Walking the Labyrinth (revisited)

My husband and I rose early this morning and walked the labyrinth, as we do every New Years' Eve.  Along with treasure mapping, walking the labyrinth is one of our traditions for acknowledging the gifts of the past year, and for creating our vision of the year ahead.

I love walking the labyrinth!  It really is a sacred space.  We now have one in the city where I live, which is handy because in past years we've had to drive about an hour to get to one.  I'll be able to use this very gentle but powerful spiritual tool more often now.

I've reprinted below my post from last January on walking the labyrinth.  You can use this link to the World-Wde Labyrinth Locator to find a labyrinth near you; I hope the post spurs you to try it.  And if so, I'd love to hear your comments.

After a year of writing this blog, I want to say thank you for your support, and for your very positive and insightful comments.  I am grateful for the light you shine in the world.

Sharing the song in my heart has been a huge gift.  I look forward to celebrating daily tools for the spirit in the coming year.

Many blessings in the New Year!
Sherry

*****

I walked the labyrinth today with my husband, Mike, and my son, Eric.  Bless Eric for driving the hour it takes to get there, just because he knew it was important to his parents.

I love walking into the labyrinth and having the strong awareness of myself as eternal spirit, at the very same time I hear the traffic going by, see workmen moving around and the cracks in the sidewalk, all of the countless small details of inhabiting a body. I love knowing myself as eternal spirit as my path passes by Mike's or Eric's on the labyrinth and I am aware of sharing space with them for a moment, then moving on on our own paths, but each of us always contained by that bigger circle which contains all perfect paths.

While walking the labyrinth, no matter what direction I'm heading or how many twists and turns I take along the way, I'm always moving toward the center, where I know in the center of myself, in my heart, that I am God in expression. In the middle of all of the twists and turns of the labyrinth, the center stands.

Each experience I've had in the labyrinth has been different. I've been guided each time to remember just what was important for me at that time. This last time, I was reminded that All Is Well. In the middle of all of the big issues facing humanity in general and all of us individually, I can be glad for all of it because there is a mighty purpose behind it. All paths lead to an awareness of ourselves as God, without exception.

I remembered that pain is part of the dichotomy that we live in, and aids us in knowing joy. We can never really grasp and own for ourselves one side of a dichotomy until we have fully known the other.

Best of all, for me, was remembering yet again that there is nothing I need to do, no burden I need to carry to fix things. We are all the light of God. We can be nothing else. Everything we experience is contained by and part of that light of God, just like the circle of the labyrinth contains all paths leading to our knowledge of ourselves as God, and light.

What that means for me practically, in this new year, is that I don't have to suffer over what is. What is, is, and it serves a mighty purpose, one that I can trust. It's not easy to see the light in the middle of the darkness, but this year I choose to look for the good in all of it. I am grateful for the light that contains it all.

(In case you're interested, Mike read a book on labyrinths recently. It's called "Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool." I haven't read it yet, but he liked it alot.)

Here's to the light!