A Place Within Oneself

Veronica Heinrich
A sense of place, home, and comfort does not have to derive from a
realistic place or any place at all for that matter because a true sense
of place comes from within each of us. A sense of place comes from
the core of each individual and stems from ones ability to be confident
in his or her individuality. Each and every person has a glowing life
source in the pit of his or her stomach radiating life, energy, and
humanity. Sadly though, through conflicted experiences and how we
learn to view ourselves, especially in our western culture, this burning
fire of life inside of us can become constricted. This life source can be
repaired and each individual can flourish and become self-loving. A
secure sense of place can come strictly from, self-love and acceptance
and can give one the ability to successfully feel at home or have a
sense of place anywhere. While most people tend to assume sense of
place must come from an actual real location this is not always the
case. It is equally justifiable to feel comfortable and at home in say a
fictional town in a book with an established sense of self. When a
person truly loves himself or herself, an enlightening freedom of being
home anywhere is now possible. Sense of place comes from an
established sense of self and well-being.
A desert with occasional wintertime snow resides in a valley of
forested, moist mountains. Sitting upon one of these peaks I did not
feel at home. I didnt feel at home simply due to my lack of self-love. I
knew that I would never feel the comfort of home unless I learned to
make peace with myself. A child can lay in bed in between both
parents feeling all the comfort in the world, but as the child ages the
only comfort can derive from the pit of his or her stomach and the full
acceptance of his or her own soul. Self-acceptance in my opinion is
directly correlated to the Earth. As the Buddha advised, You can
search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more
deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that
person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody
in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
As I age I feel my appreciation and love for myself grow along side of
and with my admiration for nature. Yet, it wasnt always that way
starting with a horrid deep fear and resentment of nature, and myself,
as if crawling through the mysterious forest too lush and dense with
foliage to see more than ten feet ahead. Unknown creatures and
predators lurking about unbeknown to you. Slowly, through the years
making my way towards the bright light and clear golden lookout point
of my surroundings where fantasy and reality are residing together as

one. Edward Abbey once wrote, May your trails be crooked, winding,
lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view, words to
describe the strenuous hike to enlightenment. Although enlightenment
can be personal it can also translate into a clear understanding of a
certain reality, such as the realization that as a human race we are
mutilating and manipulating our mother organism for our modern
human desires and conveniences. A spiritual awakening that we take
without trying to sustain our planet to continue powering and
producing for the people of the world. Our need for energy production
furthers the evolution of the human race but also the demise of our
planet. It is rather bizarre the human effort expended to mass-produce
energy from Gaias resources without an equal or greater effort to
sustain these resources.
Gaia is a unique and vast adventuring ground with a strong sense of
individualism. I aspire to be as divine and pure of an individual as I find
Gaia. Individualism is necessary for self-growth. We live behind our own
eyes and will for this lifetime. Our bodies are vessels in which our souls
make a journey for acceptance and a home. Our individuality is
expressed with clothes, hair, and makeup externally. Internally the
ideas, concepts, and perceptions we create in our heads are the true
and pure individuality of our soul. Perhaps for some of us who never
find full individualism and self-love, the only true sense of place is in
our heads, or maybe that is true for everyone. We all live in our heads
with ideologies, biases, ideas, and fantasies floating around in our
complicated minds. We have the abilities to imagine, pretend, write,
draw, and create any fantasy place to feel comfort. We create
characters to have various relationships with and various places to
appeal to our needs and ideals. These imaginary places designed by us
for our souls are just as justifiable to call ones place as a real
destination. The things we create in our head are our individuality and
individualism; its a matter of learning to love the shit storm in your
own head.
This beautiful woman of a planet is the key to self-acceptance simply
due to the yin and the yang found on Gaia that is also found in all of
us. Rachel Carson wrote, Those who contemplate the beauty of the
Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. As
we learn to appreciate the black, the white, and the gray of Gaia, we
realize Gaia only produces the white and positive. She only creates and
gives to all life; humans are the ones who produce the black negative
energy by our destruction of this organic positive life source that Gaia
blesses us with. This leads the soul to understand that it is a child of
Gaia who can come to the same beautiful realizations of itself as it did
of Gaia. Albert Camus said In the depth of winter I finally learned
there was in me an invincible summer. This is the wisdom we can gain

from Gaia if we let her teach our souls. I feel as if people can gain a
sense of place from their own individuality and self-love. I also believe
that as a human race we can tackle our negative habits of taking far
too much of Gaias resources by truly understanding and feeling
comfortable with ourselves because only then can we see outside of
ourselves to what we are doing to our environment. This is why the
process of appreciating Gaia and ourselves simultaneously is so crucial
for the development of our race and the rescue of our planet. We
should all love and respect ourselves and Gaia with every amount of
our souls.
I love you
I love myself
And I love the trees.