Bairbre CahillHave you ever walked a labyrinth? I walk the garden labyrinth in Manresa, the Jesuit retreat house in Dublin every time I visit. Now a labyrinth is not a maze. It is not a place to get lost or find oneself in a dead-end.
A labyrinth is usually a path on the ground – the one in Manresa is made by cutting the grass more closely on the path. The shape is circular with one path leading into the centre and one path leading out. The challenge is to follow the path as it leads you around the labyrinth, sometimes moving you towards the centre and at other times, surprisingly, taking you further from it and yet always, ultimately, bringing you to that centre point.
The last time I walked the labyrinth, dusk was beginning to fall. Half-way in I began to stress – would I get all the way around, before darkness fell and I could no longer see the path? I found myself looking across to the other side of the labyrinth and thinking “How will I see anything when I’m over there? Should I just give up now?”
Then that little bit of wisdom that I possess challenged me. Could I see the path right now? Yes. Could I follow this path even in this falling dusk? Yes. Why not keep focused then on what was before me, follow the path, take the turns, see where it would take me to. And if the light faded in a while and I could not see enough to follow the path out then fair enough, I could just walk straight out of the labyrinth. But don’t jump to that conclusion now while there is still enough light to see.
Focusing on now, on the path before me and not stressing about what might happen was a challenge for me. I realise that, like many people, I have become a worrier. I think many parents find that they are gold medal winning worriers. We worry about what has happened in the past and what is happening now. Then we worry even more about what could happen in the future. We expend silly amounts of energy on worry that gets us nowhere.
We are not alone. I have noticed that our children too can pick up that worry habit from us. I look at my own and whether it is worrying about what may happen in an exam that is months away or worrying about events that haven’t happened yet a lot of energy is getting burned up. Mindfulness can be effective in dealing with worry and stress.
Walking a labyrinth is a way of practising Christian mindfulness. Now sometimes mindfulness is viewed with suspicion as something that has nothing to do with Christianity but in reality, mindfulness is something that grew up in the ancient monastic tradition of the early Church. Mindfulness is about being present, aware of our body, our thoughts, our feelings here and now. That sort of awareness can be nurtured through being aware of our breathing. As Christians we know that God is the one in whom ‘we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28) so if we are present to ourselves we are also present to God whose love holds us in being.
The labyrinth at dusk challenged me to focus on what was just right in front of me – and I found that although the light was fading, I was able to see enough to get to the centre and back, trusting the path, seeing just far enough ahead to know where to step. I don’t have a labyrinth at home (I don’t think it would fit in our garden!) but I’m trying to cultivate that sense of living in the moment – and encouraging my children to do the same.
For more information on mindfulness see https://www.sanctuary.ie/what-is-mindfulness/