Spiritual Connections with Places

[Maister]

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Comin' home to a place he'd never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away
On the road and hangin' by a song
But the string's already broken and he doesn't really care
It keeps changin' fast and it don't last for long.....

I was just listening to the song 'Rocky Mountain High' and was wondering if anyone here has experienced a connection with a place that goes beyond merely liking where one is at, but rather belonging (on some deep level) at some geographic location?

I've heard a number of people relate before how they feel at 'home' in a particular widerness area, but I'm also wondering if anyone can report the reverse, where someone grew up in a rural environment and discovered they 'belonged' in Manhattan? Or someone who grew up somewhere like Nebraska or Alberta 'finds themselves' when they move to the seacoast?

Has anyone ever experenced a different culture or subculture in their travels and thought they might be more at home there?

[dandy_warhol]

Monument Valley, UT.

i can't put my finger on what the connection was but i've always been interested in Native American culture so that could've had something to do with it.

[kjel]

I can totally relate to this.

I was born and largely raised in Oregon and then took a job relocation to Greenville, South Carolina in 2002 when I was 28. Although it took a bit of getting used to I fell in love with the place...hard.

I became a first time homeowner, got engaged into the community in a significant way, finished my undergrad at a small college where I had multiple internships with the city and county further deepening my ties with the community, and was a member of an incredible service oriented church where I used to assist on the ESL outreach team. Although I loved growing up in the Portland metro area I didn't find a true "home" until I moved to SC. Now I am in NJ and although I am happy with my job and graduate education I still miss the South much to the dismay of those I know here. Hopefully I will get to return permanently when I am finished here.

[zman]

Born and raised on the high plains of Colorado's Front Range, I have always been interested in the woodsy north of the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. I guess it is more a fascination with cold, wooded climates, because I rather enjoyed the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota and Ontario's Quetico Provincial park.

So give me cool weather, harsh winters, lakes (or other bodies of water) and tall evergreens.

Perhaps in the "summer of my 27th year" I should travel around and hone in on a specific place.

[Tom R]

I'm not a spiritual person, but one place that really affects me is the Blanket Hill, the shooting site on the Kent State campus.

[Maister]

Monument Valley, UT.

i can't put my finger on what the connection was but i've always been interested in Native American culture so that could've had something to do with it.

I hope prospective Secret Santas are taking notes. She's really asking for something......

[jmf]

South Milford, Nova Scotia

Not Kejimkujik National Park but Milford House. I have been there every summer since I was 1. I worked my way through university there. I found my first real love there. I share it with my husband and daughter creating new and wonderful memories.

It is peace, solitude, calm, happy. It is the place I want my ashes scattered.

http://www.milfordhouse.ca/

[dandy_warhol]

I hope prospective Secret Santas are taking notes. She's really asking for something......

ack! gag! NOOOOooooooo-sir-re-bob!



but i do like this t-shirt:

[Chet]

1) Sauk Praire, Wisconsin. Gods country.

2) Cape Cod and Nantucket

3) Anywhere on Maui

[Bear Up North]

Faithful readers already know this Bear's answer.....

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I am not a spiritual person but a spirit of sorts grabs hold when I am up north. In all my years I still can't explain "romantic love" and that same holds true for my feelings for the YooPee.

Perhaps it is my northern European lineage. Maybe it is a touch of great memories of all of my time up north. Throw in a climate that a furry (except on top) Bear thrives on. Sprinkle on some of the incredibly clean water and clear air. Let my bare feet touch the cold water of Lake Superior. Baptize me with chilled beer shared at a tavern in the woods, constructed of local logs. Allow my blue eyes to gaze upon authentic snowshoes hanging on a wall....a gentle display in the warm summer and a great friend when the winter winds bring in lake effect snow.

Obviously, I connect with this place.

Bear

[craines]

The west (US) .From the pacific to the Rockies there is nothing that equals its grandure. A specific spot in the west would be the Monterey Pennisula. I get the feeling I am coming home everytime I visit the pennisula and its been that way since the first time I had visited the area some 40 years ago. I cannot explain it one bit.

