Spirit of place
As a community of friends, we decided to meet with a theme to build a stronger connection. Our first meeting is ‘Spirit of place’.
My mind goes to where I live. I have lived here since 1997 so that is 27 years. The longest place I have ever lived. I feel at home, and it would only be a strong sense to move me. Was it 20 years ago when we thought we had a house further in the village but alas the chain crumbled?
But it is not only the flat (US: apartment) and the cul de sac that give me a spirit of place, it is also the village of London Colney and the district’s small city of St Albans.
I often walk to the nearby lake. It nourishes me.
Each time I open the communal door and head up the stairs I am full of anticipation.
Over the last 27 years, I have sought places to retreat. Stanton House was one of the first and for perhaps 15 years I would regularly visit.
For the last three years, the Krishnamurti Centre in Hampshire has given me a sense of place.
If I turn to communities I have traversed, 13 or more in my life and to a degree they have given me a sense of place. The spirit of place seems to be like the tabernacle in the wilderness. When the spirit moves me I have moved.
I wonder whether workplaces and friendships. and indeed family also have a ‘spirit of place’.
As a child, I lived near fields and a river and that too nourished me, and so too did my grandparents' homes.
Where the spirit is, there is freedom and vibrancy. Often when the time is up there is a sense that the spirit has moved on.
I wonder do we build a spirit of place amongst us, our relationships and indeed with everything we connect?
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