Yesterday I walked the last formal labyrinth walk at one of my favorite places. The Friary I had fallen in love with is being closed and sold. Older demographics and fewer new monks. I cannot help but think of some of the memorable labyrinth walks I have made from my very first to the present.
I was on a retreat with my fellow seminarians when I was introduced to the labyrinth at the retreat house. It was a concrete walkway with millions of loose pebbles in between that circuitous concrete path. I began to walk without instruction and almost immediately went back inside to find a broom. The Felix Unger in me wanted to clean the pebbles from the path. As I walked slowly sweeping pebbles along the way I had a revelation. Part of my journey in life as well as the labyrinth walk itself was to shed myself of unwanted and undesirable traits. If I could make the walk a self assessment I could move forward in my life. Sweeping the pebbles off the path became a metaphor for my life. It was so great to get to the center with a clean path behind me. The return walk though, revealed some pebbles that had escaped my attention. I either missed them with the broom or I did not see them. How true it is that no matter how you improve and challenge yourself, there is more to do. There are always pebbles to be addressed. That was my first walk. I was in love with the labyrinth.
On another retreat at the same venue I was challenged to view the labyrinth walk in a different way. I would enter the labyrinth at "today". At each corner or turn I would pause for a previous event in time, at a previous event in my life that stood out or might warrant some reflection. I would continue to walk 'back in time' reflecting on events even as I was a child until I reached the center of the labyrinth. The center would be my presence with God as He conceived me. The point in time before my human conception, the point when God said to himself that it was I that world needed. When I reached the center of the labyrinth on that walk I was physically shaking and emotionally raw, in tears and overcome by the presence of God.
Last night I walked with the ever present knowledge that my ripening aneurysm could burst at any time. As I walked this labyrinth I paused at corners and faced the center (my representation of the presence of God), viewing perhaps when I might now or soon meet my maker. What I realized as I walked is how close I would come to the presence of God in my walk (my life journey) and then moments later be farther away. It was a beautiful walk. Some of the time was spend reminiscing about previous walks on this same path when I was trying to deal with some major issues in my life. The take away thought then (as now) was "be not afraid". Indeed, I was humming Be Not Afraid by the monks of the Weston Priory during much of the walk.
When I think about some of the other labyrinths I have walked in recent years, Chartre and and at little country churches here on this little island, I know that these simple paths where I meander bring me closer to to an understanding of myself and closer to God.
Of the many forms of prayer we know, I find that the Labyrinth is one of the most enlightening, transportive and productive. There are lap labyrinths and pocket labyrinths and all help us to dealve deeper into our own soul and into the mind and all embracing nature of our creator. That is, peace and love.
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