[Maister]

a spirit of sorts grabs hold when I am up north.

Yeah, I grab hold of all sorts of spirits too when I'm Up North; whiskey, gin, vodka, you name it!

[TOFB]

Trail running at Starved Rock State Park, Illinois, after a summer rain, when I found peace with my father's passing many years ago. . . .

[natski]

Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, watching the sunset over the wetlands.....

[ofos]

Let my bare feet touch the cold water of Lake Superior. Baptize me with chilled beer shared at a tavern in the woods, constructed of local logs.

Small beach near Au Train where you can swim in Lake Superior in August and experience what a thermocline really is. The Elkhorn Lodge outside Wetmore.

[illinoisplanner]

The places where I've felt the strongest spiritual connections or sense of belonging to the place:
McHenry County, IL
DeKalb, IL
Door County, WI
Downtown Chicago, IL
Washington, DC

[Luca]

Lots of places.

Baroque churches in Rome (and I ain't even Catholic)
Anywhere on the sea, in the early morning
The Italian Alps
London
NYC south of Houston
Paris at Night.

[Whose Yur Planner]

For me it's the UP. I had an awakening regarding the environmental movement and issues. The first time I saw Lake Superior, near Muinsing MI, it was like I woke up. Before then I had been asleep. There were places that needed to be preserved.

[wahday]

but i do like this t-shirt:

I HAVE that shirt - wore it this weekend.

I spent a lot of time in the Ontario lake country as a kid and adolescent going on extended canoe trips (the longest was 19 days). I still get all prickly thinking about that setting - so many lakes and rivers, the Canadian shield coming right down to the water, the (few remaining) old growth white pine forests, the cry of loons. Or maybe that prickly feeling is my memory of thousands of mosquito bites...In any case, its beautiful country.

I have to say that next to that, the landscape and incredible, terrible beauty of New Mexico, where I currently live, is very moving and dramatic. The state is amazingly diverse, too. I am especially fond of northern New MExico and also the Gila Wilderness in the southwest quadrant of the state.

[CJC]

Places I've felt it:

San Francisco (my current home)
Amsterdam (former home)
Barcelona (former home)
Buenos Aires (future home?)
Mendocino, CA (favorite weekend spot)

[Budgie]

I used to live in the shadow of Ely Cathedral in Ely, Norfolk, England and I feel a special connection to the cathedral and it's grounds (which have dwindled over the years since the CofE has experienced cash flow problems). I'm also attached to the headwaters of the Verdigris River in Greenwood County, Kansas. I could write a 10,000 word essay on this if you like.... but I know you don't.

BTW, when is Eeyores Birthday?

[Clore]

Savannah, GA and Tybee Island. Beauty and serenity everywhere. Foolish of a younger me to move up here to PA : ( Can't wait until the time is right to move back!
I'm drawn there in a way I can't explain.

[Daytonpix]

I wonder if this is related to the German concept of Heimat.

I think the closest I felt to this was some hill country and bottomlands southwest of Louisville.

But they tore most of that out and subdivided it. So no place anymore, really.


I think this concept of spiritual connection to place is in the Japense culture, with those Shinto shrines in gorges or near waterfalls or on bays and such. And I think the Greeks had some of this thought, too, in their early temple locations?

[Maister]

found somewhere on highway 7 near Nez Perce, ID while exploring google maps this a.m.
I always envisioned Idaho as the most mountainous state in the union. I really didn't expect to find a landscape like this (and yet we all know Idaho grows famous potatoes - they have to grow them somewhere and somewhere isn't on mountainsides)

For some reason, I feel a spiritual connection with places like this. Broad flat land where the horizon extends seamlessly into infinity.

[TerraSapient]

- Hoh Rainforest, Olympic Peninsula, Washington
- Pololu Valley, Big Island, Hawaii
- Mahai`ula Beach, Big Island, Hawaii