Where's your holy ground?

Hi neighbors. Where is your holy ground? You know, some people save a lifetime to travel to Jerusalem or Mecca to touch the ground they consider holy. There are other places in the world where different religions were first started, or where events considered significant to that religion occurred.

We all have our own religious beliefs and most of those beliefs include a place or a town we consider most holy.

When we step back and view the earth from the moon's perspective, there is hardly any place on it that could not be considered holy for one reason or another. What does the word "holy" mean? According to the online version of the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it comes from an Old English word meaning "whole."

It mostly relates to connotations of being divine or sacred or devoted entirely to a deity or the work of a deity.

I think I prefer the original meaning -- whole. What do I mean by whole? Let's check out the dictionary again.

Another Old English and Old High German blend, it means healthy or unhurt, free of injury or defect, deformity or emotional problems. Other words used to describe and define "whole" are restored, intact, complete, unmodified, entire, unbroken, uncut, and even concentrated.

Have you ever experienced being in a place that made you feel whole?

Since the 1960s many New Age ideas have sprouted (or rather re-emerged) about finding one's inner self; becoming "centered" and living in the moment.

Long before the 20th century though, all cultures have encouraged people to look for their own inner guidance and to listen to that small voice within them.

I've often wondered what led early pioneers to keep moving west and what made early settlers decide to plant roots and stay in one spot. Were they first looking for an unknown sacred spot? And did the settlers find theirs?

Caitlin Matthews has a book out that I truly enjoy. Titled "The Celtic Spirit" it speaks to how people try to understand themselves, the world, and how the two can live in harmony. Her tone is maternal and her narrative reads like poetry.

She has this to say about sacred places: "Certain spots draw us to them, there is no doubt. Even if they harbor no ancient monument, if there is no story associated with their borders, we feel somehow at peace or exalted when there. It must be through just that intangible process that our ancestors discovered their own sacred places -- places of natural beauty whose potency drew them again and again to spiritual exploration."

One of my personal sacred places is the homestead of my great-great- grandparents. Their cabin was built at the head of a natural spring -- one that has gone dry only once in over 250 years.

Matthews describes my feelings with these words: "The communion with the holy waters of a well or sacred spring is intrinsically part of Celtic tradition. The way in which we approach these sacred waters matters a great deal. When we come within the compass of ancient springs, we are on holy ground."

Knowing that the spring was vital to my ancestor's survival is one reason that it seems so important to me. But knowing that it always brings forth new water, new life in a continuous stream as a gift from the earth seems to make it very spiritual to me.

We have all heard of someone realizing what we call an "aha!" moment; when intuition and knowledge suddenly blend and wisdom is realized.

Finding oneself in an unexpectedly realized sacred place has the same impact on the spirit as an "aha!" moment has on the mind. Suddenly, all is understood, all is recognized, peace fills us and time is seen clearly as an ongoing cycle instead of a straight line as it is so often depicted.

If you haven't found at least one of your own sacred places, don't give up searching for them.

Matthews warns about turning away from the quest, or ignoring the inner recognition of one's spirit to a sacred place. "The long-held stories and understandings about the land are being eroded by forgetfulness and active neglect. The erosion of such myths in our landscape arises when we begin to view the land as inert and spiritless, as a commodity of financial value, when we separate ourselves from the greater community life of our own country..."

Until the next time friends remember our connection to the history of our land as well as to the people who lived on it, is what makes our land unique. Our appreciation of that uniqueness can help each of us find our own sacred places.