I’m still processing from my labyrinth walk yesterday. Walking meditations – for those who are able – are very powerful and go a long way down into the human psyche. I found it interesting that I experienced the entire walk as resistance and physical pain, but the next morning, I woke up knowing what I have to do; I am clear again and realize the pain was a reminder that there’s something I have to do, which I won’t enjoy.
To be more specific, I have gotten into a bad habit, and I have to shed it, and the sooner I do the better off the world will be. So the walk was a reminder to drop something rather than acquire it.
I was the first person to walk the labyrinth as part of an open house which Ellesmere United Church hosted – it’s in the SAME BUILDING where I live. What are the odds? When I walked into this building, I was overcome by a feeling that I was in the right place… learning that a Chartres labyrinth is now part of the architecture of the place, and that it was put in while I was living here, has only made the living here sweeter.
Soon I will leave this nest for a new one – I don’t know exactly when or how. But it will be soon, and then I will move into a different phase of my life, one in which I am not living by myself. In the meantime, I have acquired some good habits and some discipline about keeping my personal space cleaner and tidier. But I gotta say, I am SO looking forward to having somebody else to cook for, I’m going to cook and bake like a maniac the first couple of weeks.
On Sunday I will have been off smokes for two weeks. It’ll be interesting to see if I can avoid smoking the next time I see Paul or daughter Katie.
I hope to walk that Chartres labyrinth with you some time… my only other experience was – unenlightening – because I couldn’t shut out the traffic noise, or the bunch of noisy teenagers nearby, of the bird-droppings on the walk and the threat of more from above. In fact, I couldn’t exclude the outer world in order to inter the inner world.
Congratulations on the two weeks…
>I can avoid smoking the next time I see Paul or daughter Katie.
Both of them smoke? It’s hard when family reinforces an addiction you’re trying to break.
I second that motion (re: two weeks off smokes)! Also, happy to hear about your enlightening experience – do you already have a roommate in mind or do you JUST know it is going to happen?
Deb, it’s in the planning stages, but with luck I will have my recent dream of “Geek House” come true, where I live with a bunch of geeks and play den mom to them. The first geek is signed up – the second geek is in play – the third geek is being sought. Then we all buy a house together and live geekily ever after.
I think I need to model my family behaviour after Keith & my parents, not KID and Paul. Keith doesn’t drink, dope or smoke tobacco.
A labyrinth walk is an interesting thing. I highly recommend it, even for people who consider themselves as spiritual as a fencepost.
I do not consider you a Geek, but this is an awesome goal. You will no doubt be an inspiration to the other geeks AND I look forward to hearing the interesting stories that will certainly arise out of this enterprise.
Hm. Geek house. Does everyone get a sweatshirt with 933k letters on then?
Hmph, and a secret handshake too. Strangely enough, looping back to a previous comment, Paul quit the day after the last day he saw me, so he’s been off smokes for 10 days now too.
What’s the initiation like, wink, nudge 😉
You have to recite the “My sister was bitten by a moose once” segment from Monty Python from memory. Then you have to recite the articles of faith:
1. Carl Sagan’s baloney detection kit
2. George Clooney was the worst fucking Batman evar
3. My mother doesn’t live here, so I have to wipe up my own spew
Then we toast each other in our favourite microbrew, watch Animal House and Meet the Feebles, and draw straws for who gets to pass out in the bathtub. (See article 3).
Yeah, I left out the lube, but what the hell.