Our Places

I have been recently thinking a lot about human connection to place as we recently returned from an annual visit to a spot that is enduring in its connection with our family.

Places seem to often hold unique space in our human hearts; serving as repositories of emotion and cherished memories. These places can be found anywhere, and the bonds we forge with them seem to transcend temporal shifts, becoming timeless treasures that can bridge generations.

For my family, this physical place, near a lake and mountains is the backdrop to each summer’s respite. With years of visits, the place has been woven into the fabric of our lives, and from one life overlapping another, it is generationally significant too. It seems it’s not just the physical landscape that matters, but the intangible threads of connection to our personal past and our generational past that make meaning.

For our extended family and friends, this place keeps us connected, even when we are not there together. It’s the place where many of us learned to swim, where we can gaze at stars not usually seen except in a dark night sky, where we test our endurance with a mountain ascent and where our spirits go to heal. When we share a photo of a sunset with family and friends, it’s immediately understood in a common language of kinship and the memory of all these things.

The lines below are from a poem my mother once wrote about this special place:

I recall my life by summers; half a century and more
Sand the hourglass for the mountains which stand, always familiar and unchanged
Waves the dreams of my ancestors, who also loved this place
Sunsets the memories we take home until next time.

Maybe it’s the salt-tinged embrace of the sea, the power of a flowing river, or wind whispering in a forest for you. What are the special places in your life and how do they connect you?

In community,
Lindsay Thompson