Trouble, trouble, trouble all about my soul
As soon as my feet touch down
I won’t be in trouble no more.
-Cary Ann Heart, from “Trouble About my Soul”
A few days ago on my morning walk, this song appeared on my playlist. A suggestion from my daughter, I’d never heard it before, but the song resonated profoundly—partially because I heard the lyrics incorrectly.
I heard: as soon as my feet touch Zion, and there I was—walking on the beach in Tel Aviv. How did Cary Ann Heart know how I felt? How did she know that I feel so right being here—in Israel, by the sea, smelling the salty air? How did she know that my morning meditation is walking here by the sea and somehow, I feel peace in my soul?
Well, she didn’t know, and even I didn’t know—the correct lyrics, that is. But, it got me thinking about the fact that we all resonate differently with places. Some of us feel most at home in cities, others in nature; some in forests and others by the sea; some love the cold and others a dry desert.
I’m not sure any one place is more holy than another; I think God is everywhere. But, we can only be one place at a time, and there are definitely places that speak more to us than others. And these places, when we truly find them, can become holy for us. They can be a place where we feel close to God, where we can pray more easily, and where, we won’t be in trouble no more.
Tara Zafft, Ph.D. 