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Legacy Labyrinth update
Sustainers Circle Spotlight
Special Offer from our Product Partner: iSpiritual
Global Healing Response
Little Miracles on the Path
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VERIDITAS' ONLINE AUCTION RETURNS!

LEGACY LABYRINTH UPDATE

For more information about Legacy Labyrinths, please click here, or contact Chris.

SUSTAINERS CIRCLE SPOTLIGHT: Kathy Warren
by Rita Canning, Development Coordinator

When did you first encounter the labyrinth?

I was in Grace Cathedral in 1991 or 1992 when Lauren, Alan Jones and some other people took that trip to Chartres Cathedral in France where Lauren moved the chairs to show the labyrinth. When she came back she had a labyrinth painted out on a huge canvas and she said “This is what it is”.  At the time I was rapidly in the process of burning myself out volunteering for too many things. There was a small group of people back then at Grace Cathedral doing just about everything. We had a lot of funerals and it was a time of very high emotional intensity. I was completely involved in it and I loved everything that I was doing. When Lauren came back from Chartres I was part of the group that was down in the basement with her. When she first showed us the canvas labyrinth I couldn’t figure it out. I could not see what was going on. It was a couple of years after that I still couldn’t figure it out. It completely eluded me why you would care. And then something happened and I don’t remember what it was but something happened. I found myself on the terrace outside Grace Cathedral.

Please tell us the story.

The first installation that they had of the labyrinth was outside Grace Cathedral. I stood at the entrance of it and I swear that arcs came right up off the payment. I felt as if the whole terrace came alive. The architecture of the place came alive and it came around me. I was brought into the labyrinth and I felt like I was flying. I don’t walk the labyrinth when there are other people on it because I don’t want to be in their way, I just want to fly around it. It’s not that I’m walking fast, but I’m moving in with the arc. I’m sort of turning and curving because the labyrinth is just coming up off the ground, the arcs actually coming up all around me and I feel like I’m soaring. There is magic in that shape. If you can let yourself be drawn into it you are soaring. You are sideways, you are in the wave like a surfer. It’s three dimensional for me every single time. I have a plastic labyrinth sitting here and I can feel those arcs coming up. It’s the magic of the shape. There’s a way where I’m not subject to gravity when I’m in those arcs. The power in those arcs is breathtaking, astounding. You can think of it as a bowl. I’m on the rings of a bowl and have to lean in.

Will you tell us a little more of your practice with the labyrinth?

The labyrinth is healing for me, and so creative. I wrote a novel on the strength of the labyrinths that are laid out on pavement. I just have to think about it and I’m soaring. I don’t know how a shape can do that but this shape, every single time, for me is so amazing. It’s so healing, it’s just astounding.

In many respects for me the labyrinth itself is a practice. It has the same effect on me of calming and soothing creativity. I can exhale and take the day away for at least a few minutes and then come back. The first thing I notice about the labyrinth is it coming up around me. And that’s what it’s about in my world. It’s about waking up your senses at a time when you can set everything behind you just for a little bit and let your self be very present in some kind of a setting that just wakes up your senses. The labyrinth is absolutely sure fire at letting people be present. 

Why are you a Sustaining Giver to Veriditas?

Veriditas is one of two charities that I give most of my contributions to because Veriditas has to stay here - because there’s going to be somebody else who life is changed the way my life was changed, by that shape. And it can’t go away. The power of the labyrinth is too important, too much to be taken away. It’s too much to lose. Veriditas has Lauren and Lauren is well aware of the importance of moving into individual spirituality and not being stopped by what’s happening in the ordinary day to day. The fire of the labyrinth has got to be out there and that’s why I’m so happy to give to Veriditas.

GLOBAL HEALING RESPONSE

The Global Healing Response, founded in 2005 by Council member Ellen Bintz Meuch, offers an annual theme and quarterly ideas and information to enrich labyrinth walks.

The GHR theme for 2016 is Stability 

"The world is beautiful outside where there is stability inside." -Unknown. 

Focus for 2nd quarter: Renewal

Quote: 

 As wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
Always, for ever and new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed.  
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

Picture/symbol: Sunrise (Photo by The Rev. Warren Lynn)

Color: Green

www.globalhealingresponse.com. 

LITTLE MIRACLES ON THE PATH

"Little Miracles" is produced by Linda Mikell. Each month she shares an inspirational story from a labyrinth experience that is sent to her by a facilitator. She welcomes YOUR story. I'm sure you're got one, and we all benefit from this sharing. Thank you, Linda! 

Please send your story to Linda Mikell at [email protected]

Booklets are available online for

$10 each plus shipping.

Proceeds benefit the Veriditas scholarship fund.