Labyrinth

Some years ago I was attending a six-month renewal program on the east coast, and as usually happens in that sort of group, I became very close to a number of people. As the time came for me to return home, I began to wonder how I was going to deal with saying good-bye to these folks who had become such an important part of my life.

A week or two before the program ended, we made a Day of Recollection at a nearby retreat center. We had been there a few times, and one of my favorite features was the large outdoor labyrinth on the property. I had walked it each time we were there, and found it centering and soothing. I had walked other labyrinths before, but this one was fairly large and made possible a longer walking reflection period.

This particular day during the break after lunch, I went out to the labyrinth. It was a beautiful June day, warm but with a slight breeze. I entered the labyrinth and began to make my way along the cobblestones. There were a number of us walking in the labyrinth, each at a slow but steady pace. After a few moments, I looked up and noticed that Brother Steven, one of the people I would miss the most, had just begun the walk. As we went around, I saw that at times the winding path had us walking almost side by side. At other times we were far apart, and at times we were on opposite sides of the outer circle, apparently walking in opposite directions.

Suddenly the lessons of the labyrinth dawned on me in a wholly new way. Steven and I and all the others on that labyrinth were all walking towards the same goal. Each of us was on the right path, but we were each where we needed to be on the path at that moment.

At times in life, we would walk side by side as we had done for the past few months. At other times we walk far apart. Brother Steven and I were almost the same age, but for fifty-two years of our lives, we hadn’t known one another at all. The journey brought us close, and the journey would now be taking us to different places. Yet I could see that we would still be on the journey, we would still be sharing a path. 

So I could walk on.