Category Archives: Sacred Places

Green River Gorge Resort

For 47 years, since I first started teaching Psychology at Fort Steilacoom Community College, the Green River Gorge has been one of my favorite places in the world.

Soft water cutting through solid rock over millions of years, the roar and clearness of the water, the steep trail down to the river, the waterfall, and the once hot tub under that waterfall. These all make me feel humble at the beauty, and grandeur, and “mysticalness” of this place. The fact that the place is overrun by drunks and rude people during the summer means only that I must go there when few people are there.

A few weeks ago I went again and was able to capture the best shots possible of this place (and nothing can compare to the reality of this place). Here are a few photos.

Sacred Moment: Mt. St. Michel France

Photo Audio and Poem from Dan Windisch’s “Alpha Martin and Omega Steed” available on Amazon.

Sacred Moments read by the author Dan Windisch
I saw her in prayer.
 
And, sensing, in an instant, that sacred light, and posture, and place,
and time,
I respectfully, and slowly, and quietly, raised my camera
to my eye, and gently pressed the shutter release,
allowing the light to reflect onto my camera’s sensors,
this mystical moment, of
Her and God’s beauty, blending, melding, meeting, co-mingling,
communing,
in prayer, in a moment, sacred.
 
I love
The dazzling white light pouring through the three (Father, Son and
Holy Ghost) windows,
That brilliant light reflecting
on the altar, the tiled floor, her white Wimpled Coifed head cover.
 
I love
That brilliant Light resting,
on Her shoulder
leaning slightly-to-the-left, bent-in-prayer.
 
I love
That subtle light and shadow
on her puddled, circled robe,
on the floor,
like rings of a pond wave,
moving inward.
 
I love
that holy light
gently touching the red and white tiled floor, and softly reflecting on
Those thoughtfully shaped, centuries old, columns,
upholding it all.
 
I love
The tilt of her head
In contemplation and prayer.
 
I love
The red lit candle on the altar.
 
I love
That she is solitary, in prayer,
With her God.
 
I love
The carefree, and gorgeous flow, and shape, of her headdress,
As it wanders from her head, to her neck, and down her back.
 
I love
The flowing to the right
Of her white
Robe.
 
I love
How she kneels on that hard floor
Lost to everything, but God.
 
I love,
How in this moment,
She, I, God, that red candle, that light, that place, all of us,
are One,
in contemplation and communion.

Sacred Places: Christ Walking on Water, Stained Glass Rotorua New Zealand

Christ Walking on Water, Stained Glass from Saint Faith’s Anglican Church, Rotorua, New Zealand

Near bubbling mud pools,

and the 90 foot Pohutu Geyser,

and a  Maori village,

This is my photo of

a stained glass of Christ

in Maori robes

seemingly walking on the waters

of Lake Rotorua.

Sacred Places: Esalen Institute

Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California.

For me this is a sacred place that I viscerally feel and know everytime I am there. My photograph is at sunset. People meditate, listening to the sounds of the crashing sea, fully, amazingly, peaceful.

The Big Sur area is incredibly beautiful, with mountains crashing directly into the sea, and waves roaring into the shore.

Carbon dating of artifacts found on Esalen date from 2600 BC. Esalen played a key role in the human potentials movement in the 60’s and provides week long and weekend workshops and focuses on humanistic alternative education. I took 2 workshops there on mindfulness. I believe that the place itself is holy and healing, not to mention the wonderful hot spring hot tubs next to the crash in sea!