Ellen Simmons "Lane page 15"

While reading the beginning of Lane's book Landscapes of the Sacred, I came across a quote that I gave a lot of thought. The quote goes like this:

"Once in his life a man [or woman] ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience; to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder upon it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of the moon and the colors of the dawn and dusk."

N. Scott Momaday, quoted in Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1986), p. ix.

This quote really got to me because it has a strong meaning. This is almost a summary of this course- finding a sacred place in the wilderness. Momaday says that a person should give himself up to a particular place, or landscape, at some point in their life. He says that a person should view the landscape from as many perspectives possible to see it every way that it can be seen and to dwell upon all of its characteristics; really think about why it is a sacred landscape. He says to look back upon the landscape and remember all of its sounds when one is not in the presence of the landscape and to remember how it feels beneath your hands. If the landscape is going to be sacred, that one must imagine all of the creatures that were created by the Creator and placed in the land. To remember the feel of the wind and all of its faintest motions. He also adds that an individual must remember the glare of the moon as well as its reflection on the waters and to dwell upon the colors of the sky as the sun sets and as the sun rises.

Along with the four axioms this quote is something to guide someone in their discovery of their sacred landscape. I know that this may sound generic but my sacred landscape is in Outer Banks, NC. I can look back upon my time there and the time was and is experienced as kairos, without a doubt. I can remember the way the sky looks at every time of day, morning, day, and night. I know exactly how it smells and the way the water and sand feels under my feet. The wild horses, crabs, clams, fish, oysters, and even little dune kitties are all in my memories of OBX. Of course the beach winds are in my memories, because what is the ocean without the harsh, salty winds?! To close my eyes and feel myself wade in the water and to feel the rush of the ocean really reassures me that the ocean is a place I can call my sacred landscape...

Some people may come to the ocean and not really experience it as a sacred place until they really step back and think about it. The ocean is a place of ritual for my family, so it is a ordinary place ritually made extraordinary for my family. We gather there every year to come together as one big family.