Labyrinth

Last Friday I walked the Labyrinth at St. Paul's Cathedral with a new friend, and as usual I found it to be a wonderfully meditative and inspiring experience. As I walked the labyrinth I felt stress I was holding begin to melt away, my pace slowed down, and I began to enter a more contemplative mode of being. My friend loved it, which pleased me as I wasn't sure she would be impressed by it at all. I feel much better when I walk the labyrinth, so I'm going to try to make it a part of my ongoing ITP. On my most recent labyrinth walk it seemed to me that the "energy" of the location - in this case, a church - has a lot to do with the feeling of the experience. Whether this is my imagination or an actual sense of some sort of field effect is open to interpretation, but clearly setting has an impact on the experience for me. I would love to try walking the labyrinth in a natural setting, in the middle of the wilderness, to see how that might feel different. A couple of years ago I walked the labyrinth outside Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and the feeling there was much different - it did not have as deeply sacred a feel to it, undoubtedly due in large part to the distracting city noises and the tourists who were walking the labyrinth in an insincere manner - for example, walking at high speed through the labyrinth, and then getting bored halfway through and just walking out. Of course, any judgments or irritations that arise while I walk are part of the experience and I just observe them and get on with it. Anyway, it was still very cool walking the labyrinth outside, and great to walk it in a different sort of setting. I wish I had done the one inside as well, and will certainly do so the next time I visit that wonderful city.