Thin Places

A few days ago, V. Sherman posted on Facebook "Just about to load the car to go to the sand dunes at a place that I think of as a 'thin place'. "  

She also included a link to an article about "thin places" from the New York times (Click here).  The first time I had heard of "thin places" was when Kim Skilling gave a series at St. Mark Presbyterian's Midweek on Celtic influences on Christianity called " Beneath the Celtic Cross of Jesus" where she talked of Iona (one of the "thin places" mentioned in the article).   I always thought there was maybe a list of "thin places"---it never occurred to me that they could be personal and maybe not be places recognized by the spiritual community as being "thin".  Reading the article and V's comment about the sand dunes, it didn't take me long to realize where my "thin place" is.

I had just said last weekend, I must visit Shaw's Garden (Missouri Botanical Garden) several times a year to feel restored.  When friends post on Facebook that they are there, I feel a tugging in my heart.  I always thought it was because I grew up near there:  it was where my family including grandparents went every Sunday after church.  Even when we moved to North County, I found myself drawn there.  Just this year, I posted on Facebook a photo of nothing special at the Garden, but commented, "I am in Heaven."  I even told my daughter, "If your dad and I renew our vows at 50 years, this is where I want the ceremony."  

I am very fortunate that my "thin place" is close and not several hundred miles away like V's is. Where is your "thin place", where you feel Heaven is close to earth, where you feel your soul soaring, where you feel complete, restored, alive?