The world is a flutter about the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and no wonder, it is a true temple to the natural world and to design. My first visit to the new academy was nothing less than magical. As a little girl growing up in the Bay Area my first recollection of the Cal academy was going with my mom, grandma and brother. I have vivid memories of looking at the turtles and of my grandma teaching me how to make a daisy necklace on a small knoll of grass right outside the front steps. That first re-visit a couple of weeks ago was a quiet (relatively of course) Thursday morning and as my mom, myself and 3 year old daughter stepped foot into and ventured toward the rain forest exhibit, this wave of euphoria washed over me. I couldn't contain it and as I watched my daughter inquisitively chasing after the fish in the aquarium the tears rolled on out, it was like coming home. I have since returned and it still has that magic with maybe just a few more people and more sighs of awe.
About a week after that first visit I was reflecting on that feeling, a friend once told me there was a name for it, Stendhal's syndrome. It is often described as an ultimate awe of beauty but I think I experience it a little bit differently: through observation with any or all of the senses, one is awakened to the ultimate connection of us all and our connection ultimately to the earth and all of its creatures and that we are HERE AND NOW or "we are always home".
A few years ago, I worked for the Geography department at San Francisco State University and if there is one thing that I learned, it is that the emotional bond we have with place is very real. This coming home feeling or connection to place is what I aim for in all of our staging listings and at home for that matter, to create that feeling that you are home and this is something sacred, that there is no other place in the world that I/we would rather be but here. It is a lofty goal but one worth aiming for, and each time and when our clients tell us "we don't want to leave this home now" or "this is how we always wanted it" we realize we're on our way.
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(P.S. this is my first posting here on ActiveRain so hopefully I'm doing this right (smile))
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