But if you do know what is taught by plants and weather, you are in on the gossip and can feel truly more at home. The sum of a field’s forces becomes what we call very loosely the ‘spirit of the place.’ To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made of parts, each of which is a whole. You start with the part you are whole in.

–by Gary Snyder