In the House of Rising Sounds

Book excerpt: Ancient Celts saw "thin places" where heaven and earth came strangely close to touching. Stephen Copeland experienced something similar when his mentor took him to the Double Door Inn, an historic hole-in-the-wall blues venue in Charlotte, North Carolina. This unassuming place invited Copeland further into a spiritual journey that calls out to each of us: to open our senses and "tune our ears" to thin places all around; to become aware of sacred spaces in everyday places. When Copeland learned the half-century-old Double Door Inn would be tragically closing, he made the old white house of sound his home during its final year. What do thin places teach us about ourselves? What do they teach us about reality itself? And what do we do when they're gone? Copeland's soul-searching journey—with the Double Door as his guide—will help readers become more present and attentive to the thinness of reality as we walk "with our feet on the ground and our soul in the stars."