Watching the Ocean or Walking the Labyrinth is an act of mindfulness and allows you to open up to all possibilities. For instance the feelings or imagined feelings of a sea shell.
As I reflect on the power of the Labyrinth the word, mindfulness echoes across my brainwaves. I was just at the ocean a few days ago. I found myself mesmerized as I watched the waves lap up against the edge of the sand, and gently retreat to endlessness. I wondered if the shells left behind felt anything. I imagined they were use to being carried by the womb of the ocean, wrapped in gentle rocking waves and ensconced in the water of life. I am sure there were times they grew tired of the torrid of angry waves and wished for a peacefulness of soft rocking waves, but nonetheless I believed the ocean was their home and where they longed to return. I wondered if they felt abandoned, tossed on the gritty hot sand in the unflinching heat as beach goers walked on them crushing them into millions of pieces. I wondered if they felt pretty when someone came along and picked them out of the hundreds of shells around them or if they felt panicked that they would never find their way home to the ocean again if they were picked from the sand. I wondered if they felt helpless. I wondered if they ever felt like giving up. I reflected back to a time in Africa when we were told not to pick up the big beautiful conch shells and how angry I became when one of the teenagers on the trip thought he was above that rule. I almost send him home via plane the next day. Last week, I wondered what ever happened to that kid, but more pressing in my mind, I found myself wondering whatever happened to that beautiful shell and if it felt protected by my adamancy it be returned gently to its home coast
Are you missing your home? Do you feel protected and cared about? Do you seek the solace of quiet mindfulness to reflect on the fate of self and others? Taking a walk that requires you to place one foot in front of the other is a powerful way to find the home within your heart. If you live in Arizona, you can walk the Labyrinth at Trinity Cathedral any time at 100 W. Roosevelt. If you live elsewhere you may be pleasantly surprised by “Googling” nearby labyrinths. Enjoy.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Labyrinth Mondays: Twelve Steps to Change a Light Bulb
LABYRINTH MONDAY’S
The workshop on January 7 was a success and the attendees were able to take many inspirations and tools away from the day. For example:
“I am alone and not alone.”
“I discovered the harder I focused on my feet, the quieter my mind became.”
“I noticed that the traffic and street noise became silent as I made my way to the center and the noise of the city did not return until I stepped on the sidewalk again.”
“I was anxious about doing it wrong that I lost myself and then discovered that by turning my attention back to my feet, all I had to do was take the next step.”
Obviously, these statements only tap the surface of the inner experience participants experienced as they examined their inner tin-man, lion, and scarecrow.
The question posed at this time is how does the simple but powerful act of walking the Labyrinth take us into our inner self? There is some theory about how this works but in reality that is all that we have theory. Theory is useful but not life changing or experiential.
So many folks complain, “Everyone tells me to change but no one tells me how?” Then there are millions of self-help books on the market that have seven – steps to change anything imaginable. I am surprised that no one has written a book entitled seven steps to change a light bulb. But the bottom line to all of this change-game is that you must actually do the work. You must decide which light bulb needs to be changed, obtain its size and wattage. You must go to the store, buy the light bulb that fits that description, and bring it home. You must open the box, unscrew the light bulb you are replacing, discard it in recycle bin and screw in the new light bulb. Turn on the light to make sure it works and discard packaging to recycle bin. Actually, if you break those steps down it becomes Twelve Steps to Change a Light Bulb. I believe you get my point. Change comes by doing, not by reading. It comes by focusing, putting one foot in front of the other, and taking the next step. You can’t always see where you are going, but to get there you must be brave enough to take the next step.
Let the Labyrinth be a tool to get you where you are going.
The workshop on January 7 was a success and the attendees were able to take many inspirations and tools away from the day. For example:
“I am alone and not alone.”
“I discovered the harder I focused on my feet, the quieter my mind became.”
“I noticed that the traffic and street noise became silent as I made my way to the center and the noise of the city did not return until I stepped on the sidewalk again.”
“I was anxious about doing it wrong that I lost myself and then discovered that by turning my attention back to my feet, all I had to do was take the next step.”
