Discovering a Sense of Place

"To know who you are, you have to have a place to come from."
—Carson McCullers

I have spent most of my adult life in Traverse City. For more than 27 years, I have established friendships, business relationships and a building that I call my residence. Yet, when asked where I am from, this city where I have lived in for all these years is not the answer I give.  My response is always the same, “I’m from a small town in the western Upper Peninsula”.

The ironic part of this answer is when I am “home” I am a stranger there as well. Except for my parents and a handful of relatives, my connection to this community comes from the towns and buildings that trigger the memories and stories of my youth. But the Karen of today is not the Karen that lived there so many years ago. I have grown beyond this place as well.

I have often written that I feel God in nature, but I can also say that I am my most authentic when out in the woods. All pretensions and societal expectations fall away, leaving a woman comfortable in her own body, living in concert to the rhythm of nature.  Who I am, my truths, my purpose, are inextricably woven in the fiber of the wilderness. I cannot separate myself from the natural world without feeling disconnected and lost. Simone Weil has been quoted to say “to be rooted is perhaps the most important but least understood need of the human soul.” For me that rooting comes from the coolness of the soil beneath my feet, the breeze in my face, the warmth of the sun on my body. Then I am home.