Sacred Spaces in nature isn’t about making something, or setting something aside as such. Nature is sacred space. Noticing nature always helps us make sacred spaces at home, because our little spots at home should be reminders of the season, of the natural world, of how it feels to be akin to it.
I wrote this after visiting a sacred spot-Armstrong Woods, and realizing that it had been made into a spot on the mantle, a tiny little church, out of what should have been the landscape of our whole state, an environment that we should walking among, living within, instead of cupping our hands around this small representation of it…
Redwoods
We walked up to a tree that was 1300 years old. They called the tree “Parson Jones”.
I don’t know what that tree’s real name is, but I know that’s not their name.
95% of the redwoods originally here in California have been destroyed, a plaque says.
We destroy and protect in turns.
We don’t deserve the peace of the forest. The layers of living and dead perfectly balanced.
I don’t speak their language and can only say silently, “Is it ok for me to be with you right now?”
The steam came off the moss on the trunks of the redwoods in breaths, can you ignore that?
If they are my old aunties and great, great uncles, 50 generations back, then I honor them with my life. I greet them. I learn from them.
And as they will outlive me, I treat them like the babies I am lucky enough to hold, I bless them for the future beyond my sight.
May you stand sentinel on this land for generations to come.
May the forest we don’t deserve endure.