The Labyrinth

A labyrinth is a kind of maze. It’s basically a perfect circle with a path that curls inside leading to a center point. Like the one at Frank Day Park, a labyrinth rarely comes with walls, though the path is typically marked with stones or another marker. Rather than using walls, the labyrinth as Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “trusts those who enter it to stay on the path voluntarily.”

Wilderness Song by Lauren Wright Pittman, A Sanctified Art

A traditional labyrinth has one entrance and once center, but depending on the labyrinth, the path itself isn’t necessarily straightforward. It includes switchbacks and turns that seem more like detours. It’s been described by some as a “meandering but purposeful path.”

But here’s the thing, as Barbara Brown Taylor notes, “The path goes nowhere. You can spend an hour on it and end up twelve feet from where you began.”

Speaking of her own experience in a labyrinth, Barbara Brown Taylor puts it well, “The first thing I noticed was that I resented following a set path. Where was the creativity in that? Why couldn’t there be more than one way to go? The second thing I noticed was how much I wanted to step over the stones when they did not take me directly to the center. Who has time for all those switchbacks, with the destination so clearly in sight? The third thing I noticed was that reaching the center was no big deal. The view from there was essentially the same as the view from the start.”

So, then what’s the point of the labyrinth? The journey. The walking.

As someone who generally looks forward to the destination rather than the journey, labyrinths are challenging. Because in a labyrinth the journey is the point. Just walking is the thing.

We tend to rush through life at a frantic pace, always heading to the next thing, always seeking the destination. But the spiritual practice of walking, whether in a labyrinth or elsewhere, challenges us to slow down and to just, well, walk. It has a way of forcing us to be present, to pay attention, to see what surrounds us.

Grace and peace,

Kimmy

P.S. If you’re curious about walking a labyrinth, go check out the labyrinth at Frank Day Park. Or I’ve attached a finger labyrinth below, the idea is similar, rather than walking your finger follows the path from the entrance to the center.