As a child I would go into the forest across the street from our house in Edmonton. We, myself and 3 siblings, called this magical place, “The secret hideout.” It was lush and moss covered, the light trickled through the trees to light up the rich forest floor below. We had a fort that we had build amongst a group of trees, and would create the most fantastical made up realities there, in those woods. It was a life beyond our life, an escape, and a sacred space.
This is my place of joy, it lives in me now. I use to lay with my back on the moss, I can still feel by six year old body sink into it. I felt as if it were a foot deep. I would lay there, in this nest of moss, being tucked in by the earth, and look up at the sky beyond the trees. I’d be taken away, to the most peaceful and serene state. Nothing could harm me there.
“What did you do as a child that created timelessness,
that made you forget time?”
I’ve carried this sacred space into my adult life. How you PLAY is your sacred space, all responsibilities are cast off. When I am in the mountains running or wading through a river, resting my back against a tree or watching the dance of a butterfly, I am there on the moss, I am in a space that is my own, playing, just me and the earth.
Once we’ve found what our personal sacred space is, we can take this with us anywhere. We can fill out trunks with crystals and tapestries, with singing bowls and bells, but these things wont bring us to our space if we don’t know where that space is inside of us, if we haven’t gone inward to find it. They can open the door for a quicker and lighter transition, but we still need to know the way.
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself
again and again”
(Doi Suthep, Thailand)
To the point, I’m here in Thailand and I’ve uprooted myself to a new place. A house away from the tourism, away from the traffic, and sharing it with a man 30 years my elder. I’m the farthest away I’ve ever been from my comforts and finding or creating an outward sacred space is a real challenge. So I’m guided to go inwards, where I’m sealed off from the temporal world, where I can release and be light. Having an inward life brings me closer and closer to knowing timelessness. The deeper we can go inward, the more at peace we’ll be with whatever happens. If we can translate this sacred space into parts of our daily lives, then we are dissolving the separation. We are starting to see spirit in everything, in everyone.
“To live in sacred space is to live in a symbolic environment
where spiritual life is possible, where everything around you
speaks of the exaltation of the spirit.”
Joseph Campbell
Love, Be, and Flow Free
Swati
Awaken Your Wild Wellness 