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The Power of Place:
Sacred Space
 
"What is it that makes a place boring for one person and fascinating for another?" asks Shaun McNiff, writing about the "generosity of places" in Trust the Process.
 
As I think back over the novels I've written, I can definitely say that places have been generous to me. I was nudged into realizing this not only by reading McNiff's comment, but also by reading a post by an author who shared a tidbit of research she had done for one of her novels. It may sound strange, writers do research for fiction, even for fantasy worlds. And when I think about it, I realize that I've been researching for my novels all my life, which has allowed me, as I write, to draw on a deep well of memories. I consider many of the places I've experienced as sacred.
 
What, exactly, is a Sacred Space?
 
Rebecca Hand, in her book Sacred Places, writes that sacred spaces "have the ability to push the mundane from our thoughts and lift us to a heightened sense of awareness." The places I have in mind made me feel deeply and nudged me to sense a spiritual side of life that transcends both the mortal and the mortal and the ancient, grand, enduring natural world. If I still myself in these places, I get the feeling that my spirit is larger than my physical body and is pushing to escape its boundaries – that if my physical body were to dissolve, my spirit would expand and embrace transcendent peace, goodness, and beauty.
 
Maybe that's what awe is. It's an overwhelming feeling. The first time it stirred in me, I was fifteen, sitting on a grassy ledge high in the Alps with a gorgeous mountainscape ranging before me. In my memory I was alone, although I know there were a dozen in our group. But they must have been wandering somewhere behind me, because I remember only me and the mountain. And God. For the first time I really felt spiritual reality, the mystery we call God.
 

As it turns out, I'm not the only one who considers mountains to be sacred spaces. are spiritual wonders for many people. "Mountain tops allow the faithful to reach as close to heaven as is physically possible in this world, where clean air and wonderful views elevate our spirits through the simple joy of looking," says Hand.
 
Since then I've experienced this sacred feelings in many places and with other mountains. In fact, they've inspired settings in my novels. Like these mountains:
 
1. The Rockies, Cascades, and Grand Tetons in the American West. (In Breath of Angel and Eye of the Sword  they're not as high, but they're the mountains of Aubendahl. They're the mountains around Eldarra in Throat of the Night . They also inspired the cliffs across the Davernon River in the Dregmoors in all three novels.)   
 
2. The Smokies in east Tennessee, where cuts through the limestone foothills drip with water from heavy rain and snowmelt. (Think of Trevin in Throat of the Night, riding Almaron through the pass in the mountains leading into Eldarra.)
 
3. The lower range of mountains – or high hills – that run down the center of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. At Pali Point on the ridge of these mountains, the wind blows so strongly that you can lean into it. (Remember in Eye of the Sword when Trevin is at Windsweep?)
 
4. Mt. Elgon, which spans the border of Uganda and Kenya. Its summit is considered sacred. I hiked only halfway up, but that jungle-like hike and the sacredness of the area found their way into the contemporary novel, The Undoing of Holly Bea, which my agent is currently pitching to publishers. (Cross your fingers and stay tuned for news on that one.)
 
So many places, so many inspirations. I'll treat you to more in my next newsletter. But here's what I've learned from all my journeys, near and far, high and low, smelly and fragrant, murky and pristine: The true Sacred Space is within. I carry my space with me wherever I go. It never leaves me, and I never leave it. Because, as Hand says, ". . . some places may be unreachable except through inner journeys." And that, friend, is where we live. In the moment. It's the only place where time touches eternity.
 
Your life is a story with a beginning, a middle, an end, and an echo. Live the eternity of it.
 
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Copyright ©  Karyn Henley, All rights reserved.


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