Belden Lane writes about how landscapes can be seen as sacred places, something to which I had never given much thought. Sure, I see God's beauty when He paints the sky with beautiful colors for each sunrise and sunset, but I would not think of a specific location as being especially sacred. Throughout the text though, the reader learns that it is not the idea of the place but the place with ideas, the place where something sacred occurred, a storied place. It began to hit me when Lane wrote, "The momentary, ambiguous encounter with that which is smaller than one dreams, yet larger than one expects" (18 Lane).
This presented to me the idea that each sacred location is sacred to people for different reasons based on their personal encounter with the Sacred. Whether the location reminds them of a friend or family member that has passed away or if the location reminds them of the struggles they went through at a point long ago in life, the location presents itself as a place for a story to happen. These stories cannot be forced, but simply happen.
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