My Labyrinth - Finished!

My labyrinth is finished!! 

A year after I dug the first trench and laid the first brick, it's finished. Those of you who read my blog postings last summer, "My OWN labyrinth," Parts One and Two, probably assumed that it was finished long ago, that I have been peacefully walking it ever since. I had assumed as much myself. But then came the August morning when I spent forty-five minutes unearthing two hulking rocks, only to discover a network of entrenched tree roots underneath. I threw my shovel in the air, plopped down on one of the rocks, and reached for my phone.
"So, Ben, what was your plan, again?" I asked our son-in-law who had tactfully suggested an alternative to my dig-a-trench method earlier in the planning process.
Without a hint of "I-told-you-so" in his voice, Ben outlined the plan that I was, by then, more than happy to embrace.
No more digging!

Eight months passed. Eight months when the ground lay quiet, when I quieted myself. My initial drive to "get this done now" and "my way" gradually calmed, much like my breathing during meditation. In the mindfulness that followed, I realized what - in my haste - I had forgotten... the two most important elements I wanted my labyrinth to represent. Peace and community.

As dogwood and redbud bloomed and green replaced brown, my family and I set a date, April 11th. Ben calculated amounts. I researched sources and ordered supplies.

9 yards of topsoil

1165 bricks (Did I mention that Ben majored in math?)

 

155 rolls of Bermuda sod

                                                    Then the creation began!

Clearing away the remnants of Plan A, then tilling (Drew)

Schlepping (son Jason)

Measuring ( Jason, Ben and grandchildren Luke and Ruby)

Laying bricks (Ben, Jason and I)

                                           

Adding the last piece of sod - Done!

Cutting and placing sod

     

                                                           

















When I open our bedroom blinds in the morning, I look down on the completed labyrinth. It waits for me to walk. As I place one foot in front of the next, I remember a husband's enduring support, a grandchild's hands, a son's strength, a son-in-law's vision, a family's love. And I whisper, "Thank you!"

Connecting Around the Labyrinth

When I ask people if they have walked a labyrinth or know what one is, most usually think I'm talking about a maze. Like the one that Harry Potter fought his way out of in "The Goblet of Fire," or the cornfield variety whose puzzling twists and deadends have caused more than one lost walker to call 911. I explain, as someone did for me as a labyrinth novice, that a labyrinth is trustworthy - not deceitful. It is one path, the same path, that leads the walker to the center and back out. With the path certain, the walker can free his/her mind to meditate, ponder, question, notice.

Imagine my excitement this weekend as I rubbed elbows with over 100 people whose every other word seemed to be labyrinth!

Opening ceremony of the 16th Annual Gathering of The Labyrinth Society at
the Duncan Center in Del Ray, Florida

Not only were they talking about labyrinths but making them, from the contemplative to whimsical!

Peace Labyrinth
(designed by Lisa Moriarty; painted by Steve Selpal)

Pinecone Labyrinth
(created by Tony Christie and Ole Jensen)

Flower Labyrinth
(created by Tom Vetter)

Flamingo Labyrinth, of course!
It's Florida.
(created by Lars Howlett)

Connection was my intention for my first labyrinth Gathering.
Connection with others for whom the labyrinth holds unique significance, personally and within community.
Deeper connection to self on my continuing path of discovery.
RE-connection was an added bonus!

Catherine walking her backyard labyrinth during my
visit - April 19, 2013

Catherine Anderson, whose labyrinth in Charlotte, North Carolina was the 18th I visited on my 50-state labyrinth journey, was a fellow participant! The chances that I would select her labyrinth to visit in North Carolina, then meet her again one and a half years later in Florida, speaks to the connecting power of the labyrinth.

Sharing a peace labyrinth at the Gathering
(designed by Lisa Moriarty)

The challenge after any conference or retreat which transports you from the "ordinary" into a realm of possibility and inspiration, is to somehow fit your experiences into the rhythm of daily life. A quote by one of the presenters, Gary Boelhower, gives me a direction…

"The actualization of a journey is in the revisiting." 

