About

This blog gives voice to a universal quest to find our place in the world—to discover who we are and why we are here. Whether understood as family or neighborhood, home or city, we resonate with the joys and struggles of belonging to a place.

The individual journeys of the blog’s six co-founders intersected in a place just outside of Santa Fe. There, at the Glen West workshop, the six writers met in person for the first time, eating together, hearing one another’s stories, and sharing a love for writing (and the frustrations that often come with it). For a week, we were a community of creatives in a set-apart place. As we anticipated returning to our homes, scattered across the country, this blog was born. In March 2015, Cara Strickland, an early You Are Here enthusiast and guest contributor, joined our team. 

In the stories found here, we use “place” in its broadest sense to include belonging, engagement, attachment, and relationship, as well as geography. Instead of giving in to the temptation to run from place to place, seeking happiness around the corner, we are each trying to claim that broad and rooted sense of place right where we are. We know this starts with mentally and emotionally “showing up” to our current reality—contemplatively opening ourselves to be (incarnationally!) present to the place where we are. As Christians who wonder and struggle and doubt, we also believe our bodily reality points beyond itself, allowing us to know and experience God.

But ultimately, day-to-day human experience happens in concrete places. We live our jumbled, messy lives in specific places with unique cultures and personalities, shaped by our varied perspectives and life experiences. Like the neon arrow on a map, our place is a grounding element in our lives, reminding us that for better or worse: “You are Here.”

Where are you? We’d love for you to submit your own stories to our blog.

 

About our banner artwork: 

YouAreHere3 (1)Our banner art is a mixed media collage on a vintage zoning map, created by the talented artist Laura Wennstrom. Laura is an MFA candidate in New Media at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and she (along with her husband Anders) are regular guests around the table at the home of Kristin Tennant (one of the blog contributors). Prints of this banner art are available for purchase (in two versions) at Laura’s Etsy shop.

 

 

 

 

8 Thoughts.

  1. I am intrigued by this “place” and want to read more. I’m not finding any other way to subscribe so I’m hoping it still works to do it by commenting.

  2. Hi Jacquie, thanks for visiting and wanting to subscribe! When we created the blog we had some trouble finding a subscription platform we liked, so unfortunately that piece of our site has been on hold. There is one way to subscribe, but it’s sort of hidden: When you leave a comment on a post (or page, as you did here), there are two boxes you can check below the “post comment” button. The second one says “Notify me of new posts by email,” which actually signs you up to receive all new posts directly to your inbox. (You need to do this before you submit your comment.) We will work on installing a better method, but right now this is the best we have!

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