The Sacred

Let’s talk about the sacred.

The sacred barely exists in our agnostic world, and that is a shame. What does it mean for something to be sacred? It means something is sacrosanct, deserving of veneration, connected to the highest of values, to truth. It means it should be protected at all costs and practiced without exception.

So what does it mean that the sacred no longer seems to exist?

It means we have very little left that feels worthy of reverence. We are deprived of rituals and places that bring us closer to ourselves, to truth, to creativity, and to intuition.

Joseph Campbell said that "you must have a room, or an hour, or maybe a day, where you do not know what was in the newspaper that morning, you do not know who your friends are, you do not know who you owe and what they owe you. It is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. It a place of creative incubation. At first, you may find that nothing happens there, but if you have a sacred place and use it, something will happen."

He also said that "life has become so economic and practical in

its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment become so great you hardly know where the hell you are or what the hell you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you."

I resonate with that deeply.

I had a lot more solitude in my younger years. It was not always enjoyable, but man do I miss it now that I often feel like I am drowning in responsibilities. I used to set aside time to read, to meditate, to write, to contemplate. Some of my most creative thoughts and ideas came from there. As Campbell said, it was a place of creative incubation.

Creation

And to create is to bring life into the world.

That is part of our duty here. Stop for a moment and think about how everything around you came to be. Look around. It all began as an idea. Ideas are life forms. They are the first stage of creation, the seed from which everything else is built.

But now, not even our thoughts feel like our own.

We repeat TikTok sounds in our heads. We are flooded with noise. There is music in the elevator, music in the store, music in the gym, podcasts in the car, notifications in our pockets. We seem unable to travel up three floors without external stimulation. We are overstimulated and under-formed.

My Routine

This passage hit me hard, so I started thinking about how I could create a sacred place for myself.

I decided to block off one hour each week. I am choosing Sunday morning at 10 a.m. That is the first step: put it on the calendar. Because the truth is, most of us are not going to spontaneously decide to use our time intentionally anymore. The distractions are too ubiquitous and the responsibilities too heavy.

Right now, I do not have a perfect place inside my condo, so I picked a bench outside our complex under a beautiful tree. That will be my place. I will sit there, write there, think there, and walk there.

That will be my small act of resistance.

The Research

Research suggests that intentional solitude can support self-reflection, identity development, and emotional renewal when it is chosen rather than imposed. How we interpret time alone matters too. People who view solitude more positively tend to experience it more positively.

There is also strong evidence that stepping away from constant demands, especially in natural settings, helps restore attention. In plain English, your mind gets less mentally fried. Exposure to nature has been linked to improved focus, cognitive restoration, and, in some cases, stronger creativity.

On the creativity side, there is evidence that incubation matters. Periods of reduced demand, where the mind has room to wander or settle, can produce better creative outcomes than constant task pressure.

Building Your Own Sacred Place

Do not overcomplicate this.

Start with one hour a week. That is enough.

1. Put it on your calendar first.​
   If it is not scheduled, it will get swallowed by the week.
2. Pick a place that feels slightly removed from your ordinary life.​
   It does not need to be dramatic. A porch. A park bench. A chair in the corner of your apartment. A library. A church. A trail. Your car parked somewhere with no agenda. The point is not aesthetic perfection. The point is separation.
3. Leave your phone behind, or at least put it on airplane mode.​
   The sacred cannot compete with notifications.
4. Bring one or two anchors.​
   A journal. A book. A pen. Maybe nothing at all.
5. Do not demand productivity from the hour.​
   The point is not to squeeze output from yourself like a machine. The point is to create the conditions under which something real might emerge.
6. Expect some resistance at first.​
   You may feel restless, bored, or agitated. That is fine. That is probably a sign that you needed this more than you realized.
7. Stay with it.​
   At first, nothing may happen. Then, over time, something usually does.

A Few Examples

This can take different forms depending on the person:

• Sunday morning with coffee, a notebook, and no phone
• A thirty minute walk at dusk with no music or podcast, just thought
• Sitting in a parked car before work and writing for fifteen minutes
• Going to church alone during the week, not for service, but for silence
• Sitting in the backyard after the kids go down and staring at the sky long enough to hear yourself think again

There is no single correct form.

The question is simple: Where do you go to remember who you are beneath obligation, stimulation, and performance?

Because if you do not have a sacred place, the world will claim every square inch of your mind.

Eventually, you may become efficient, informed, distracted, and useful to everyone, while becoming a stranger to yourself.

CTA

This week, I want you to create one sacred ritual.

Keep it simple:

• Pick the time
• Pick the place
• Decide what you will leave behind for that hour
• Protect it

Then reply to this email and tell me what your ritual will be.

I want to hear where you are going, when you are going, and what you will leave behind for that hour.

I may share a few of my favorite responses in the next newsletter so we can inspire each other, and so your commitment becomes a little more real.

Not everything in life should be optimized. Some things should be sanctified.