Obviously, these statements only tap the surface of the inner experience participants experienced as they examined their inner tin-man, lion, and scarecrow.
The question posed at this time is how does the simple but powerful act of walking the Labyrinth take us into our inner self? There is some theory about how this works but in reality that is all that we have theory. Theory is useful but not life changing or experiential.
So many folks complain, “Everyone tells me to change but no one tells me how?” Then there are millions of self-help books on the market that have seven – steps to change anything imaginable. I am surprised that no one has written a book entitled seven steps to change a light bulb. But the bottom line to all of this change-game is that you must actually do the work. You must decide which light bulb needs to be changed, obtain its size and wattage. You must go to the store, buy the light bulb that fits that description, and bring it home. You must open the box, unscrew the light bulb you are replacing, discard it in recycle bin and screw in the new light bulb. Turn on the light to make sure it works and discard packaging to recycle bin. Actually, if you break those steps down it becomes Twelve Steps to Change a Light Bulb. I believe you get my point. Change comes by doing, not by reading. It comes by focusing, putting one foot in front of the other, and taking the next step. You can’t always see where you are going, but to get there you must be brave enough to take the next step.
Let the Labyrinth be a tool to get you where you are going.
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Labyrinth and the Yellow Brick Road
On Saturday January 7t, a small group of seekers set out on their own journey down the yellow brick road. In the beginning, we explored the Walking a Sacred Path DVD by Lauren Artress. The DVD shared stories of three people who used the Labyrinth to find the courage to make a career change, to find career direction, and to find physical healing from a stroke. These three people mirrored the characters of the Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and the Lion in the story of the Wizard of OZ. The Labyrinth is a tool of transformation that allows the mind to settle while the body focuses on walking, placing one foot in front of the other. The gentle focus of movement allows the body to let go of anxiety, worries, and fear and as the journeyer focuses on walking, a mindfulness takes place that the walker does not have to strive for, mindfulness just happens. The brain relaxes and the journeyer is able to experience being in the present.
Walking the Labyrinth mirrors the Yellow brick road in so many ways. On Saturday, we explored how our inadequacies, hurts, and fears that keep us immobilized not allowing our heart’s desire to be attained. When we are busy wrestling with our inadequacies, hurts, and fears rather than becoming their friend, listening to their needs and giving them what they need then our lives are full of chaos and anguish. As Dorothy walks the Yellow Brick Road in search to find the magical wizard that will take her home again, she discovers fellow journeyers who also have needs. They travel together and in their travels, magic happens. The Scarecrow ends up being the smartest of them all, giving direction, working a travel plan and overcoming obstacles. The Tin Man is full of empathy and cries easily at other’s pain. The Lion is the one that is most fear-less taking on the witch and climbing up the wall to the rescue Toto. All along, each journeyer had what they needed inside; they just needed to come to realize it. But, like most humans, these characters still could not see what was inside until the make believe wizard gave them symbols of their inner strengths. It is human to need re-assurance that we are smart, loved, and courageous. Replicating the walk down the Yellow Brick Road can be done by walking the Labyrinth. On Saturday, the journeyer’s placed their inadequacies, hurts, and fear in baskets along the way and when they arrived into the center there was a red stone symbolizing the red shoes Dorothy was wearing. Just by clicking the shoes three times, she was able to go home to Kansas, without the Wizard’s hot-air balloon.
Come travel with me on Labyrinth Mondays as I continue to explore how the Labyrinth is a tool in your daily life. Follow me on www.drdilley.blogspot.com or www.facebook.inamomentsnotice.com
Walking the Labyrinth mirrors the Yellow brick road in so many ways. On Saturday, we explored how our inadequacies, hurts, and fears that keep us immobilized not allowing our heart’s desire to be attained. When we are busy wrestling with our inadequacies, hurts, and fears rather than becoming their friend, listening to their needs and giving them what they need then our lives are full of chaos and anguish. As Dorothy walks the Yellow Brick Road in search to find the magical wizard that will take her home again, she discovers fellow journeyers who also have needs. They travel together and in their travels, magic happens. The Scarecrow ends up being the smartest of them all, giving direction, working a travel plan and overcoming obstacles. The Tin Man is full of empathy and cries easily at other’s pain. The Lion is the one that is most fear-less taking on the witch and climbing up the wall to the rescue Toto. All along, each journeyer had what they needed inside; they just needed to come to realize it. But, like most humans, these characters still could not see what was inside until the make believe wizard gave them symbols of their inner strengths. It is human to need re-assurance that we are smart, loved, and courageous. Replicating the walk down the Yellow Brick Road can be done by walking the Labyrinth. On Saturday, the journeyer’s placed their inadequacies, hurts, and fear in baskets along the way and when they arrived into the center there was a red stone symbolizing the red shoes Dorothy was wearing. Just by clicking the shoes three times, she was able to go home to Kansas, without the Wizard’s hot-air balloon.
