Grünewald Guild Labyrinth
This is the penultimate night of my two-week sojourn at the Grünewald Guild, a wondrous retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State where I teach every summer. Devoted to exploring and celebrating the connections between art and faith, the Guild is something of a second home for me—a place where I find my tribe.
With its beautiful setting, remarkable community, and artful spirit, the Guild offers much sanctuary. The past couple of weeks have provided many moments of connection and opportunities to savor the presence of the sacred. In conversations, in seeing what’s taking shape in the studios, in our morning and evening gatherings for Matins and Vespers, in the fellowship around the table or over teacups, there is a continual invitation to be present, to pay attention to how the Spirit moves and creates in community, and to find and offer sustenance with these folks who know what it’s like to live in the intersections of art and faith—an experience that’s often more difficult to come by in my life back in Florida.
I’ve been mindful, too, of seeking some spaces of quiet and solitude, though with having such a limited time here, I’m spending as much time with the community as my introverted self can handle. This evening, in need of a bit of time to myself as I approach the end of almost two weeks of being with others almost constantly, I took myself to the sanctuary of the labyrinth here at the Guild. It’s one of my absolute favorite labyrinths—a Celtic triple spiral laid out in stones, overlooking the Wenatchee River. It doesn’t matter where you enter the labyrinth—select any spiral, turn right or left, and the path will draw you in.
This evening I walked the triple-spiraled circuit once, and then again, and yet a third time, taking in the sounds of the river, the feel of my feet on the path, the rhythm of moving slowly. My brain, which typically keeps a perpetual monologue going as I ponder and process and chew on things throughout my waking moments, eased into the spiraling way, settling into the quiet, if not turning its chatter entirely off.
And so, as I savor the quiet of this evening, I find myself wondering: Where are you finding sanctuary these days? How are you experiencing the rhythms of solitude and community, and do you have the balance of these that you need? What paths are you traveling, and are they paths you are choosing mindfully and with intention, or have you found yourself upon them for some other reason? How do you want to be moving through these days?
I traveled the triple spiral one more time before I left, this time taking a video camera with me. Want to take a walk?
Walking Blessing
That each step
may be a shedding.
That you will let yourself
become lost.
That when it looks
like you’re going backwards
you may be making progress.
That progress is not the goal anyway,
but presence
to the feel of the path on your skin,
to the way it reshapes you
in each place it makes contact,
to the way you cannot see it
until the moment you have stepped out.
“Walking Blessing” © Jan L. Richardson from In Wisdom’s Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season.
Jan, I hope you won’t mind. I would like to use this blessing for a blog I have on our coming walk to Santiago. Your blessing is so beautiful and so ‘right’ !
Thank you for all the wisdom you bring to everything you write 🙂
Thank you, Claire! Many blessings to you as you prepare for your pilgrimage to Santiago–it sounds like a remarkable adventure!
Thanks for the video. This is a remarkable labyrinth! The narrow path – room for one foot at a time – the focus on the path lest you step on a stone – the quiet – the shadows and the shift from light to dim and back again – I am quieted.
Many thanks, Carol! It is a wondrous labyrinth indeed.
I love this Jan, and the video was truly calming and prayerful
Thank you for giving me the chance to walk the guild labyrinth once again. I appreciate the video taping of your journey and I will walk it often with you as I begin a new teaching job this Fall. I’m excited to teach art in our alternative high school and middle school. As I think about this new journey and pathway yet untrodden, my footsteps feel sure and steady, and simultaneously unsure and faltering. The labyrinth path renews my spirit and allows me to move with good intention. Thanks Jan. I so enjoyed my guild two weeks as well.
The ones here are truly refreshing. A great sanctuary for people like me to get the essence of the place. I want to visit that! The video and the poem itself justify the meaning of the topic here.
Hi Jan!
Lovely to read your reflection here. A group and myself built a Three-Spiral Labrynth up at John Wesley Ranch in Divide, Colorado the summer of 2010! Come pray it sometime. We have prayed it by full moon last fall together and then again this summer on the Summer Solstice at night as well. Also, I continue to have great joy in sharing your art by way of my Lectio Divina podcast. Many persons comment on how your art touches them deeply. I am in gratitude for you.
Be well, friend.
Todd
What a lovely labyrinth! There is a labyrinth near my home and I enjoy walking it. I find it a perfect mirror to the spiritual journey.
Worshipful walking with you this morning. Grateful for the gift.
Hi Jan,
Loved this, thank you!
I am just setting up a centre here in Ireland and I would like to build a triple sprial labyrinth, if possible – I would love it if someone could help me with specifics like the dimensions etc. I am not sure if I have room for this kind and I am also considering the classical labyrinth. Please help – anyone who knows about this. Shayla
I would also be interested in hearing from you Todd, regarding the one you built, if you are still around! Shayla