The Labyrinth

My daughter and I spent the first weekend in February in silence. We attended a silent, directed retreat at Mo-Ranch in Hunt,Texas, beautiful country with the Guadaluperiver flowing through it.

On Saturday afternoon, we hiked up to the ranch Labyrinth. It was constructed similar to the design laid in 1202 on the floor of Notre Dame Cathedral in France. The path is unicursal, one path, with no splits or dead ends. It is an 11-circuit labyrinth with 34 turns, if followed leads directly in and out of the center.

My daughter lead the way as we walked the path. We were in sync, with no words spoken. I felt it was a journey into the heart, walking the channels of life, back and forth, each path leading to the next. Some paths were short, some long, some seemingly to go backward, but eventually moving us closer to the center. There were rocks along the way reminding me of our milestones in life.

We could have taken a short cut, but would have missed some of the milestones. All the channels on the path were meant to be walked.

We reached the center, closed our eyes and listened. We savored the peace and multiple metaphors of the experience.

We collected small stones and laid them down as a memorial of our individual journeys in life.

The silence and the stillness enabled us to listen to whispers in our hearts from our inner being and from God. We realized the journey is not to figure out how to get to the center, but how to take the next step.

We looked at each other, stood up and walked the Labyrinth back to the starting point. It reminded me to take time to gaze upon our past journeys in all areas of life and embrace the lessons and memories with gratitude.

It is then, we can share our personal labyrinths with others, the journey to our inner being.

Savored in silence.

Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions.

Proverbs 4:25