Anne Taylor Robertson 1

1. Landscapes- Kairos
“Tell me the landscape in which you live and I will tell you who you are”- Ortega y Gasset
Chapter eight of Landscapes talks about the ephemeral nature of place. What does that mean? It’s talking about how the sacred religious experience in a place is only temporary, and short-lived. When do we experience this? Often times when we are in nature, a certain moment passes. This moment is called kairos. It is the pinnacle of peace, in this case- when our realization of our need for nothing more collides with the overwhelming beauty that surrounds us. Kairos can be different in different situations, but when experiencing the outdoors, it is this one passing moment. It can last a day, hours, or even just a second. According to Belden Lane, these moments are unrepeatable. Another characteristic of these moments is that they are impossible to capture. We cannot take a picture of it; we cannot even record it in our memories. It cannot even be fully understood by those to whom we try and explain it. This is because it is a highly personal and variable experience. We will never come back to the same point. Every person can and will experience moments like this if they allow themselves to be fully submerged in the nature surrounding them, free of all outside distractions. So, while these incredible moments of peace are fleeting, we know with certainty where to go to find them when we need them most, and that is outside, “Access to what we encountered there is difficult. It shares the ultimate impenetrability of all spiritual experience,” (Lane 218).