Ashleigh Kennedy--outside reading (Landscapes of the Sacred by Lane)

In Lane’s book “Landscapes of the Sacred,” he states that sacred place is a “storied place”; a place that is rich in story. Particular locales come to be recognized as sacred because of the stories that are told about them (Lane, 15). For example, in Wales there is a fifty-eight-letter village commonly referred to as “Llanfair P.G.”. It is filled with stories of saints and beasts that reach back into the collective memory of the people who live there (Lane, 15). Therefore, the best way to introduce the study of sacred place is to share a particular place-tale in which one’s encounter with the holy is inseparably related to the place itself. From such a narrative we can go on to draw certain axioms helpful in the further exploration of religious experience and its relation to place (Lane, 16). Lane describes a personal account resulting in the realization that by giving up looking for some sign of God is when his retreat usually begins.
In class we were supposed to think of some place that we considered “sacred” due to personal experience. I quickly thought of a hunt club back home by the Blackwater River. To many it may seem like an ordinary spot in the middle of nowhere but to me it’s a place that holds many fond memories that I go often go back to. Hot summer nights we would spend many hours by the water, and in the winter bon-fires were quickly sparked up as we celebrated every weekend. It is places like these and the experience shared with my friends that stamp a time in my life and is therefore sacred to me.