Sacredness in North Dakota

On June 26, my family had the opportunity to salvage windows from a rural North Dakota church that had been closed for awhile and was going to be torn down on the 27th.  While it seemed like we were defiling the church (my husband is a pastor after all), I placed the act into a new category.  The same windows that we were pulling down had seen some very special and private memories: weddings, baptisms, funerals, first communions, times of happiness, times of solace, and times of great grief.  We were allowing these windows to see many more years of memories....  At the same time, I was reminded of a wonderful book by a North Dakota author, Kathleen Norris.  She's sometimes referred to as a "prophetess of the Plains,"  and her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography* reverently speaks to the spirit of the plains and its people.  Give it a read.

~In memory of Hofva Lutheran Church, 1888-2013

*Norris, Kathleen.  (2001).  Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.  New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.