Tuesday 28 July 2020

Locus Iste

"Locus iste" is a beautiful choir song written by Anton Bruckner in the 19th century. The full first sentence is: "Locus iste a Deo factus est", which simply means: "This place is made by God".

The song indicates the sacred character of the place we are allowed to live in, whether that is our own house, our local house of worship, our village, our town, our country or simply the beautiful landscape we live in. Whether one is a religious person or not, everybody can stand in awe sometimes for the beauty that surrounds him.

It may remind us of the fact that we don't need to go far to discover wonderful things. Before we book a trip to the other end of the world, we may envisage a place nearby we never even took the time to visit earlier. At the age of 55, I'm still discovering nice places I've never been before less than an hour away from home. The concern about the environment is already a  good reason to do that, but in this peculiar year 2020, the Corona crisis offers an extra reason to enjoy more vacation locally.

I refer to my earlier blog: "The Magic of Places".


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