The OGT Daily #70 Labyrinth

After my adventure in the Franz Kafka exhibit last Wednesday I happened upon a surprise for which I am deeply grateful.  The Morgan Library is at 37th street and Madison, a brief walk from Grand Central.  I then needed to get downtown for a dinner appointment in lower Manhattan near Wall Street.  

Off to find a subway, I headed west toward Broadway and found myself staring up at a massive limestone church on 39th street with the sign Marble Collegiate.  This is perhaps the oldest church organization (not the building) in the city if not the country - going all the way back to the Dutch settlers when the island was called New Amsterdam. The building faced Broadway, but just at the corner to 39th Street tacked to the wrought iron fence was a small sign that invited: Come walk the labyrinth from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.  I checked my watch and it said 5:15.  Did I want to walk a labyrinth? Of course I did. They are among the most important symbols to me. I give a finger labyrinth to my therapy students at the beginning of each semester as a symbol of their journey to becoming therapists and healers.  

As the sign said within the church: The labyrinth aids in deepening our personal spiritual journeys. It is a "body prayer" or walking meditation on a single path that provides personal, spiritual, and psychological transformation. The path provides a mirror for where we are in our lives. It guides us into an experience of the presence of God.  A labyrinth is not a maze, which has many paths leading to dead ends. It is only one path leading to a central point. One follows the same path in as you do on the way out.  

In a maze you lose yourself, but in a labyrinth you find yourself.  

And there it was in the basement of the church annex, under softened lights with small candles along its outer rim. The face of this labyrinth was constructed out of white and black terrazzo; the black marking the edges of the path made of white in the exact pattern of the Chartres Cathedral formation that I give my students in Xerox form each semester to follow.   Several people slowly moved along in silence and stocking feet within the narrow white path trying to maintain balance. One women out of breath and hobbling along needed to stop along the way at a standing pillar to gather her strength.  

I gathered my own, slipped my sneakers off and began, one foot after the other toe to toe. It was a challenge to maintain balance. The path takes you inward almost to the center and then almost immediately turns inward in the opposite direction so that you must snake along and work your way slowly within the folds of the labyrinth, laid out almost as folds in the four quadrants of the brain.

As fellow passengers on this one path, we stepped aside to let each other pass in silence to continue on our journey, alone but in community. The many winds toward and away from the center surprised me as I have only two other times walked a labyrinth. When I reached to center I was alone there and took a moment to pray for peace and health for my oldest child whose birthday it was. Then I began again journeying outward and feeling the conviction of the moment.  

Such a powerful and simple ancient tool for belief and clarity.

What moved your spirit today?