When I was a young child, my family lived in Pasadena, California. We would often meet up with friends for a picnic at the very beautiful Lacy Park in nearby San Marino (https://sanmarinoca.gov/community/faqs/lacy_park.php). Back then this several acre park had a playground area that, as I recall, featured play structures that we would now call dangerous – a large (hot) metal slide, a teeter-totter that up to six children could sit (or, more often, stand) on, and a fast merry-go-round. The playground was a lot of fun, of course, but the places I most loved in the park were the forested areas.
I remember that there was a thick forest on the righthand side near the playground. There were no walking paths into the woods, but I would find my way into the dark shaded space through the bushes and trees. I liked to look for trees that had hollowed out areas, thinking that they could be homes for small animals or birds. I would imagine that little fairies with wings like dragonflies lived under the mushrooms. After what seemed like a long walk (but was probably only about five minutes), I would come to a small clearing. It was a circular open space in the forest, maybe ten or fifteen feet across, where the sun would shine directly onto the forest floor in the middle of the day. It was a surprise to find this sort of thing in the thick woods, and it felt like magic to me. I could step out of the shadows into the brightness and feel it all around me. It was a place to stop and stand still.
As a kid in second or third grade, I wouldn’t have called the clearing a sacred space, but it was. My instinct was to slowly and reverently enter the space. I wanted to keep silent and feel the sun shining down on me and the light surrounding me. I wanted to stand there for a long time, by myself, just breathing it in. I didn’t have any words for it, but I knew that what I experienced there was very special.
I remember that wonderful feeling even today, all these many years later. I have felt it many times since then, and in many different kinds of spaces. We might believe that the Spirit is present always, but even as a young child, I seemed to deeply feel the truth of this more readily out in the woods. I never want to lose that feeling.