Derek Terrell: Responding to Gary Snyder #2

“The fertility religions of those times were not necessarily rejoicing in the fertility of all nature, but were focusing on their own harvest,”(Snyder pg 85).

This sentence from Gary Snyders book, The Practice of the Wild sparked the idea of what nature means to me. This idea of not necessarily always rejoicing in every little part of nature, but in a specific part or place in nature that means the most to me. Once you recognize this specific piece of nature as something special, then you can decide if it represents a sacred place to you. The end of this quote where Gary Snyder is mentioning how people focus on their own harvest, introduced the thought to me that people have to gather or harvest the importance of a specific piece of nature or land that is sacred to them, in order for it be labeled as sacred place. This all seemed probable to me as I read because nature in general offers people many ideas, and feelings that you can’t get from just anything in life. For example, as I watch a sunset I get a feeling of relief, almost as if i put everything behind me as I await the next days obstacles. The sunrise works the sameway, only instead of leaving everything behind, it gives a feeling of renewal or a fresh start. The idea of everyone harvesting products of nature became clear to me because nature is offering ideas and feelings for us to experience.