Come travel with me on Labyrinth Mondays as I continue to explore how the Labyrinth is a tool in your daily life. Follow me on www.drdilley.blogspot.com or www.facebook.inamomentsnotice.com
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Labyrinth Mondays: Necessary Journeys
It is a journey to Bethlehem from Nazareth which is about 80 miles, traveled with donkey and on foot would be at least a four day journey, perhaps a week given that Joseph was an older man and Mary was with child, not any child, but the Christ Child. That is the traditional Christmas story. In our Labyrinth Mondays, we have been talking about the power of the journey. There are many journeys in our lives that we just do not want to take but for whatever that makes sense to us at the time, the journey feels like a must. Mary and Joseph had to take the Journey as they had to pay taxes. It was necessary.
The 3-Day Breast Cancer walk of 60 miles has become a phenomenon in America. It is a journey that breast cancer patients, their friends and relatives take to punctuate the power of survival and the hope for a cure. It is necessary!
It is only three days before Christmas and anticipation of Santa is in the air, the jolly fat guy that brings us gifts of cheer, journeying all over the globe in a twenty-four hour period to make children happy with delight that they are not forgotten and are gifted just because it is Christmas. It is necessary!
Really, Dr. Dilley, the journey of Santa Claus is necessary? I know it is easy to become cynical about the craziness of the perfect Hallmark Christmas. However, we have made it crazy, not Santa Claus. We have not dealt with are neurosis, our perfectionism, our need to be better, nor our competitive nature, such as “My Christmas lights are better than yours.” As Americans, Christmas has become crazy not because of commercialism, but because our neurosis, our unhealed selves have allowed ourselves to be seduced by more and better, not because the 1% is trying to make a bigger profit. We have contributed to this fiasco of “It is Necessary!” It is not the Jolly Fat Man’s fault.
So what now? Relax, get back on track. Take back a little bit of you for Christmas. Step back to the spirit of the Journey. Make a child smile. Make an adult feel appreciated. Make a loved one know that they are important. Take a step into the center and change turn down the throttle on Christmas chaos. It is necessary!
To have help in getting your life back into perspective, becoming centered, and moving forward, then please join me on the Labyrinth workshop January 7, 2012. That is the day after Epiphany. Come and move forward away from the chaos. Go to www.psycotherapyunlimited.com to register for the workshop today.
The 3-Day Breast Cancer walk of 60 miles has become a phenomenon in America. It is a journey that breast cancer patients, their friends and relatives take to punctuate the power of survival and the hope for a cure. It is necessary!
It is only three days before Christmas and anticipation of Santa is in the air, the jolly fat guy that brings us gifts of cheer, journeying all over the globe in a twenty-four hour period to make children happy with delight that they are not forgotten and are gifted just because it is Christmas. It is necessary!
Really, Dr. Dilley, the journey of Santa Claus is necessary? I know it is easy to become cynical about the craziness of the perfect Hallmark Christmas. However, we have made it crazy, not Santa Claus. We have not dealt with are neurosis, our perfectionism, our need to be better, nor our competitive nature, such as “My Christmas lights are better than yours.” As Americans, Christmas has become crazy not because of commercialism, but because our neurosis, our unhealed selves have allowed ourselves to be seduced by more and better, not because the 1% is trying to make a bigger profit. We have contributed to this fiasco of “It is Necessary!” It is not the Jolly Fat Man’s fault.
