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I wonder when your soul stirs? In my line of work, I often get to ask people that question. And the most common response I undoubtedly hear is: At a favourite place ... such as a shore-line or a hill-top or a river or in a forest... So it comes as little surprise, in a way, that a scientific report this week finds that ‘people experience intense feelings of wellbeing, contentment and belonging from places that evoke positive memories - far more than [they do from] treasured objects such as photographs or wedding rings’. The research, by neuroscientists at the University of Surrey, argues that places which are intensely meaningful invoke ‘a sense of calm, space to think and a feeling of completeness’. All of which, after a week full of so many difficult news headlines, makes me want to race off to my own favourite spot, a nearby and gorgeous well-spring! This is not just about standing back and admiring an often beautiful view, however. Something can happen to us - within us - when we are there, within the place. As Rowan Williams once said: at best we are not ‘consumers of this world, we are in communion with it’ - which speaks to me of the spiritual relationship we can have with place, which we sense and intuit, I’m sure, even if we can’t put into words. And the ‘spiritual’, here, is so helpfully earthed, grounded in the physical - for spirituality is not about seeking some floaty state of disembodied reverie; but about being here, more fully - more soulfully, if you like. As part of the very beauty of the scene we behold. I love the story in the Bible of God creating a person from the dust, and breathing life into them, so that they become (as the King James Version puts it) “a living soul” - something that brings the constituent parts of matter and spirit together, yet is somehow greater than the sum of the two. That word ‘soul’ is from the Hebrew nephesh, which means the ‘whole of our being’. And I think, when our soul stirs, that we glimpse something more of that whole - which in turn connects us to the greater whole of life. I often run spiritual retreats outdoors, just to give people’s soul a better chance to stir. The ultimate point, however, is not to get away from the daily grind, but always to return to it, well. To bring some of the beauty back to the less pleasing scenes of our life, and to find our own place more fully within them. For spirituality, in the end, is not about escape but embrace; it’s learning, all the time, to be here.