As I unpack my suitcase this morning, I move forward with the next step -- Reflection.

My OWN Labyrinth - Part 2

When I daydreamed of building a labyrinth in our yard, I naively imagined that we would whip it into shape in a weekend or two.

Labyrinth laborers 

preparing the ground

measuring 

marking 

hauling

setting the design

then

stepping back 

arms folded

proudly

proclaiming 

it

"Finished!"  

It is Step 2 in my 3-Step Plan. 

1. Complete visits

2. Build labyrinth

3. Write *book

But two weeks into the project, sitting on a pile of bricks, I slow down long enough to hear that voice, the one that lets me fret a bit before imparting her wisdom. Today it comes in the form of a question. 

"Have you learned nothing on this journey?" she asks. 

I detect impatience.

Of course, I know where she's headed with this line of questioning. I know...but I forget.

The path takes time to walk. 

There are lessons to be learned in the doing, the day-to-day, the creation.

Pay attention to what is before you.

Breathe.

The "army" of laborers has temporarily left. Without them I could not have begun. 

Anne Hornstein, whose labyrinth in Florida was the first I walked on my fifty-state journey,
helps me measure the center. She "happened" to be driving to Colorado and
offered to consecrate the space and help with the lay-out. 

Drew unloads 100+ bricks and pushes them,
one wheelbarrow load at a time,
to the labyrinth site (opposite side of the house.)

Our son-in-law, Ben, precisely measures
the center circle of bricks.

The labyrinth and I share the space for quiet hours, surrounded by trees, birdsong and inquisitive mosquitoes, only moderately repelled by Deep Woods Off. 

It won't be finished for several months, as I go back and forth to New York, and as other hands take turns digging trenches and laying bricks.
I take a deep breath and realize that's as it should be.

  

The labyrinth is growing, 

one brick at a time.

As am I.

 *working title of book -

  Labyrinth Journeys

 Fifty States… Fifty-One Stories 

  

My OWN Labyrinth - Part 1

"Sure, I'm going to build my own labyrinth," I've been telling women for the last two years. Women who have already created theirs; one woman in every state, as those of you know who have been following my journey.

"So, what do you think is holding you back?" asked Mary in Iowa, as we visited at the edge of her prairie labyrinth last summer?

The mowed entrance to Mary Dreier's "Soul of the Prairie" labyrinth,
which circles through a field of prairie grasses.  It is marked by a bell,
peace pole, and stone.

 The question caught me off guard. My pat answer, "I'm just not at our Arkansas home long enough to get started, " was true enough, but was there more?  Mary's intuition seemed to think so, but it has taken me another year and the completion of my travels, to name it.

Was it that I hadn't located the spot on our five acres that "felt" right? Three tree-circled spaces looked promising. I even asked the trees, "What do you think? Would you be OK with a labyrinth in your neighborhood?" No response, which I interpreted as, "Thanks for asking, but keep looking," as if this were a game of Hide-and-Seek, and I was still "cold."

Was it that the whole project was too overwhelming? Did I lack the confidence and/or ability to begin? Yes, and yes.
I knew I wanted to build a Chartres-style labyrinth with its 11 circuits and 34 turns, but how?

Would the path be grass, gravel, mulch, or?

Would the lines be brick, rock, plants, or?

Who could help me with the math, my least favorite subject since….forever!?

But still, there was more. Like a pot of boiling water that simmers down to the last inch, I expected my answer to be at the bottom, easily fished out and served on a plate. As we know, though, answers tend to be a bit slipperier than that.



"You are not yet ready to build your labyrinth. You will know when you are," came the ambiguous voice, once I calmed the churning waters long enough to listen.

It was clear that "ready" did not mean the perfect spot, the ideal
materials, the tricky math. It meant me.

Building a labyrinth is an emotional and spiritual investment. It's a connection to an ancient design that people have walked for thousands of years, for reasons we will never fully understand. I walk them as a meditation, for calm, peace, reflection, guidance, for whatever I may need to notice. I am drawn to labyrinths built outdoors, in the earth, where my feet touch ground as I walk. There is a living connection between  us.

