A Labyrinth For All Seasons

I have had a 16-year relationship with labyrinths. They have become an important part of my spiritual life and own emotional health management. For those who are not familiar with what a labyrinth is I’ll offer a brief explanation. Labyrinths are ancient prayer and meditation tools found in many cultures and religious. They are unicursal meaning that there is only one path in and out. One of the most well known labyrinths from the Christian tradition is in The Chartres Cathedral in France. It is that pattern that I personally find the most connection to and the pattern that I based my own personal back yard labyrinth off of.

Having a labyrinth in my back yard has allowed me to spend many hours walking and allows for a labyrinth walk right before I leave for work each day. It is also provides a chance to watch the labyrinth change with the seasons. Each season brings it’s own beauty to the labyrinth. I love spring and watching the landscaping around it come to life, to look out with anticipation of what critter I will find sitting around the labyrinth. Summer comes and with it the smell of lavender and sound of buzzing bees and sight of fluttering butterflies. Fall is when the green begins to fade, but my ears are blessed with the sound of the leaves that have fallen on the path crunching under my feet. Winter at the labyrinth is bare, brown and gray but in many ways is my favorite time to walk; the cold air on my face and the gravel path firm and frozen under my feet.

This winter the area around the labyrinth has been particularly bare as almost all my lavender plant died and had to be pulled. The labyrinth truly feels like it is in a place of slumber and transition as it awaits spring and the possibility of the new plant life that will be planted around it. I find it interesting that this echoes the fact that several aspects of my life are in transition. I have a new supervisor at work, the church I am a part of is embarking on an exciting and new way of doing and being church, and in a few short weeks my book Still a Mother will be out to the public and I will transition into the arena of author and publicity. It can be said that the labyrinth can be a mirror to one’s life. This has most definitely been the case for me.

I will admit that a challenge of winter walking is snow and subzero temperatures. Sometimes I will bundle up and brave the elements for a walk, but often times I choose to use my finger labyrinth until my soul cries out, take me for a walk. When this happens there is no choice for me but to go and with the walk usually comes some kind of poetry that pours out of my soul. This was exactly the scenario earlier this week.

I invite you now to come with me on my walks this week and listen to the words of my soul in hopes that they may in some way speak a moment of rest to yours.

                        To walk, cold air on my face

                        Circling in, in, in.

                        Into your presence God.

                        A brief respite from the laundry list already started in my head.

                        A pause of my soul to listen deeply to your whispering to me.

                        To revel in the silence of the early morning waking up around me.

                        This is communion for me.

                        My communion with the Holy Three.

                        God, Christ, Spirit joining me on my day.

                        This is why I walk,

                        In winding circles,

                        On a Sacred Path.

                        This is why the labyrinth is part of my sacred time

                        Spent with the Holy Three.

                        The labyrinth calls again,

                        I miss you, come walk and play.

                        My answer is in my unwavering footsteps,

                        My heart open to the voice of God.