I tried. Really, I did my best. But I could not stop looking up and out at the beauty around to focus on the labyrinth’s path. Wandering in circles felt trivial, minimalist, even time wasted when there was so much to explore outside this sacred and ancient maze.
Also, there were others who felt differently and moved at a snails pace through the discipline; I just can’t do labyrinths when people are there so close and passing me by on repeat. Maybe it’s too vulnerable and intimate.
Instead, in the mountains of Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM, I went for a four hour solo hike. I allowed my curiosity to take me off path of that cyclical earthen chapel.
And I felt so very small. Not insignificant, but right sized.
Contrary to the pressure we may feel heaped upon us by whatever or whomever, our individual selves are not the center of God’s universe- we are a collaborative part of it. A holy, hopeful, fragile, blessed, mysterious, perfectly imperfect part. And the aim of our movement in this world is not to strain and stress to find that one path, but to remain curious and embrace possibility in any and every path- even those off course. The world is much too vast to walk in confined circles.
I think that’s at least a part of the curious #Advent pilgrimage.