“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”  This Wendell Berry quote, captured my attention when Lenore spoke it to us.  It has held my attention since our session, as I find myself continuing to consider the implications of this statement.  God’s original creation was grounded in a place, and all of the Scriptural descriptors confirm that this place and everything in it was good.  It was beautiful, it was flowing, it was abundant.  And though the word “sacred” is not found in the creation narrative, it was sacred, because it was the place where God was present.  Then the choices of the humans desecrated this place and that has been the continuing story throughout the generations.

Which brings us to our present day and the personal choices each of us make which desecrate our land. Those scars are evident everywhere if we have the eyes to see them.  Though I think of myself as someone who holds an awareness of the responsibility which I have toward good stewardship of this earth, this understanding was significantly expanded for me through Lenore’s teaching. The terms of kinship, which she used throughout her sharing, gave me a fuller vision for the interconnectedness of human and non-human creation.  Just as a family is connected, not only through relationship, but at the genetic level, I have a new understanding of the depth of this interconnectedness between myself and creation.  My connection to all of the created elements around me is more than relational, it is genetic.  And while I have only a basic level of understanding of epigenetics, this is all very inspiring to me as an opportunity to explore the many new ways I can practice this new vision of interconnectedness with creation every day!