Monday, 14 May 2012

The long and winding road - praying the labyrinth


St Columba's Bay, Iona, labyrinth, May 2011






The labyrinth at St Beunos, retreat October 2011


Made one of those happy discoveries this evening when I stumbled across a labyrinth blog for the first time: agracingmaze, which  title I reckon deserves an award for both aptness and the most apalling pun ever! Looks to be some wonderful resources and a chance to share reflections on this means of prayerful walking.

As I've written before in my old Greenpatches blog, the labyrinth has played a significant part in my own walk; sometimes affirming, always challenging. Yet, do you know, it's only as I was pondering earlier on the struggles of somebody else that the realisation is  dawning a) of the tremendous distance I've travelled (spiritually as well as physically!) since those first, hesitant steps, and b) an emerging pattern: each time the labyrinth symbolising a time of transition,  liminal space, a turning point, a call to go deeper with God.  And yet I'd not always appreciated this at the time. I guess when you're in the thick of a situation it's easy to feel that you're going nowhere, trudging  round in an endless circle. Only time, space and perspective reveal  that this circle, is, in fact, a spiral. Quietly breathtaking.  Cue imitation of a (happily) stranded guppy...

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