When Robin Hawkins Anderson arrived in Henderson County in 2015, she was still recovering from the upheaval caused by the dissolution of her marriage. A friend recommended spending time on the trails of the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site as a place to find perspective and perhaps discover a new path forward.

Seven years and over 7000 photographs later, Robin has published her first book, Uncommon Sanctuary, a photographic journal featuring Carl and Lillian Sandburg’s Connemara home in the mountains of western North Carolina. The book, the first in a planned series of five books, chronicles Robin's exploration of Connemara and the imprint Carl Sandburg and his family left upon the land that inspires her and so many others.

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In 1946, the Sandburgs were searching for a new creative home for Carl and a place for Lillian to nurture her prize-winning goats. When Lillian brought Carl to Connemara as an option to consider, it is reported that he said, “This is the place. We will look no further.”

When visiting Connemara, now a National Historic Site managed by the National Park Service, it's immediately apparent why Sandburg felt so strongly about living there. Its setting is 246 acres of diverse and beautiful land, filled with more than 500 types of plants and 14 ecosystems.(1)

Indeed, for those who frequent the grounds and many trails of the Sandburgs mountain home, Connemara is a place of reprieve and restoration. It is also the perfect venue to connect with your creative muse.

"It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness, to sit on a rock in the forest and ask of himself, ‘Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?’ —Carl Sandburg

Sandburg referred to this experience of loneliness as “the creative hush.” And it was that “creative hush” that captivated Robin’s imagination and inspired her dream of publishing a book about a place that helped repair and restore her soul.

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Robin grew up in Asheville, the descendant of a family that has lived in the mountains of western NC since the founding of Buncombe County in the late 18th century. Relative Benjamin Hawkins had a farm on the grounds of Biltmore Estate and the family cemetery is still there. As was often the case with early settlers to the region, the family intermarried with native Cherokee people and Robin credits her strong sense of connection with the land in part to that early heritage.

Robin left Asheville for a short time to attend school in Charlotte. She returned, however, to help people who struggled to scratch out a living in the mountains. “My father had been very poor,” she explains. “As poor as you can get. So I had a strong interest in helping people.” After earning her degree in sociology and public administration, Robin married and raised a family of five children - three of her own and two step-children. Then, at age 38, she went back to school to become a counselor. She eventually worked as a school counselor for six years in the poor community where her father and grandfather grew up, and later went into private practice.

The demands of career and family supplanted her natural creative interests until the upheaval of divorce forced her to reexamine her priorities. She came to understand it was time to step away from exclusively helping others - family and clients - and find a way to help herself. “For many years I fostered creativity in my children and as a counselor,” says Robin. “Now I find artistic expression through the world of photography.”

The combination of hours exploring Connemara - often seven days a week and 5-6 miles a day - proved to be the healing balm Robin was seeking. “It was going back to who I really was, which was very creative.” Her days at Sandburg turned into weeks which turned into years. She experienced renewal and peace on the trails along with like-minded souls who became her tribe of newfound trail friends.

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Her initial days at Connemara were a way to re-center and find peace. There was no thought of creating a huge portfolio of photos or writing a book and she was focused solely on hiking. But then, a change occurred. “Each time I passed by Carl Sandburg's chair on the rock behind the house I began to wonder, “What is it about this place? What's going on? Something is happening in me.” Robin was experiencing Sandburg’s “creative hush” and her long-suppressed artistic nature welcomed the opportunity to blossom again.

Robin started taking pictures with her iPhone. And she never stopped.

“Suddenly, this place became a purpose. It became something I felt I was intended to do - to record the natural life here and try to understand what the Sandburgs experienced and loved about this place.”

Once Robin started taking photos, she couldn’t stop. Today her vast portfolio of photographs explores every building, garden, trail, and vista of Connemara through every season of the year. The idea to compile all those photos into a book came during an early morning walk in 2018. “I was coming down the mountain one day and I realized I needed to create a book. It became something I felt like I was intended to do.”

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Talking to Robin, it is evident within moments that she feels a deep connection with Connemara. That connection has created questions in her mind. “I began to wonder what is this kinship I have with the trails? Why was I the one seeing these pictures? Why did this mountain share these things with me?” Even if the answers to her questions were not entirely clear, what she needed to do with the “gifts” presented to her was clear. She needed to create a photographic record of her days at Connemara.

Robin also appreciates the healing benefits of time spent in nature. “It’s that one foot in front of the other connection with the Earth that is almost like a mindfulness practice. You can leave whatever you're concerned about at the bottom of the mountain or you can work it out on the trail.”

Mostly, Robin appreciates the ability of Connemara to provide inspiration. “This place is poetic. It brings words and concepts into your mind … and you don't know where they come from. They just present themselves to you.”

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Over the course of her years at Connemara, Robin has had many opportunities to talk to other pilgrims on the trails that wind through the 246-acre estate. And there is a common theme when they discuss their feelings about the place. “People talk about it as if there's an intersection between the earth and the sky. A place where angels live. That's why I named this series Uncommon Sanctuary because, for a lot of us, it is a sanctuary.”

When she speaks of the land she loves, Robin frequently transitions from prose to more poetic explanations of what she sees and feels at Connemara. “I'm communicating with nature. Looking for those moments when nature says, ‘I'm here, I'm speaking to you. Stop.’ And it frames itself.”

As we talked, a solitary doe silently appears in the field behind us. I have the sense that the normally skittish animal has overcome her instinctive fear to validate Robin’s words - to bear witness to the truth of Robin’s respect and passion for the land the Sandburg’s called home for 22 years.

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Allowing herself to be immersed in the natural world and totally open to a mystical connection, Robin has experienced Connemara with a depth and understanding few casual hikers on Sandburg’s trails will ever fully know. She feels the personality of the land and her book helps the reader see beyond the obvious tableaus and into the magic of Connemara in all its seasons and moods. “There are days when it's absolutely gorgeous,” says Robin. “But there are also days when it's somber and you have to respect that.”

In a very real sense, Robin has become an interpreter to help us all understand what the natural world is trying to communicate to us. And she takes that responsibility very seriously. “The little wildflowers want to be seen because they're so short-lived. They want to be pretty and they want their day.”

Robin is also quick to give credit for her artistic success to a force or energy much bigger than the small human who frequents the trails of Connemara. She sees herself as essentially a conduit for natural beauty. “When I take a picture, it's more than me. It is something that flows through me. Through my camera. It’s bigger than me. I’m just the one recording it for other people to see.”

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Uncommon Sanctuary is a creative project that has, in many ways, allowed Robin to recreate her own life. The trees, plants, flowers, earth and history of Connemara have all extended a hand of welcome and escorted Robin back into a fuller, more engaged life.

Understandably, Robin’s feelings about Connemara are deeply spiritual. “This is my sanctuary. There are very few people that I’ve met out here that don’t feel a spiritual connection to this place. It’s a connection with nature and nature is connected with God.”

Ultimately, Robin’s book is both a chronicle of personal self-discovery and a photographic prayer giving thanks to the place - and the creative hush - that helped Robin Hawkins Anderson find her way back to a life of purpose and meaning.

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Learn more about Robin Anderson and order her book at www.robinanderson.photography

Other photos by Robin Anderson