Until two weeks ago, I was not ready.
Now I am.
How do I know?
I just do.
Intuition?
That feeling you can't fully explain, but that won't go away.
Until you listen.
And act.

Or maybe the labyrinth itself is ready to be built. All I know is that I'm now laying bricks, with the support of  amazing helpers!
Please join me next week for Part 2 - "Beginning!"

Son-in-law, Ben,  along with grandsons,
Luke and Nate help me get started.

I'd appreciate your comments… How do you know when something is "right" in your life -

to move forward,

make a change,

take one path over another…

to begin?

   

  

Coming Full Circle on Maui

Those of you who are Facebook "Friends" may have seen pictures of my Maui labyrinth walk, #50 of 50, shortly after I completed it.

Other faithful blog friends will catch up with me now - a week later - back home, unpacked, somewhat incredulous (always wanted to use that word) that the trip actually happened.

When I began planning the trip in February, I still had twelve states to visit. Hawaii was always going to be the last one, but I had "miles to go" before that could happen.
Not to mention finding a woman,
who had built an outdoor labyrinth,
in Hawaii,
who would be available for a visit,
the first week in July!
Before plane reservations or condo searches, this woman…whoever she might be… had to be found, had to say "Yes."  Hunched over my laptop like a fortune teller over her crystal ball, I consulted  the World Wide Labyrinth Locator once again.  In 48 of the past 49 searches, it had successfully conjured my destinations.  And now, another possibility --

Eve Hogan
The Sacred Garden
460 Kaluanui Rd.
Makawao, Maui, Hawaii

A woman with two outdoor labyrinths.  Less than twenty-four hours of my email request, Eve replied with a gracious and enthusiastic "Yes!" Maui in July!!

Eve completes the 50 states!

On July 3rd, I walked Eve's 11-circuit labyrinth, encircled by the lushness of Maui's rainforest, accompanied by husband and friends.

Drew and friends,
Marian and Jim Levine join me in the center

I carried a miniature copy of the USA map that hangs on my closet door, filled with pictures of the other women whose labyrinths I walked over the past two years.


Gratitude and relief spilled over me as I took the final step.

And yet, that was not the final step.

There were two other labyrinths on Maui that would touch me in the next five days.









 "If you're in the Kapalua area, check out the Dragon's Teeth Labyrinth," Eve mentioned at the end of our conversation.  "It's built on sacred Hawaiian ancestral grounds, amazing energy and winds."
"That's where we're staying!" I answered, at this point in my journey not at all surprised in the "coincidence."

The next morning at 5:45, I followed Eve's directions down the road from our condo, across the fairway of a golf course, out onto a rocky point. A majestic 11-circuit labyrinth - grass, lava rock and coral-lined - spiraled in the wind.

I was the only one there as the sun rose, and the only one there for the next four mornings as I walked to the center and sat.
In the distance Dragon's Teeth (Hawaiian name Makaluapuna Point),
formed by thousands of years of  lava, wind and water,
protected me.







The third labyrinth was of my own making.  In the smooth sand just beyond the reach of  waves pulsing in and out, I took a stick and drew a classical labyrinth. Anne Hornstein, whose beach labyrinth in Destin, Florida was the first labyrinth I walked on this journey, taught me how to draw one… in the sand.

My journey had come full circle.

Labyrinth Visit #50 on July 3rd!

Two years, one month and sixteen days after my labyrinth journey began in Florida, it will end in Hawaii!

July 3rd. 2:30 pm at Eve Hogan's labyrinth on Maui.

I have walked a labyrinth in forty-nine states -- each outdoors, each envisioned and brought to life by a woman.  I have spent one hour, two, up to four hours, with each labyrinth creator. . hearing her story.

Lives and stories now woven into my own.

With one more labyrinth to walk and story to hear, the significance of this journey is only beginning to sink in. I have kept the ending at arm's length, not yet ready to reflect. However, as Drew and I step on the plane tomorrow, that process will begin. The end of the journey will become real.