So what now? Relax, get back on track. Take back a little bit of you for Christmas. Step back to the spirit of the Journey. Make a child smile. Make an adult feel appreciated. Make a loved one know that they are important. Take a step into the center and change turn down the throttle on Christmas chaos. It is necessary!
To have help in getting your life back into perspective, becoming centered, and moving forward, then please join me on the Labyrinth workshop January 7, 2012. That is the day after Epiphany. Come and move forward away from the chaos. Go to www.psycotherapyunlimited.com to register for the workshop today.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Labyrinth Mondays: Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Power of Pilgrimage
Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Power of Pilgrimage
Today December 12 is the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Who is she? It is said that the story began around December 9, 1531 when a homeless person (peasant) was walking along the hills of Tepeyac near Mexico City. The peasant, Juan Diego, saw a vision of a dark young woman surrounded by light and she told him that a church had to be built on the Tepeyac Hills, right in the very spot she was standing.
When Juan Diego went to the Bishop and reported that a young woman had appeared to him and told him that a church needed to build on the Hills of Tepeyac, the Bishop sent him back to the spot and demanded proof. Juan Diego traveled back to the spot and the dark woman surrounded by light appeared to him again. Diego said, “The Bishop wants proof that you are of a messenger of God.” The woman told him to take roses from the bush on top of the Tepeyac Hills. Juan Diego did not expect that anything would be growing at that time of the year; however, there was a beautiful Castillian Rose bush at the top of the mountain. Castillian roses were not indigenous to that area, but in the middle of desolation, there was the bush. The woman helped Juan Diego, place the pedals in his peasant cloak and Juan Diego returned to the Bishop. There Juan Diego told the Bishop, “The woman in light said to bring you these flowers.” Diego opened his cloak and the petals fell to the ground and in his cloak where the roses had been were the words, Our Lady of Guadalupe. From that day through December 12, 2011, the story of our Lady of Guadalupe and the church that was built at her direction has become a Mecca for pilgrims around the world with many stories of miracles and mysterious blessings from Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is re-enacted and revisited each year by pilgrims making a pilgrimage to sacred places where Our Lady has been seen or her miracles have taken place. Each year millions of pilgrims find their way to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Other pilgrims find other Holy places to make pilgrimage too.
In Los Cruces New Mexico over a 1,000 pilgrims walk early morning, by candle light four miles to the top of Tortugas Mountain and have been doing so since the early eighteen hundreds. In addition, there are hundreds of other stories on the internet about Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is not the patron saint of The Americas. I can fill you full of rich history by sharing the importance of Our Lady, but my focus on Labyrinth Mondays, is about pilgrimage, the journey to the center of the labyrinth and back out again. What is the hunger for pilgrimage, what is the call within that inspires over 6.1 million people to descend on the Basilica in Mexico City or carry on a heritage of tradition of over 1000 in Los Cruces, New Mexico. It seems irrational to spend money, time, energy to go on a real pilgrimage to a place, but rationality is not what spirituality is made of. Rationality would deny that Our Dark Lady spoke to anyone and that perhaps he was hallucinating out of hunger. See, the brain tries hard to make sense out of non-sense. However, for a pilgrimage of 6.1 is hard to deny, to say, “No, this is not happening.” It would ludicrous to deny that the spiritual does not exist, it exist within. You can have the same aliveness as the 6.1 million have that flew, drove, found his/her way to the Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica in Mexico City. You just have to be willing to take one- step outside of your very narrow and dark box. You can start safe by finding a Labyrinth (11 or 7 circuit) near you, drive there start at the beginning. Put one foot in front of the other and say, “Our Lady of Guadalupe, I am here. I come seeking a sense of fulfillment and peace that I hear you can offer me. I want to start my spiritual journey now and let it unfold. Help me, My Lady of Guadalupe. I need you.”
Almost had you considering a spiritual journey until you had to admit that you have a need and regardless of how hard you try, you cannot meet that need without some form of assistance. To begin this journey, you don’t even have to admit that you are hurting or lacking of anything, you can just start by putting on foot in front of the other on path of the Labyrinth and keep your mouth shut. Just do it and see what happens. It is a challenge. I am challenging you to move one-step closer to your spiritual self.
