Wednesday, May 11, 2011

For at least thirteen years, I have wanted to attend one of the workshops put on by Lauren Artress, the author of Walking a Sacred Path, at Chartres Cathedral in France.

Each year for these thirteen years, I have received brochures from Veriditas, the organization led by Lauren Artress, describing first one and then another interesting workshop and the facilitator training for leading labyrinth walks, and each year I have told myself, "Maybe next year..."

This is the year.  Next year has finally arrived, and  within days now, I will leave for this long-awaited experience which is for me both a pilgrimage and a fulfillment of a dream.  It will also be work for me, as I will be gathering material and doing research for the book I am currently writing, Dance Lessons:  Everyday Mysticism for Ordinary Saints. I will also be trained to facilitate labyrinth walks.

I can hardly wait for this experience, and I intend to savor every moment of it.

June 7, 2011

Eddie Sears, the former facilities manager and beloved friend of those of us who count Laity Lodge as one of our "thin places"* in our spiritual journeys, used to wrap up the retreats by reminding us that people at home had been going about their daily lives, taking care of their business and sometimes the responsibilities we had left in their hands while we were on retreat.  "People are braced for miles around," he would joke, "waiting to hear your story."

Eddie's gentle and wise reminder to be sensitive to our loved ones at home always reminded me of how when I was a child, I would return from a trip with my parents, having collected brochures and souvenirs at every stop, wanting to share my adventures with my friends and other family members who hadn't been on the trip I was so eager to recount.

When I was first initiated into Brownies, probably in first or second grade, I knelt beside my bed and prayed that "every little girl in America and even in all the world" could be a Brownie.  I've always wanted everyone to have a chance to enjoy what I enjoy; thankfully, I've learned along the way that what thrills me may bore someone else!

My two-week adventure and the fulfillment of a long-held dream to participate in the workshops sponsored by Veriditas, the non-profit organization founded by Lauren Artress to promote awareness of labyrinth walking, could not possibly have been more satisfying and fulfilling.  Consciously, I chose to lay down any expectations I had of the experience of being in Chartres, France, for two workshops and labyrinth facilitator training, and just let the experience be what it would be.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower...

From the day I heard Ann Miller read that first line of Dylan Thomas' poem in my sophomore English class at Baylor University until now, I have been fascinated by what Hildegard of Bingen  called "the greening power of God."

It's the lifeforce, that greening power, bidden by its own timetable to cause a tree to bud or flower, a rose to unfold, a bird to begin to sing, a yearling to suddenly decide to get up and walk.

Who knows what sets off that impulse to walk?  Why this day and not the day before?  And isn't it that same lifeforce that compels that yearling to keep on getting up and falling until she walks and then runs and then.....dances?

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

"Why do you want to go all the way to France to maze it up?"

"What is a labyrinth, anyway?   And isn't there once closer than France?"

I could answer some of the questions about my trip to Chartres to walk the labyrinth in the great Cathedral there.   I could give some facts about my trip, but the answer to many of the questions that started with "why" was "I will tell you when I return."

Like much of life, you don't know exactly why you do something until after you've done it, and sometimes the unknowable and unknown lead you on quite a journey.