Day 2, September 2nd

  I woke up this morning, and already was excited to walk the labyrinth!  I am not a morning person (oh, sooo not!) and I rarely feel enthusiasm for anything other than coffee before at least 10 AM, so this was unusual, to say the least.

  As I drive in to work, our friendly gnu sculpture "Gnu Testament" greets me.  Brainchild of our friendly, fiendish town innkeeper, Bridget LeRoy, and designed and created by local artist Leslie Penn, he starts my day with a smile.  Ours for the summer, I'm sure gonna miss him when he goes to the Big Cattle Auction this fall.

  

    It was about 54 degrees this morning- I actually broke out my down vest for the walk.  Gosh- haven't had to wear it since June....!  It was about 8:44 when I stepped onto the labyrinth.

   

    People frequently ask me "how" to walk the labyrinth, or whether there is a right or wrong way to do so.  This is like asking whether there is a right or wrong way to breathe, or pray, or sleep...... it's different for everyone, and varies from day to day, hour to hour. 

   

    I think the most important thing is to be intentional.  This is not a walk around the block.  It is meant to have spiritual nuance, and I always say slower is better.  This morning, I chose one variety of walking: to walk the entire path inwards meditating on what I was carrying that morning and what I wanted to leave there, in the center.  And then to walk out freed from those burdens and ready for a new day.

   

     Today I was holding a lot of tension.  Frustration about life treating friends and colleagues unkindly, that blasted desire to "fix" the unfixable in my own or others' lives....  The strangest thing about being a priest for me is wrestling with being perceived as a conduit or sign post for grace and blessing but not being the producer of these things!  I don't "make" anything happen;  I'm just a companion to sit with, and wait with.  Or perhaps, walk with!

 

    I stood in the center a long time this morning.  I marvelled at how the paths make "spokes" that orient the center.  It felt fully balanced to stand there, at the hub, as it were. 

Behind me was the entrance and the cairn

 I stood there, centered, and let the things I was carrying fall away, one by one.  I named them, and then flexed my hands to feel them drop.  This person's cancer, that friend's divorce, one after another the things I couldn't fix fell to the ground.  Then I closed my eyes and, breathing deeply, began to name the early morning scents:  freshly mown grass, damp apple trees, hmmmm? balsam?, and one thing more...... OMG, BACON, cooking next door at the New London Inn!  No wonder most deeply spiritual people are vegetarians!  How can you concentrate on anything else on the planet, especially something as nebulous as a spiritual journey, when there's bacon on the morning breeze!!!!

 

   You can't actually see the Inn from the labyrinth, but I thought of the tourists enjoying this last breath of pre-Labor Day vacation, waking up to the gorgeous morning and looking across the green.....

    Living here is like waking up in a Norman Rockwell painting, every single day.

   

     I shook the bacon from my brain and turned around for the journey out.  I asked for patience, for fresh vision, for the ability to trust those I love to the Sacred, and leave the "fixing" to another.  I asked to keep the rhythm of the walking with me even as I rushed through the rest of my day.  And I gave thanks for the time and opportunity to begin my day in silence and gratitude.

  

     Rock of the Day:  this extraordinary "leopard" rock!

  

Today's Footgear:  My standard black Hushpuppies, and socks with, um, blueberries all over them. (note to self: get to the Blueberry Farm to pick some before they are all gone!)

Trust me, if you are looking for fashion tips, you have come the the wrong blog!

   

Circuits of the Labyrinth:  1       Total:  3