If you do not want to do this alone then join me on Saturday January 7, 2012 at Trinity Cathedral downtown Phoenix. You can sign up today at www.psychotherapyunlimited.com Please, if you have no interest pass on this information to people whose lives are richer because they take a risk to step outside the box.
Today December 12 is the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Who is she? It is said that the story began around December 9, 1531 when a homeless person (peasant) was walking along the hills of Tepeyac near Mexico City. The peasant, Juan Diego, saw a vision of a dark young woman surrounded by light and she told him that a church had to be built on the Tepeyac Hills, right in the very spot she was standing.
When Juan Diego went to the Bishop and reported that a young woman had appeared to him and told him that a church needed to build on the Hills of Tepeyac, the Bishop sent him back to the spot and demanded proof. Juan Diego traveled back to the spot and the dark woman surrounded by light appeared to him again. Diego said, “The Bishop wants proof that you are of a messenger of God.” The woman told him to take roses from the bush on top of the Tepeyac Hills. Juan Diego did not expect that anything would be growing at that time of the year; however, there was a beautiful Castillian Rose bush at the top of the mountain. Castillian roses were not indigenous to that area, but in the middle of desolation, there was the bush. The woman helped Juan Diego, place the pedals in his peasant cloak and Juan Diego returned to the Bishop. There Juan Diego told the Bishop, “The woman in light said to bring you these flowers.” Diego opened his cloak and the petals fell to the ground and in his cloak where the roses had been were the words, Our Lady of Guadalupe. From that day through December 12, 2011, the story of our Lady of Guadalupe and the church that was built at her direction has become a Mecca for pilgrims around the world with many stories of miracles and mysterious blessings from Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is re-enacted and revisited each year by pilgrims making a pilgrimage to sacred places where Our Lady has been seen or her miracles have taken place. Each year millions of pilgrims find their way to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Other pilgrims find other Holy places to make pilgrimage too.
In Los Cruces New Mexico over a 1,000 pilgrims walk early morning, by candle light four miles to the top of Tortugas Mountain and have been doing so since the early eighteen hundreds. In addition, there are hundreds of other stories on the internet about Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is not the patron saint of The Americas. I can fill you full of rich history by sharing the importance of Our Lady, but my focus on Labyrinth Mondays, is about pilgrimage, the journey to the center of the labyrinth and back out again. What is the hunger for pilgrimage, what is the call within that inspires over 6.1 million people to descend on the Basilica in Mexico City or carry on a heritage of tradition of over 1000 in Los Cruces, New Mexico. It seems irrational to spend money, time, energy to go on a real pilgrimage to a place, but rationality is not what spirituality is made of. Rationality would deny that Our Dark Lady spoke to anyone and that perhaps he was hallucinating out of hunger. See, the brain tries hard to make sense out of non-sense. However, for a pilgrimage of 6.1 is hard to deny, to say, “No, this is not happening.” It would ludicrous to deny that the spiritual does not exist, it exist within. You can have the same aliveness as the 6.1 million have that flew, drove, found his/her way to the Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica in Mexico City. You just have to be willing to take one- step outside of your very narrow and dark box. You can start safe by finding a Labyrinth (11 or 7 circuit) near you, drive there start at the beginning. Put one foot in front of the other and say, “Our Lady of Guadalupe, I am here. I come seeking a sense of fulfillment and peace that I hear you can offer me. I want to start my spiritual journey now and let it unfold. Help me, My Lady of Guadalupe. I need you.”
Almost had you considering a spiritual journey until you had to admit that you have a need and regardless of how hard you try, you cannot meet that need without some form of assistance. To begin this journey, you don’t even have to admit that you are hurting or lacking of anything, you can just start by putting on foot in front of the other on path of the Labyrinth and keep your mouth shut. Just do it and see what happens. It is a challenge. I am challenging you to move one-step closer to your spiritual self.
If you do not want to do this alone then join me on Saturday January 7, 2012 at Trinity Cathedral downtown Phoenix. You can sign up today at www.psychotherapyunlimited.com Please, if you have no interest pass on this information to people whose lives are richer because they take a risk to step outside the box.