And what an ending! Drew and I will spend five days on Maui with our dear friends, Marian and Jim Levine. Marian traveled with me, actually did all the driving, through the northeastern states; then joined me again in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky. We had a vision even then -- Hawaii #50!

I will post pictures of the last labyrinth walk on Facebook and this blog. If you are close to a labyrinth, I invite you to walk along with me on the 3rd. Many of my "Labyrinth Friends," in the other forty-nine states, are planning to walk their labyrinths that day and post pictures to my Facebook page or send emails -- a Cyber Celebration!

One of them recently wrote to ask how I'm feeling about reaching the end of the path.  She offered words which have become my mantra. . .

               "An end is a beginning."  

I wonder where this "end" is leading me.

Bur first -- Hawaii.  Here we come!

Eve Hogan's labyrinth on Maui

      

  

The Big Push

(For more information about my 50-state labyrinth journey, please click on the "Labyrinth Journey" tab above.

My labyrinth journey is nearing an end. I will walk #50 in Hawaii on July 4th.  Drew will walk with me, as will Marian (who has traveled to 19 states with me) and her husband, Jim - friends for 30 years.
As exciting as the completion of this two-year trek is, it's not yet time for reflection. Not time to put away the suitcase, bid a less than fond farewell to the "lady" on Mapquest who drones "re-calculating" each time I take a wrong turn, or send letters of commendation to Southwest Airlines, Hampton Inns, and a quintet of rental car companies.

My personal goal has been to finish visiting a labyrinth in each state, except Hawaii, by July 1, 2014. With that date speeding faster and faster on the horizon, I looked west to the six remaining states in that area that I needed to visit. BIG states! Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. States #42-47 in my journey.

Mid-April I began plotting my course. It was the largest jigsaw puzzle of a trip yet. Connecting the labyrinth creators' schedules with airplanes, rental cars, hotels, plus the one variable that even a 10-day forecast can't guarantee -- Weather. Mile-high and higher elevations could mean spring snows and all the travel joys that would bring. But, similar to my February trip when the Polar Vortex was spinning out of control, there reaches a point when you say, "Come Hell or High Water, I'm doing it." (At least, my grandfather used to say that.)

Long story shortened, here's the "text" version. (For the longer tale, you'll have to wait for the book. Yes, the book!)

Arrived Salt Lake City, Utah, just ahead of thunderstorms.
Drove to Elko, Nevada to visit Sarah Sweetwater's labyrinths.

Her personal labyrinth

Elko Peace Park Labyrinth, which Sarah designed

Back to Salt Lake
Visited Peggy Montrone and daughter, Christy's, "cabin" labyrinth -- up a mountain, in the snow.
Weather cleared; returned in the afternoon.

Peggy, expert mountain-driver in the snow!

Three hours later -
With the help of boots, I made it to the center and back.

                                                                             

Flew to Denver; drove to Cheyenne.
Visited Vanda Edington and Anne Wagner who helped envision the labyrinth at Cheyenne Botanic Gardens.
The next day, the labyrinth was under 10 inches of snow!

Vanda and Anne

This labyrinth sits atop the original grass one.

Barbara and Mary in front of the Chartres-style labyrinth

Drove back to Denver.
Visited Barbara Machann's labyrinths in nearby Sedalia.  Barbara's friend, Mary Turner, has "adopted" Barbara's larger, Chartres labyrinth and helps her tend it.

The next day. . .
You guessed it -- 9 inches of snow!

The Classical design next to it

Kent, Cherylee, Terrylee and Lorenzo

Flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico; drove to
Pinedale, Arizona.
Who knew there were "high wind warnings" on the Plains?                  
Visited Cherylee Brewer's labyrinth that she and her family created.

Rocks from the area line the path

                                                                 

Backtracked across the Plains, through Albuquerque to Cerrillos, New Mexico.
Visited Liz Paterson's "goddess" labyrinth.

The labyrinth lies in an old riverbed

Liz with her goddess sculpture

One week, six states, six labyrinths, nine inspiring women! It is their stories, of course, which shape the heart of my journey, as have the others before them. An ancient design connects each woman to herself, to the larger group, and to me. I am profoundly grateful to them all!

