How else do we recover and uncover our holy spaces...?

Since I started working on this project in 2007, I've been thinking about several different kinds of holy grounds that we traversed during our Jan. 2007 trip to S.E. Asia. And those spaces have triggered thoughts about other kinds of sacred space. Tonight, I want to highlight a few of the physical/geographical spaces that have haunted my memories for the past few months. (I think of this tonight b/c of a particular conversation that I carried with a few friends earlier this evening.)

(1) When we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels in Viet Nam, I marveled at the incredibly creative and dangerous tunnels and pathways that were carved into the ground. These tunnels were places that led to certain death for some soldiers. For other soldiers, these tunnels were sanctuaries, refuges, and security. For those of us who traveled through these tunnels in 2007, and for me especially, these tunnels were places filled with mystery and ambiguity. I scurried through them in fear (of the dark and other things) and in sadness, thinking of the tragic war that led to the building of these underground tunnels.

(2) The concrete ground of the dinosaur church in Stockton was a very different "holy ground". That was the space where we exhibited our memories for the first time -- memories and interpretations and reflections of the journeys that transformed our lives. In fact, we literally scattered some of the words of our memories onto the ground right in the middle of this space. We transformed it by bringing back the memories through our very presence.

(3) The 100+ steps of the temple in Malaysia which we visited. We walked up and down those steps, with me clinging to the side bars. I was deathly afraid of the height and feared I would fall every time I took a step up or down. That trail, that pathway took more of my energy and my time than anything. I thought about, worried over, feared, and admired those steps more than the huge golden statue of the god at the foot of the mountain (and standing guard at the top of the stairs). The people who went up and down those treacherous steps inspired more awe and respect and admiration from me b/c they went up and down those steps -- not because they bowed at the statue or because they lit some incense inside the cave temple. It was the act of traveling those stairs -- that treacherous ground -- that caught my attention.

(4) The sandy beach in Nha Trang was where we met our embodied "Jesus". As our group stood in barefeet in a circle, singing and breaking bread together, a homeless man entered our circle and talked with us and welcomed us and hugged us. We encountered a stranger who defied our stereotypes and who challenged our understandings of "sacred" and "community". The area where that encounter occurred was our sacred space -- a space where our mis/pre-conceptions were overturned, transformed, re-invented.