Reading from "Beauty - The Invisble Embrace" shared by Edveeje at the Art of Humans Being retreat in Essex MA July 30, 2010

[Rita Wuebbeler]

From: Beauty. The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue

“Is it not possible that a place could have a huge affection for those who dwell there? Perhaps your place loves having you there. It misses you when you are away and in its secret ways rejoices when you return. Could it be possible that a landscape might have a deep friendship with you? That it could sense your presence and feel the care you extend towards it? Perhaps your favourite place feels proud of you. We tend to think of death as a return to clay, a victory for nature. But maybe it is the converse: that when you die, your native place will fill with sorrow. It will miss you voice, your breath and the bright waves of your thought, how you walked through the light and brought news of other places. When the funeral cortège passes the home of the departed person, is it the home that is getting one last chance to say farewell to its beloved resident or is it the deceased getting one last look at the home? Or is it both? Perhaps each day our lives undertake unknown tasks on behalf of the silent mind and vast soul of nature. During its millions of years of presence perhaps it was also waiting for us, for our eyes and our words. Each of us is a secret envoi of the earth. (p. 33)

[Edveeje Fairchild]

I shared this passage out of my own deep passion for the power of place. I live in the seaside village of Magnolia on Cape Ann and I am certain the seabreeze blows with the colors of a scarf that I have worn. She knows when I am gone and she delights in my return. She is always here waiting for me, calling me home .... When I say "passion" for a place I don't just mean a fling or passing affair ... I mean the kind of soulmateship and love that creates a kind of marriage or covenant between our soul and the soul of a particular place. This passage so spoke to my own internal experience of seaside Magnolia that I couldn't help but invite others to think about what it would be like to wed their soul's true geography and to experience a lifelong affair with place... knowing that their place feels the same passion for them.