 Nebraska next week. Louisiana the week after that. Then Hawaii.

I carry each story with me as I walk.

Thanks to all you readers who continue to encourage me and show such an enthusiastic interest in my story!  

Visiting Labyrinths Before the Next Winter Blast

(For more information about my 50-state labyrinth journey, please click on the "Labyrinth Journey" tab above. Visits to Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi make #38, 39 and 40, with 10 more to go by my July 1st goal!)

It was a risk to plan a labyrinth trip in February (17th-19th), with the Polar Vortex pounding parts of the country that could affect my travel.  I intentionally visited Minnesota, North and South Dakota when it was so hot that my sunscreen was challenged to keep up. Saving Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi for winter seemed like a safe bet.  Not this year.

Three days before I left, I received an email from Clarice O'Bryan in Owensboro, Kentucky, whose labyrinth I planned to visit on the 18th. .

"I awoke this morning to over three inches of snow.  The labyrinth has disappeared.  Hope we have a clear view on the 18th."

Gracie Regen in Nashville said that her labyrinth was covered with leaves - soggy, heavy leaves.  More rain, with the potential for severe thunderstorms, was in the forecast.

And who would have thought?  Snow and ice in the Deep South, including Mississippi, where I was visiting Nancy Bridges' labyrinth on the 19th. 

 With delays and cancellations occurring on a regular basis at Newark Airport, would I even be able to get out?

Should I take a chance. ..  or reschedule?

With a three-day window of opportunity in the five-day forecast, I decided to go!  My journey to visit a labyrinth in every state, is never solely about the labyrinth. It's, equally, about the woman who envisioned and built it. It's about her story. The three women were available; I would keep my fingers crossed about the labyrinths.

My labyrinth-traveling friend, Marian Levine and I, flew out of Newark Monday morning, on time. (The next morning brought more snow, and multiple delays/cancellations.)  By that evening, we had driven from Nashville to Owensboro. 

It was raining.

I brought my rain boots. 

"Clarice, this is Twylla." I said the next morning as Marian and I were leaving the hotel. "I should be at your house in about 20 minutes."

"The rain last night cleared a lot of snow off the labyrinth.  And the sun is shining this morning, the first time in about 10 days!" Her excitement matched mine. 

Placing my feet gently on stone, mud and ice, I made my way to the center of Clarice's labyrinth and back. Yesterday, the path would have been impossible to discern. Today, I  walked each step with gratitude.

As we drove back to Nashville that afternoon, signs of snow gradually faded. Under partly cloudy skies, I hoped to walk Gracie's labyrinth before the predicted rain began. 

Tucked in the valley at the back of Gracie's house lay her Man in the Maze Labyrinth.

Thankfully, moss-covered rocks outlined the path, barely visible under a dumping of autumn leaves. I had never seen this configuration before, except in pictures, and was eager to walk it. Gracie showed me the entrance, pointed the way to the first turn, then left me alone to 

walk. As with every labyrinth, I could trust that the path would lead me to the center and back, no matter what the design, nor number of leaves.  It did.

In Tupelo the next morning, all vestiges of ice and snow had melted into a humid 50 degrees. I looked for Nancy's labyrinth as Marian and I drove into her driveway, remembering the 100-foot dimension on the Labyrinth Locator. It should be easy to spot;  but it wasn't until Nancy walked us to within a few feet of the labyrinth's edge, that I saw the faint outline of pavers.  Her "Harmony Labyrinth" blended in with the brownness of the season, as if it were resting.  Wild onion shoots, freshly mowed by Nancy's husband, littered the path, and smelled of spring. The labyrinth was waking up.  

Back to Nashville one last time, we checked in at the Southwest counter. Our flight had been cancelled. 

"At least we did it; we visited them all before we were stopped." I said, as Marian and I walked away. 

"Oh, wait!" shouted the ticket agent. "Flight #45 from Houston is making an unscheduled stop to pick up 40 of you going to Newark. I've never known that to happen before."

"Ummm. . ." I smiled. "It doesn't surprise me."