Sanctuary Road

Sometimes you just need to take a break. Get away.  Find a place to be quiet. To be still. To be thoughtful. My place for this is Pathways Spiritual Sanctuary in the Black Hills between Lead and Rochford.  You don't have to be religious or spiritual to visit.  In fact, you don't have to be anything except yourself.
I offer this short - and very amateur - video as what I hope will be an inspiration for you to visit this wonderful place.  And, I hope you find it magical, educational, interesting, inspiring, or any other word that may describe the experience in a way that will make it meaningful to you.
Before you begin your visit via the the following link,  there is a brief anecdote I would like to share.  As one travels along the paths there are benches placed at various intervals with notebooks, pens, pencils and crayons for anyone wishing to add a note, comment or illustration describing their personal thoughts.  One entry caught my eye and gave me hope that, in a world where sometimes you feel like your are being overwhelmed by terrible events and bad people, there is always a glimmer of hope for the future.  On this day that glimmer was provided to me by Heidi, age 5.  I took a picture of her entry in the journal but decided not to use it here out of respect for her privacy.  Besides, there was no way I could capture the pure honesty and sincerity of her comment in a photograph.  She had used the crayons to draw a rather fuzzy picture of the Earth, and right above the drawing, in a child's uneven handwriting, were the words "the world is neat."  It doesn't translate well in this context.  I guess you had to be there.  But if you ever are, look in the notebook located in the plastic container on the bench near the angel and child sculpture.  You'll see what I mean.