This morning I went out to walk the labyrinth on campus. I had just finished reading a piece from Barbra Brown Taylor, who wrote about her experience of walking a labyrinth and how everyone will learn something different from the practice of spiritual disciplines. So I started walking, wondering what I was going to learn. My mind wandered from one thing to the next, probably over analyzing as I tend to do, when I realized that in order to keep walking I had to focus right in front of me. I noticed that I kept wanting to look ahead to figure out where I was going but when I did that I lost track of where I was. So that was the first thing that walking taught me. Next, I realized that I was focusing on getting to the centre. I wondered how and when I would find myself at the centre of the labyrinth, as if it was some kind of goal. But the labyrinth, while centering, also has a disorienting effect. You are not necessarily sure where you are coming from or to where you are going, you just have to trust that the path won't lead you astray. You need to trust that where you are currently is exactly where you need to be and the next step that you take will be leading you in the direction you are destined to go.
The Labyrinth
This morning I went out to walk the labyrinth on campus. I had just finished reading a piece from Barbra Brown Taylor, who wrote about her experience of walking a labyrinth and how everyone will learn something different from the practice of spiritual disciplines. So I started walking, wondering what I was going to learn. My mind wandered from one thing to the next, probably over analyzing as I tend to do, when I realized that in order to keep walking I had to focus right in front of me. I noticed that I kept wanting to look ahead to figure out where I was going but when I did that I lost track of where I was. So that was the first thing that walking taught me. Next, I realized that I was focusing on getting to the centre. I wondered how and when I would find myself at the centre of the labyrinth, as if it was some kind of goal. But the labyrinth, while centering, also has a disorienting effect. You are not necessarily sure where you are coming from or to where you are going, you just have to trust that the path won't lead you astray. You need to trust that where you are currently is exactly where you need to be and the next step that you take will be leading you in the direction you are destined to go.
The Labyrinth
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing this too. Sounds wonderful...
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