“I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.”
After reading the New York Times every morning, I need to find a sanctuary where I can recover from the daunting and depressing news around the world. For me, that means retreating to my bedroom to meditate for 30 minutes and playing my guitar for 30 minutes more. My little sanctuary helps me to restore some sense of equanimity in my news-infused negativity. The practices enable me to move from a jangled state to a more joyful state.
A sanctuary is a sacred or holy place; a place of refuge and protection. People have sought out sanctuaries since the beginning of civilization. Those sanctuaries include churches, community centers, meditation retreats, vacation destinations, clubs, nature trails, and solitude. We all need to find some form of sanctuary to get through the stress and strain of our everyday lives. It seems to me that finding those spaces and places has become increasingly difficult as the world has become increasingly complex and dangerous. Thus, the reason for this post – how can we improve our searches for sanctuary, how can we find safe and sacred spaces? I will suggest five sanctuary options: geographic, community, organization, relationship and self. The last providing what I believe are the best possibilities.
Geographic. It’s no wonder that migration has been surging across the world. People are seeking refuge from climate change, unprovoked wars, controlling czars, exploitative corporations, censoring ideologues, and menacing gangs, guns and gulags. Given a lack of safety, hope and freedom, people will risk everything to find new possibilities. When I imagine what could happen in 2024, I even scan the world for countries that might provide more safety and sanctitude. Countries like Norway, Bhutan or Costa Rico come to mind as places that might be considered sanctuaries in today’s world. Even Canada, Belize, or New Zealand. I’m not searching for the “happiest” country, I’m looking for a country that is more humane and sane. Yup, I’ve been thinking about it. Where you live can be a sanctuary . . . . or not.
Community. If you are not sufficiently desperate, despondent, despairing, or depressed to leave the country, you may scan the country for relatively sanguine sanctuaries. I moved to a small community in Northern Michigan that is a sanctuary of sorts. Oh, we have our issues here with an abundance of right wing extremists and a dearth of diversity, but it is clearly a climate refuge and a beautiful place to live. It is clean, safe, and is blessed with sacred Nature preserves – lots of awe and wonder to behold.
I have explored a variety of communities in my endless search for sanctuary. I’ve lived in several cities in Michigan as well as New York City, San Diego, Saigon, Toronto, Washington DC, and Phoenix. Each of these communities provided its options for sanctuary. In New York City, I found sanctuary in theaters, museums, parks and the anonymity of the streets. In San Diego, living close to our older daughter and grandkids served as a real source of sanctuary. In Saigon, I found sanctuary in the restaurants and karaoke bars – hey, I was only 23 at the time. Toronto provided sanctuary in its parks and in the wilderness North of the city. In Washington DC, I found sanctuary in the Art Museums and in the friendships a formed with my cadre of Army buddies. Phoenix didn’t turn out to be the kind of sanctuary I was searching for beyond the lasting bonds we developed in our neighborhood.
In my current community of Elk Rapids, Michigan, options abound. For starters, a new wellness center recently opened that offers massage, guided meditation and Reiki adjacent to Yoga, nutrition and exercise services. Waterside Wellness has created a truly Feng Shui space overlooking a gorgeous stream that flows into pristine Lake Michigan. Every community should be so lucky to have a sanctuary like this one. In addition, Elk Rapids is one of 13 Pure Michigan Trail Towns. The area has abundant hiking trails, paddle trails, birding trails, art trails and biking trails. You can barely turn a corner without seeing another trail head leading you to one Nature immersion experience or another. As Michael Frome says, “Parks are sanctuaries for nature and for humans who will accept nature on nature’s own terms.” Elk Rapids provides multiple parks for people who accept nature on its terms. I could go on and on, but you get the point.
Organization. I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of organizations around the world trying to create healthy, innovative and productive work environments. The organizations varied from highly toxic to highly supportive. The best example I have of an organization that could qualify as a work sanctuary – a high bar to achieve – is the Grand Traverse Land Conservancy. Not only has this organization consciously and thoughtfully created the culture it wants and needs to accomplish its purpose, it also just built a community collaboration center that models what sustainability and interdependence look like. In addition, as the new building was being constructed, employees in each department were asked what kind of physical work environment would enable them to optimize their performance. Some chose an open environment, others opted for offices with a common work area. Can you imagine working in an organization in which you were totally aligned with its deep purpose, you had a voice in the kind of culture you wanted to create, and you were able to shape the kind of physical space that would work best for you. It’s the closest thing to a work sanctuary that I have ever seen. And, yes, there are still challenges. Every sanctuary has at least a few specks of dust.
Relationships: Family and friends are also sources for sanctuary. Any time I can get with both of my daughters is sacred to me. The deep connections inherent in healthy families and lasting friendships can help us get through the worst of traumas. As my older daughter says, they are our rafts in turbulent times. We feel safe and protected when we are fortunate enough to have trustworthy and caring family and friends. These connections build the fabric of a community that can sustain us. For me, community and connections serve as the most essential foundations of a sacred sanctuary. Technology trends are now creating frays in that fabric and luring us to seek sanctuary in its seductive distractions. I’m hoping that we can turn back to the importance of relationships before the comforting quilt of friends and family gets torn further apart.
Personal: Ahh, we finally reach the ultimate sanctuary. Ourselves. Our souls. Our spirits. Our sense of awe and wonder. Our Home in the Universe. We become our own sanctuary when we feel at One with All, when we have a sense of Peace, when we experience Calm Clarity, when we are fully Present in the moment. We enter that sanctuary with a lightness of being, with kindness in our actions, with love in our hearts, and with an acceptance of and openness to whatever a new moment may bring. We experience that sanctuary as being fully awake, unified and in harmony with the world. When we reach that state of consciousness, we are more able to heal ourselves, find compassion for others, and be grateful for every day we are given. We feel strong, supportive, and free. We are grounded and boundless at the same time. To me, that’s the kind of sanctuary that’s worthy of our search. Easier said than done. Much work required to enter. I have always found that reading and writing give me a sense of sanctuary. Books enable me to crawl into another world and get some relief from our current realities.
There are two major complications, however, in finding the kind of sanctuary we are seeking. First, one person’s sanctuary may well be another person’s hell. While some people may find safety and refuge at a Christian Nationalist Convention, it would be my biggest nightmare. Second, the difficulty of searching for personal sanctuary is inversely related to the number of other sanctuaries to which we have access. For example, if you are living in a dysfunctional and abusive family in North Korea in the industrialized “Rust Belt” bordering China, and you are working in a sweat shop for a $1 per day for one of Kim Jong Un’s henchmen, it’s unlikely that you are going to find a time, place or space where you can meditate an hour a day in a Nature garden. On the other hand, if you are living, learning and working in a free country, a beautiful community, a supportive organization and a healthy family, you have a better chance of building a personal sanctuary in your body, mind, heart and soul. Having the benefit of geographic, community, organizational and family sanctuaries makes it easier to pursue personal sanctuaries.
Lady Gaga has the right idea: “I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.” I think that may be true AND we need to acknowledge that building that personal sanctuary is hard enough when we have access to and the benefit of other forms of sanctuary. I wish more of us were able to search more diligently and successfully for the kind of sanctuaries that fill us with the love, wisdom, power and joy we all need to survive and thrive on this planet. And I wish more people had more access to multiple sources of solitude. May it be so.
Also published on Medium.
Ah dear Rick, how sweetly sane your suggestions are for seeking soothing sanctuaries.
Ever steady and soft-toned you stay sturdy as the grown-up in the room among internet sages.
Loving blessings
Artie