Thin Places

This weekend's edition of the New York Times travel section has a thoughtful article on thin places," where heaven and earth come near. These are places that transform us. For me, it's the ocean's shore, especially the solitary experience of the north Pacific coast.

Other places that come to mind have been time spent observing, gazing at and photographing the floating Torii Gate on Miyajima Island, Japan (apropos, given that Torii Gates are considered the portal between the sacred and the profane, between heaven and earth); and an end-of-the-season journey to Skellig Michael, off the wild coast of County Kerry, Ireland.

There was a sense in these places of being other-worldly, of being at the edge, of longing to be there, of being called. Listen.      

http://tinyurl.com/8668x3j

OR

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/travel/thin-places-where-we-are-jolted-out-of-old-ways-of-seeing-the-world.html?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20120310