Deena Bouknight's Writing Life: Sense of PlaceThe first time I ever learned that t...

Deena Bouknight's Writing Life: Sense of Place:

The first time I ever learned that term, "sense of place," was while reading "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau, in college. For those who haven't read it, it is a senses story that takes place in the mid 1800s in some woods near a pond in Cambridge, Mass. The point of the first-person account is that we need to be fully aware and appreciative of our surroundings at all possible times. There is beauty, tragedy, and godliness everywhere. The busyness of life sometimes prevents me from focusing; but, when I do, and I search for the senses words to describe a "sense of place," there is joy in that. Sometimes, in order to become awestruck afresh with all that we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, we have to take ourselves to new environments. I recently thrilled at ...