The pandemic has loosened its grip on us. Our abilities to move around our neighborhoods, states and country has at last expanded. Many of us our traveling, meeting up with friends and reconnecting with family for the first time in several years. I’ve discovered a simple equation to my travels. Longing + Sense of Place= Sense of Purpose.
My longing to reconnect with family and dearest friends fueled my energy to drive 5000 miles from California to Maine. In the next month I’ll fill my longings of reconnection in Nova Scotia, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Conversation, laughing, storytelling, bike rides, boat rides, walks and watching sunsets will fill my days and heart with abundance of familiarity and sense of place.
Sense of Place to me is beyond my home address. My sense of place is deeply connected to my upbringing and the emphasis my parents placed on spending time with family and friends. My sense of place is filled by Yarmouth, Nova Scotia where my brother and his family live and my mother lived the last decade of her life. The ocean, lighthouse, and culture all fill my sense of place. Another sense of place is Lake Champlain at my other brother’s summer cottage. The sunsets, the kayaks and sailboat rides, the picnic lunches on the porch and the sitting on the dock talking are all part of sense of place. A deep sense of place is Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) as that was where my family vacationed in the summer.
A sense of place is that upwelling of peace and calm and an inner smile of joy deep inside.
What comes to mind for you for sense of place?
Sense of place is linked to sense of purpose. When we are anchored in our sense of place, our purpose comes into sharper clarity. It is as if the place focuses our heart, mind, and spirit on what matters most of all. My purpose lens has focused in on three things: compassion, kindness, and generosity of heart. As I visit family and friends this purpose gets clearer and clearer. This clarity fuels me to return to my work and home refreshed and rejuvenated to live a purpose driven life.
When you connect with your sense of place, what sense of purpose gets clearer for you? What is revealed about how you want to be in the world when you are anchored in a sense of place?
An adventure into longing, purpose and place requires curiosity, open heart, and open mind. A little bit of courage to just trust the unfolding might also help along the way.
I hope that you will feel that sense of place that fills our longings wherever your adventures take you this summer.
“Adventure is about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness, and curiosity. If this is true, then ‘adventure’ is not only crossing deserts and climbing mountains; adventure can be found everywhere, every day and it is up to us to seek it out.
Alastair Humphreys.
