{photo: Carmen Kergan}

This is my favourite chair… also known as my sacred place. I have many sacred spaces, my yoga mat, my yoga studio, the Bodhi Tree, my bathtub and this chair at home… I like to have candles lit when I meditate at home. I also have my crystals in a bag and will choose one when I need something special to reflect upon. I have a journal nearby too, to jot down any insights I may have, or any questions that arise. I tend to drift off to sleep easily in this chair; it is very comfy and my wool blanket is warm and cozy for our chillier days in Calgary! It’s a place where I can relax and just “be”…

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{photo: Jeanne Lefevre}

This is my sacred space. The serenity and peacefulness of water and the soft, gentle light of candles takes me to a place of clarity and connectedness. Oh, so in the moment.

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The Snake River in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho is my special place. In August, 2000 I took a two week journey alone into the mountains. During that journey, I had a major Realization regarding my small, yet unique place in the Universal web of life. I felt the connection to all life, including my own small part. I “saw” the web of life. I heard the sounds of nature and life all around me, and I felt the elements surrounding and supporting me. I danced into a new awareness and felt truly alive. It was a moving experience, one which I will never forget. {Bonnie J. Sullivan}

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{photo: Peggy Lynch}

One of my sacred spaces is my shower. Everyday, well almost everyday I visit. Here I am naked and vulnerable. The water is visceral. I breathe deeply I feel cleansed clear and my problems swirl into the drain. We are made of water. When I allow water to envelope the outside of my body I am one with something much larger. Life. I emerge refreshed. The best thing about this space is when I travel there is always a similar space. A shower.

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{photo: Martina Jaeckel}

One of my favourite places is Moraine Lake (or Valley of the Ten Peaks) in Banff NP, preferably in the very early morning hours at sunrise (this is when I took this picture in 2006).

{photo: Martina Jaeckel}

It’s a quiet, serene, magical and sacred place. Every time I visit, even during the day with lots of tourists around, I am in awe with the beauty of this place. It brings me back into myself, into appreciation of nature and stillness and “just being”. I always take deep breaths there; the air is fresh and has an earthy, herbal scent to it. I always leave with a sense of “it is good to breathe, it is good to be here”. That’s the essence.

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{photo: Sylvia Barnowski}

For me a sacred space is a “space within” and simply lighting a candle brings the shift – it helps me to bring attention from the outside and busyness to THIS MOMENT. There are many other things that help me to stop and access that space within and to connect with myself and something beyond. Noticing beauty in nature, in people, or ordinary objects is another way to enter the sacred space.

I keep a statue of Buddha close to the entrance of my home. I find it beautiful and it also has a symbolic meaning – it points to “something beyond”, something unlabelled. So, every time I pass this statue I am reminded about the spiritual dimension of my life. I like to surround the statue with fresh flowers to add even more beauty and more meaning. Usually my daughter assists me with the task of choosing the vase for different flowers and sometimes she makes her own arrangements. She usually puts the flowers under the Buddha’s nose which I find both – hilarious and very thoughtful at the same time.

The sacred place, the place where my soul feels at home is the FOREST, with its smell, hidden lives, majestic stillness and magic. Walking barefoot in the forest connects me to the Sacred in ways beyond description.

{photo: Sylvia Barnowski}