A Sense of Place

A 'sense of place' - an internal compass - a map made of memory - a feeling of home.

I was meeting a friend for lunch yesterday in my old home town. I decided to take some seasonal decorations to the cemetery while I was down there.

I looked around the lunch time crowd in the cafe and saw hardly anyone I recognized. Then a former neighbor came in. I spoke to her by name and she responded. But a few minutes later she came over and said she hadn't recognized me at first.

As I turned off the highway and headed toward the cemetery, a very strong sense of place came over me. It wasn't just the familiarity of the countryside, it was the knowledge of all the people who once lived in our neighborhood. People, and places, long gone, but whose names, faces and homes I could easily recall.

When I thought about it, I realized that my feelings went back to the beginnings of my awareness - that the sense of place went back to the first neighbors who lived around me - not later ones who may actually have lived there longer.
They were the ones who became part of my internal compass; my map made of memories.