Trees

I walked a prayer labyrinth today. If you've never done it, it is an amazing, prayerful, peaceful time. It's power is indescribable. Labyrinths have been used as a form of spiritual meditation for hundreds of years. They are becoming more and more a part of today's lexicon. I have walked a beautiful labyrinth at the Carondolet Center at the College of St. Catherine as well as a number of labyrinths set up at our church. Try it. Trust me.

One of the things I try to do as I walk toward the center is to release all that is weighing heavy on my heart. As I enter the center, I become one with God and my soul...no ego, no pain, no weight of the world...just God and me. While walking, I pray and chant and pay close attention to images that come into my mind.

Today's experience was incredibly profound. As I walked toward the center, I kept seeing a particular tree. It was tall and wide. An oak, perhaps? I couldn't figure out where I had seen that tree when suddenly the big tree in the Shawshank Redemption popped into my head. Weird. Anyway, the wind was blowing, at times with gusto and at times with gentleness. I couldn't figure out the significance and in fact, was trying not to so that I could remain mindful and silent. As I sat in the center of the labyrinth, I felt amazingly light and free. I spent much time in the center with God before I got up to journey out back into the world taking the same path out as I did in.

As I left, I had an incredible revelation. I am supposed to be flexible like branches and leaves. I am supposed to show beauty. I am supposed to be alive and vibrant. I am supposed to go through periods of growth that people can see and periods of growth that people can't. I am supposed to bare and naked during winter. I am supposed to grow when I look bleakest. I am supposed to produce fruit. I am supposed to go through cycles.

The trunk? The roots? They are God. Always steadfast, unbending, predictable. The center of growth. Without the trunk and the roots, there are no branches. There are no leaves. There is no beauty.

I smiled as I walked out of that labyrinth. I saw myself and my relationship with God so clearly as I left the maze and reentered the world. I vow to be the tree.