I walked my first prayer labyrinth the other night.
I hadn’t planned on going to church and when I got there I didn’t plan on staying, but the request seemed so small. Just sit for a minute and listen to the music of a Taize service. Just sit and listen.
Pastor Debbie started on the path first. The labyrinth was set out on the floor of the Parish Hall, nearly covering the floor from wall to wall. A wooden cross, taller than me, sat in the center. Pastor Debbie carried a stone with her as she walked and when she came to the cross, she put the rock at its base and then started back around the labyrinth again.
There were about a dozen of us and we didn’t walk the labyrinth one at a time. Some started well behind the person in front of them. Some started just a few feet behind, but at one point it seemed like we were all on the path together.
The path twisted into a maze of tight turns and more than once I almost lost my balance. Really I could have lost my balance … there was no penalty for falling off the path. But I fought hard to stay on, even turning sideways sometimes to avoid brushing up against someone whose journey brought them close to me.
At first I wished that I was walking the labyrinth alone, but as more and more people joined the path, I realized how important it was that we all walked together.
Sometimes the path wound back on itself so that I would brush up against someone who was much further along than me. Sometimes, our paths were parallel so that someone behind me was now walking beside me.
It was a truly brilliant message.
We are all on the same journey together. Some are further along. Some are right behind us, but no matter where we are in the journey, there are opportunities to walk together, to brush up against someone even for a second and make a difference, to be able to point out to the person behind you what struggles may be ahead.
I had wanted to walk the labyrinth alone. I had wanted to be alone with my thoughts and to pray and meditate and in the end I learned that night that I am so thankful for people. I am so blessed with people … who walk and sometimes clear the path ahead, who join me sometimes on the path, who follow behind me, who guard my back.
Community.
It’s so vital to understand that even when we want to be alone, even when we think we’re alone, God has given us people who take the journey with us.
Who those people are may change throughout our lives as we move and grow, but they are always there and we can’t think for a second that we’re alone.
