Did you see the "Where Heaven and Earth Come Closer" article in the NYT travel section on Sunday?
It took my breath away and I am so happy to share it in case you missed it.
I am always so grateful when I read something that totally resonates with how I feel. I find it very difficult to articulate certain states of being.
What is a Thin Place?
"A thin place is a locale where the distance between heaven and earth collapses and we're able to catch glimpses of the divine, or the transcendent or, the Infinite Whatever. Not everyone finds the same places thin. It's what a place does to you that counts. It disorients, It confuses. We lose our bearings, and find new ones. Or not. We are jolted out of old ways of seeing the world, and therein lies the transformative magic of travel."
"Yet, ultimately, an inherent contradiction trips up any spiritual walkabout: The divine supposedly transcends time and space, yet we seek it in very specific places and at very specific times. If God (however defined) is everywhere and “everywhen,” as the Australian aboriginals put it so wonderfully, then why are some places thin and others not? Why isn’t the whole world thin?
Maybe it is but we’re too thick to recognize it. Maybe thin places offer glimpses not of heaven but of earth as it really is, unencumbered. Unmasked."
Eric Weiner's has a new book out, “Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine”
There is also a wonderful description of someone's encounter with the "divine" in Driftless by David Rhodes, another extraordinary writer.
Happy Friday!
It took my breath away and I am so happy to share it in case you missed it.
I am always so grateful when I read something that totally resonates with how I feel. I find it very difficult to articulate certain states of being.
What is a Thin Place?
"A thin place is a locale where the distance between heaven and earth collapses and we're able to catch glimpses of the divine, or the transcendent or, the Infinite Whatever. Not everyone finds the same places thin. It's what a place does to you that counts. It disorients, It confuses. We lose our bearings, and find new ones. Or not. We are jolted out of old ways of seeing the world, and therein lies the transformative magic of travel."
"Yet, ultimately, an inherent contradiction trips up any spiritual walkabout: The divine supposedly transcends time and space, yet we seek it in very specific places and at very specific times. If God (however defined) is everywhere and “everywhen,” as the Australian aboriginals put it so wonderfully, then why are some places thin and others not? Why isn’t the whole world thin?
Maybe it is but we’re too thick to recognize it. Maybe thin places offer glimpses not of heaven but of earth as it really is, unencumbered. Unmasked."
Eric Weiner's has a new book out, “Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine”
There is also a wonderful description of someone's encounter with the "divine" in Driftless by David Rhodes, another extraordinary writer.
Happy Friday!