of your life.
If you would like to listen to thoughts on this concept of place and the value and importance it holds in our lives, I invite you connect with these musings on Youtube. Click the short video below, and consider subscribing if this resonates with you.
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