Monday, December 5, 2011
St Nicholas Day and the Labyrinth
Tomorrow, December 6, is St. Nick’s day. Legend has it that St. Nick was an orphan boy himself and that he always took special interest in giving to orphans and children. He would go throughout his village and toss sacks of coins through windows and if the windows were shut, then he would toss them on the roof, where they would come down the chimney. Thus, St. Nick’s legend developed from very humble beginnings and to the commercialism of Santa Claus that we have today.
Walking the Labyrinth while reflecting on the real meaning of Christmas, one that actually began out of benevolence and giving of the real St. Nick and not a baby in the manger, then Christmas can take on a whole different meaning for you, what can we give, vs. what can we get?
As you work on developing your own personal relationship with the Labyrinth, I would like to suggest that you take a Labyrinth walk in the spirit of giving. Start with presenting yourself at the opening of the Labyrinth and as you walk from circuit to circuit imagine holding your heart in the palms of your hands. Ask for the mystery of the Labyrinth to heal your heart and open it to be a heart of love and generosity. Each time you find yourself coming across a fearful thought, breath in deeply and let your breath go slowly, releasing the fear to the heart of the Labyrinth and taking the next step forward.
When you arrive at the center of the Labyrinth, imagine yourself placing your heart in the hands of a loving and generous Spirit of Kindness and allow the feeling of unconditional love to wash over you, releasing your hurt and fear and gifting you with an inner peace and unconditional acceptance.
Walk out of the Labyrinth with the gratitude of St. Nick, generous in spirit, full of hope, peace and unconditional love. From that space of gratitude, find ways to give generously this Holiday Season in meaningful ways.
Walking the Labyrinth while reflecting on the real meaning of Christmas, one that actually began out of benevolence and giving of the real St. Nick and not a baby in the manger, then Christmas can take on a whole different meaning for you, what can we give, vs. what can we get?
As you work on developing your own personal relationship with the Labyrinth, I would like to suggest that you take a Labyrinth walk in the spirit of giving. Start with presenting yourself at the opening of the Labyrinth and as you walk from circuit to circuit imagine holding your heart in the palms of your hands. Ask for the mystery of the Labyrinth to heal your heart and open it to be a heart of love and generosity. Each time you find yourself coming across a fearful thought, breath in deeply and let your breath go slowly, releasing the fear to the heart of the Labyrinth and taking the next step forward.
When you arrive at the center of the Labyrinth, imagine yourself placing your heart in the hands of a loving and generous Spirit of Kindness and allow the feeling of unconditional love to wash over you, releasing your hurt and fear and gifting you with an inner peace and unconditional acceptance.
Walk out of the Labyrinth with the gratitude of St. Nick, generous in spirit, full of hope, peace and unconditional love. From that space of gratitude, find ways to give generously this Holiday Season in meaningful ways.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Labyrinth Monday's -All Cultures Share the Mystery of the Spirit
ANCIENT WISDOM APPEARS IN MANY CULTURES
Spirituality in one form or another has always been with us. The more awake and aware we are, the more we are able to see it. The Burden Basket was part of many Native American’s way of life. A Burden Basket was used to gather sticks for fire, seeds, herbs, and tubers. The basket was worn on the back leaving hands free for gathering of daily needs. When the basket was emptied, it was hung on the outside of the tipi or dwelling and used by visitors to announce their presence at the door. If no one came to the door, no feelings were hurt, as it was understood that the home is a sacred space. Also, the burden basket was symbolic, in that its presence invited guest to leave their personal burdens outside of the tipi and not bring them in to the sacred space of the home. It was considered rude and disrespectful to take your burdens to the neighbor’s house and douse their sacred space with unhappiness and negativity. If a person in the village had a problem, they were to take a gift of tobacco, a blanket, or some other gift to the medicine person in the village, and there share their burden. After sharing, the person had to wait three days for the medicine person to share a solution to the problem. During those three days, the medicine person was seeking guidance in a dream or vision from his/her spiritual guides and allies. Also, during the same three days the burden bearer was building self-reliance, knowing that they needed to responsible to act on the advice given to them by the medicine person. Thus, the village was able to live in peace and inter-confidence that their friends and neighbors could handle their own problems and learn the art of self-reliance. If we go back to original use of the burden basket, which was to collect enough of the necessities just for today, then we realize part of the solution to life is to stay in the present and focus on the here and now moment.
