It's that time of year where many people begin to take vacations and head off to the shore, to the mountains, to explore the city, or travel to new and far-flung places.

What role do these places—some of which we visit every year—new places—and even the everyday places in our everyday lives play in our spiritual lives? How and in what ways do they become sacred space to us?

Every summer my family goes to a cottage on a small lake. The first jump in the lake, which marks the beginning of my vacation, always feels like a re-baptism. The water is crisp and clear. It seems to pull all the heat and tiredness out of my body and completely refreshes and renews me (as does the time at the cottage.)

Do you have places like this? Places where healing waters flow, or of inspiring horizons, or places of creativity or quietude? What are those places for you? Is it your backyard, your workshop, the beach, the mountains, or even the front porch at Forest & Main?

Belden Lane, who studies and writes about spiritual landscapes, says: “The sacred place becomes the point at which the wondrous power of the divine could be seen breaking into the world’s alleged ordinariness.”

Where does that happen for you?

Lane also says, "Above all else, sacred place is 'storied place;' Particular locales come to be recognized as sacred because of the stories that are told about them."

Let's share some of those stories tomorrow night and together map our spiritual landscapes this summer.