Paths: Linear, Circular, and Winding

Finding unexpected patterns in our journeys.

First labyrinth I ever walked, one I shuffled in the sand at Topsail Beach, 2002.

The first Saturday in May was World Labyrinth Day. I spent some time finding and sharing some of my favorite labyrinth photos on Instagram. Below are a few favorites from our family travels.

From top left: Seattle labyrinth seen from space needle, IX Art Park in Charlottesville, VA, Longport, New Jersey, Iona, Scotland, Cleveland, Ohio, Naples Botanical Garden, Florida

Labyrinths have been a part of my life since I first discovered the design while in graduate school for art therapy. I was drawn to its meditative invitation.

This past week, I walked my neighborhood labyrinth and reflected on the different sections of the path as it winds around the circle.

I’ve shared before how my working outline for my book is a color wheel, a circle, an alternative to a more linear outline form. I tend to think and see relationships better in circles and cycles.

Lately even the circular form of my outline has felt restrictive. I’ve progressed through drafting the first two sections by moving from chapter to chapter in order. It’s not a straight line but a curved line, still somewhat linear. I have filled in half the circle. As I begin to work on the second half, I notice I am more aware of the whole and less able to focus on one piece at a time.

At the same time, as we move into summer with its longer days, more opportunities to be outside and in the garden, more visitors, and often shorter bits of time for work, I find I am wanting a new rhythm that fits in the margins around a fuller season in life right now.

Labyrinth I walk most often at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church.

Walking the labyrinth this week, I imagined my color wheel structure superimposed over the circle of the labyrinth. Seen in this way, my path winds through the four sections and 12 chapters of my book. There are switchbacks where I stay with a section and deepen into it but also bridges where I cross into a different section.

As I move through the sections, I am aware of how they stay connected, of how I revisit each in turn, and how some paths are longer than others. Yet, it all fits together into a larger pattern.

This has given me a new way to think about my moving around within the book, the sections, the chapters, and the structure as a whole.

I made a new labyrinth puzzle with the four sections of my book represented in the four quadrants of the labyrinth. Red is the opening section on courtship, yellow is the second section on circumambulation, green is the third section on conversation, and indigo wraps up with the final section on negative capability. Below you can see it all assembled as well as taken apart to better view the individual pieces.

The switchbacks and places where the path repeats and doubles back feel true to my creative process. I notice some stretches of path are longer than others; completing the whole happens not by filling in pieces of the pie but by a winding path that eventually reaches the center.

I’m curious, do you have a favorite symbol for your own journey? How are you feeling on your creative path?

If labyrinth walking interests you as a form of meditation, I recommend the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator for finding a labyrinth near you.

A recent BBC article, Labyrinth Walking: An Ancient Activity That Could Help Ease Anxiety features ideas for labyrinth walking as well as a history of labyrinths around the world.

You can also find labyrinth touchstones in new colors, labyrinth stickers, notecards, art and a ceramic labyrinth ball on my Etsy site.

Thank you for reading and being a part of creative community through this newsletter.

With a grateful heart,

Kathryn

Video of handheld meditation with a ceramic labyrinth ball.