Sense of Place

Considering my neighborhood, I do not feel like its my neighborhood. The area around where I live was plowed down of original trees and bushes years ago, and then developers came in and randomly started building houses all over. So when considering the wildlife that is around we have borrowing owls that live in the empty lot next to me, some vultures that circle the area, there are plenty of loose dogs and cats, of course insects and other rodents.

If I take a stroll around the neighborhood I do not really consider it a neighborhood, nothing like the suburbs. In Lehigh there are a lot of streets broken up by "canals", which are just ditches without water unless it rains. So to walk around you are walking in a zig zag formation, like a maze.

I think it is important to associate with your environment whether it is where you live, work or play. That becomes part of life and where you reside. But for years I have not felt much of a connection to this area. I know that it is where I live, but beyond that I could not say that I could find a "sense of place" besides my home.

I think of my backyard as a playground, for my dogs. That is the closest feeling of place that I imagine my neighborhood. They treat the front yard as a potty area, and the backyard is the playground. They know some of their toys are out there, and when we go outside to hang up laundry or work in the yard they know they get to go and play.