There’s a forest near my home that I’ve been visiting since I was a boy. My grandfather took me there first, and he told me to walk slowly and listen. I didn’t understand then what I was listening for. Now I do. I hear the wind moving through the leaves differently there. I feel a stillness that settles over me the moment I step past the first line of trees. That forest is a sacred grove, and I have never once entered it without feeling that I was being welcomed by something much larger than myself.
When I take people to sacred places like this, I always remind them to leave their worries at the edge. These spaces aren’t for rushing through or taking photos. They’re for sitting, breathing, and remembering that the earth is alive and holy. I’ve seen people weep in these groves—not from sadness, but from relief. Something in them finally exhales. My job as a spiritual leader is to protect these places and to teach others to treat them with the reverence they deserve. When we honor the land, the land honors us back. That’s not a metaphor. It’s something I’ve witnessed my whole life.
Sacred Groves and Natural Sanctuaries, Where the Divine Dwells