This world is indeed endowed with a soul and intelligence, a single visible living entity containing all the other living entities which by their nature are related.

- Plato Timeus 28/30 4th century BC

What makes a place, a place? Where do we find places endowed with intelligence and soul – places we may consider our own ground of being?

The likeliest path to the ultimate ground may be through our own local ground. It is with the land itself and its people where we feel most at home and where we discover the visible living entity of place to which everything else is related.  

In this series of generative conversations, Michael Jones and his conversation partners, offered a richly textured and multidisciplinary examination of place. Throughout these conversations listeners were reminded that too often places have remained placeless because they have not included our stories. 

To find our local ground we need a new guiding narrative that accounts for our felt experience of the world. A story that embraces a more sentient, subjective and holistic view of place, not as a backdrop, but as a living presence that permeates everything in our lives. From this perspective, a sense of place offers a unifying story of belonging that weaves together our world and inspires us to re-imagine not only how we live and lead – but the nature of the world itself.

We welcome you to listen to this profound learning series with Michael Jones as he invites you to explore your own sense of place and belonging.

Each of the 1-hour sessions in the series featured stories and perspectives centered around one of four timeless underlying patterns of place. The purpose of these patterns is to inject life energy and soul into the body of community. Each reveals the underlying energy flow and network of relationships which, when made visible, contribute to a communities’ sense of vitality and well being.

These patterns include: Homecoming, Belonging, Regenerativity and Transformative Celebration.