In reflection, I see the Labyrinth as a symbol of the burden basket. It is rich in symbolism of the self-reliance. The person entering the Labyrinth, often referred to as “pilgrim” is doing the work of walking. The pilgrim is responsible for taking the journey to the center of the Labyrinth. As a burden bearer, the pilgrim take his/her burden into the center of the Labyrinth and there lets it go, releases the burden to the womb or heart of the universe. The pilgrim needs to have a grateful heart when entering the mystery of womb, knowing that it is a sacred place that he/she can come any time of day or night and find that center of the Labyrinth is there to receive him/her and the burden on his/her heart. The joining of the two, the pilgrim and the heart of the universe is completely sacred and confidential between the two. No one else is invited into that sacred space.
By taking the journey to the center of the Labyrinth, the pilgrim is initiating responsibility for his/her burden and taking the first steps to release the burden to the care of the mysterious other that will take that burden and share wisdom, understanding, and clarity with the pilgrim. It is then up to the pilgrim to follow the direction that comes from the Center. Perhaps direction and wisdom will not come during the walk (as it often does not) but several days later, clarity and peace begin to settle in the soul of the pilgrim. It is hard to explain the mysterious; one has to experience it to become a “knower of mysteries.”
Spirituality in one form or another has always been with us. The more awake and aware we are, the more we are able to see it. The Burden Basket was part of many Native American’s way of life. A Burden Basket was used to gather sticks for fire, seeds, herbs, and tubers. The basket was worn on the back leaving hands free for gathering of daily needs. When the basket was emptied, it was hung on the outside of the tipi or dwelling and used by visitors to announce their presence at the door. If no one came to the door, no feelings were hurt, as it was understood that the home is a sacred space. Also, the burden basket was symbolic, in that its presence invited guest to leave their personal burdens outside of the tipi and not bring them in to the sacred space of the home. It was considered rude and disrespectful to take your burdens to the neighbor’s house and douse their sacred space with unhappiness and negativity. If a person in the village had a problem, they were to take a gift of tobacco, a blanket, or some other gift to the medicine person in the village, and there share their burden. After sharing, the person had to wait three days for the medicine person to share a solution to the problem. During those three days, the medicine person was seeking guidance in a dream or vision from his/her spiritual guides and allies. Also, during the same three days the burden bearer was building self-reliance, knowing that they needed to responsible to act on the advice given to them by the medicine person. Thus, the village was able to live in peace and inter-confidence that their friends and neighbors could handle their own problems and learn the art of self-reliance. If we go back to original use of the burden basket, which was to collect enough of the necessities just for today, then we realize part of the solution to life is to stay in the present and focus on the here and now moment.
In reflection, I see the Labyrinth as a symbol of the burden basket. It is rich in symbolism of the self-reliance. The person entering the Labyrinth, often referred to as “pilgrim” is doing the work of walking. The pilgrim is responsible for taking the journey to the center of the Labyrinth. As a burden bearer, the pilgrim take his/her burden into the center of the Labyrinth and there lets it go, releases the burden to the womb or heart of the universe. The pilgrim needs to have a grateful heart when entering the mystery of womb, knowing that it is a sacred place that he/she can come any time of day or night and find that center of the Labyrinth is there to receive him/her and the burden on his/her heart. The joining of the two, the pilgrim and the heart of the universe is completely sacred and confidential between the two. No one else is invited into that sacred space.
By taking the journey to the center of the Labyrinth, the pilgrim is initiating responsibility for his/her burden and taking the first steps to release the burden to the care of the mysterious other that will take that burden and share wisdom, understanding, and clarity with the pilgrim. It is then up to the pilgrim to follow the direction that comes from the Center. Perhaps direction and wisdom will not come during the walk (as it often does not) but several days later, clarity and peace begin to settle in the soul of the pilgrim. It is hard to explain the mysterious; one has to experience it to become a “knower of mysteries.”
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