I've been wanting to walk a labyrinth for a while; I've started to feel a little lost these last few months with so many changes happening in my life, and I felt I needed to focus on my next move. My everyday life is so chokka that I don't have the space to think clearly, other than "What needs done next?"
The irony was, I wasn't sure when I'd find the time, where I'd do it, how I'd do it… but of course, all the time I was silently asking these questions, life was providing, and today my labyrinth materialised.
The beauty of it was, I didn't even know about it until we were upon it so I had no time to prepare, to overthink. I simply entered it, laughing, with the simplest of questions in my head: "What should I do next?"
Father Earthly and baby no. 2 went left, and I went right with baby no. 1. Almost immediately we came to a dead end. Great start! I learnt later on that this path in fact does come out near the centre and was obviously designed as a quick exit (it was fenced off rather than hedged) when needed. That's so typical of my style - when I start something I jump straight in and go for the quickest, easiest route, only to find I must go back, take my time, start again and do things properly.
As I wound my way round with baby no. 1, I could hear Father Earthly calling out on his progress, chattering to the 6 1/2 month old in the sling that "they were winning". At first I felt light-hearted, jovial. This was fun. But baby no. 1 was getting upset. "Daddy!" he kept calling, a note of panic in his voice. He couldn't understand where Daddy had gone. As I kept taking wrong turns and seemed to be getting no nearer the centre I felt myself starting to panic too. My question changed to "Which way next?" and I started to feel the hedges closing in on me. Baby no. 1 was becoming quite upset. And then I found myself back at the beginning again.
Downhearted, annoyed, I felt a failure. I so very nearly gave up, but instead turned round and re-entered, determined to win this time. Which way next? Father Earthly was now on his way out after gleefully gaining the centre. He told baby no. 2 they were going to help mummy now. Relief flooded me as we met on a corner and he led us on - I wanted to do this on my own but obviously that was not what this labyrinth was all about. I needed his help; We all went together.
He told me along the way that the trick with many of these mazes was not to take the most obvious path. So if you see a path that runs alongside the centre, that's probably the wrong one - take the outer path instead, that goes the opposite way. Ahh, I thought, that again is so like me. Yes, I follow my heart, but I also try and invoke reason. And reason very rarely has the right answer.
We entered the centre together, as a family, and my question reformed itself again to "Who do I want to be next?"
And with that I was happy. So often in life we are simply not asking the right questions. Through walking the labyrinth today I learned that I need to change my focus, lift my eyes above the horizon and view the greater picture. Who should I be next? I think I already know ;-)
The irony was, I wasn't sure when I'd find the time, where I'd do it, how I'd do it… but of course, all the time I was silently asking these questions, life was providing, and today my labyrinth materialised.
The beauty of it was, I didn't even know about it until we were upon it so I had no time to prepare, to overthink. I simply entered it, laughing, with the simplest of questions in my head: "What should I do next?"
Father Earthly and baby no. 2 went left, and I went right with baby no. 1. Almost immediately we came to a dead end. Great start! I learnt later on that this path in fact does come out near the centre and was obviously designed as a quick exit (it was fenced off rather than hedged) when needed. That's so typical of my style - when I start something I jump straight in and go for the quickest, easiest route, only to find I must go back, take my time, start again and do things properly.
As I wound my way round with baby no. 1, I could hear Father Earthly calling out on his progress, chattering to the 6 1/2 month old in the sling that "they were winning". At first I felt light-hearted, jovial. This was fun. But baby no. 1 was getting upset. "Daddy!" he kept calling, a note of panic in his voice. He couldn't understand where Daddy had gone. As I kept taking wrong turns and seemed to be getting no nearer the centre I felt myself starting to panic too. My question changed to "Which way next?" and I started to feel the hedges closing in on me. Baby no. 1 was becoming quite upset. And then I found myself back at the beginning again.
Downhearted, annoyed, I felt a failure. I so very nearly gave up, but instead turned round and re-entered, determined to win this time. Which way next? Father Earthly was now on his way out after gleefully gaining the centre. He told baby no. 2 they were going to help mummy now. Relief flooded me as we met on a corner and he led us on - I wanted to do this on my own but obviously that was not what this labyrinth was all about. I needed his help; We all went together.
He told me along the way that the trick with many of these mazes was not to take the most obvious path. So if you see a path that runs alongside the centre, that's probably the wrong one - take the outer path instead, that goes the opposite way. Ahh, I thought, that again is so like me. Yes, I follow my heart, but I also try and invoke reason. And reason very rarely has the right answer.
We entered the centre together, as a family, and my question reformed itself again to "Who do I want to be next?"
And with that I was happy. So often in life we are simply not asking the right questions. Through walking the labyrinth today I learned that I need to change my focus, lift my eyes above the horizon and view the greater picture. Who should I be next? I think I already know ;-)
