What is the importance of place? This is a question I think a lot about. The answer has become more complicated as we increasingly meet our needs in ways other than hunting, gathering, and farming. We travel more, farther, and faster than ever, counting distances in hours that our ancestors would have counted in years. Despite our changing relationship to place, there is no question that we still form deep connections to landscapes, neighborhoods, cities, towns, forests, rivers, and buildings. There are a handful of places to which I feel especially connected. They are places I have lived and grown with family and friends. They have influenced the way I think, feel, and live. They are the places I return to over and over in my mind and in person.