Tag: Sacred Path

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When Important Things Break

Rev Kathy
Labyrinth Breaking


I love labyrinths. I love walking them, gazing at them, collecting them, even making them out of glue and paper. If it is true how people explain labyrinths, I have been witness to it. A labyrinth is not a maze. One cannot get lost in a labyrinth. A labyrinth’s path will lead you into a place of spiritual understanding. You can linger there, but you cannot stay forever. The path that led you in will lead you out the same way. For me, the lingering part, the center of the labyrinth raises my spiritual consciousness and prods me to learn more about myself.

I call the labyrinth my “sacred path,” a path that can either leave me whole and filled with sacred thoughts or it can leave me broken as I discover things about myself that I did not know before. Most likely, though, the sacred path will move me toward wholeness and joy, and brokenness of spirit. Both! Looking at a part of who I am, and looking towards the person I want to be.

Some people meet God inside a labyrinth. In my experience, God is present with me on my sacred path teaching me what is right and good, what is of the Holy Spirit and what is merely of the world’s evils. Like most people, both good and evil occupy my life and shape my very being. No wonder there is dichotomy in me and I am constantly torn about the way of the Sacred Path.

But this labyrinth is made of stone, stone that is not easily breakable. It is very disconcerting to me that a stone labyrinth would break apart. I see in it the impermanence of all things. I see it in the fleeting existence of all things, in destructive forces that have power over things, and in the fragility of all things. So I see my own fragility. If a stone labyrinth can break, I imagine I can break, too. As always, the labyrinth’s sacred path teaches and leads, embracing my mind throughout a meandering journey on so sacred a path.

What am I trying to say? That I am just as vulnerable as everyone else. My “superior spirituality’ is a kind of farce, an absurdity that convinces me of my power against evil and my penchant for all things good. Hogwash! Like every one of God’s beloveds, I am half & half, half evil and half good in an ever-fluctuating mess of humanity! So sometimes I love my good self and sometimes I see the evil in me I so detest.

Believe me! A trip into a labyrinth, following its sacred path, can change you and help you face off against your personal mess of humanity. But into the labyrinth? Well, it’s definitely worth the price of admission, but make sure you choose a time before you or the labyrinth breaks apart!

Faith, God's Faithfulness, Labyrinth, Spirituality

“This is the way. Walk in it.”

Rev Kathy
Art by Kalliope

If you know about labyrinths, you might get this. People often ask me what a labyrinth is or what it’s for. Truth is, you can’t fully understand a labyrinth by definition, nor by reading about it. You won’t get the significance of a labyrinth by what I write here, no matter how eloquent my writing may be. To know a labyrinth, you have to walk one, or trace the circuits of a finger labyrinth, or trace the path on a sand labyrinth and feel the sand under your fingers.

As a part of spiritual direction, many folk tell me that a labyrinth looks like a maze to them, and they fear they’ll get hopelessly lost, unable to make it out. That sounds a lot like life to me. Isn’t there always fear that we’ll get lost on this journey we call life? After we’ve made a few wrong turns in life, we are often fearful of living it. Afraid our wrong turns will end badly. Afraid we’ll get lost.

The truth of the labyrinth is that it is a clearly marked path that will lead you in—to the center—and then lead you out by the same path. Perhaps that’s why it has been called “the sacred path.”

If you know me or follow my blog, you already know that my life has been made up of many curves, turns, twists, dead ends and crossroads. At times, it has felt unnavigable, a dangerous and unpredictable journey. Yours has probably felt much the same. I have learned a few good lessons along the way, though, lessons that I hope will stick with me.

The one overarching lesson is that I can neither predict, nor control my path. The twists and turns will appear before me, and I will walk through them. The curves will seem treacherous at times, and I will lean into them hoping to stay firmly on the road. I will stop in my tracks at the dead ends and simply turn around and start over. The crossroads? Well, they have their own precariousness, danger. The crossroads demand a decision. The road I choose could make a world of difference, good or bad.

It’s enough to make life frightening! And it does. Life is frightening, especially for those of us who need to control our pathways. Here’s where the labyrinth offers me so much comfort. It is a pre-created path in and then out, and when I follow it’s path, I am reminded of one of the core beliefs of my faith: that God has laid out a path uniquely for me. Whether I follow it or not is another part of my faith. I get to make that decision.

When I walk a labyrinth or even trace its circular pathways with my finger, I am aware of a guiding hand, a Comforter beside me, and the peace of knowing the path was created for me. I feel Spirit winds and hear the holy voices of thousands of years of Wisdom whispering into my ear.

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

—Isaiah 30:21 (NRSVUE)

Amen.