Sanctuary.
There are places we all have and go to that nourish us, both internally and externally. These places are wellsprings of life, energy, spirit and beauty that root us in ourselves and place. Worlds apart exist there – populated by the dreams of all who inhabit that space. Throughout my life, I have found sanctuaries in many landscapes – places that are especially resonant and vibrant for me for their beauty, biology, geology, spirit, history, essence and poetry. Rarely do all these elements align into a singular convergence, but this place is one.
I spent an afternoon wandering the intertwining paths of this magical hollow, feeling very humble as a person and as a designer. I sometimes wonder how I can create something as timeless and moving as sanctuaries like this one. As a designer, I constantly think of place, harmony and honoring layers of ecology, history and culture and how overwhelming it is when somehow they converge.Though I was there only for a short time, I learned a great deal from what I witnessed — and I am thankful.
While there, I recited one of my favorite poems by e.e.cummings – the one my wife and I shared at our wedding.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e.e. cummings
1894-1962
