Next In-person walk: Saturday, February 8, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Covenant Presbyterian Church back parking, 2222 at Mo-Pac, Austin
Next Zoom discussion: Saturday, February 8, 2024 10:30 AM Central Time (til 11:30)
Walk In: Losing our Lives by Letting Go of Being Elsewhere or Other
Dancing the Labyrinth
By Alla Renée Bozarth from Accidental Wisdom, (iUniverse, 2003)
(all three reflection sections are from this poem)
There is a way
to begin —
meaningful movement
is the child of stillness.
See where you are.
You do not have to be
anywhere else or better than you are.
Feel the Grace
of the Earth and God through your soles.
This is the pathway
of soul.
And it
is a constant
turning!
Let your feet find the ways
to Oneness and lead
your dancing heart.
It is play.
The way allows
wings and those
who lumber.
The way allows
the bleeding
and broken as well
as the fit and strong.
You may be feeble
and frightened or
you may feel invincible.
Either way
your inner angel
will be the one
to carry you.
The way is black
and white and also
living colors —
all suggesting
change.
It is paper.
It is words.
It is silence
and snow.
The way is
stone
from the mountain’s
heart.
It is desert floor
and water.
It is body
and spirit.
The way is
mindfulness.
It is the soul’s
unbinding
and the body’s
healing.
It is the cleansing
of the mind’s eye.
Simply begin….
Questions
What do you notice about where you are? In what ways does this moment tempt you to be elsewhere or better than you are?
What is the way allowing in you this day?
How is your soul being unbound, your body healed, or your mind’s eye cleansed?
Center: Meeting the Holy One in the Center of Love
At the center
you will find
your truest self
and your birthplace
at the heart of the rose.
In the phoenix nest at the center
you will die and
be touched by fire. …
Questions
Imagine yourself enveloped by the heart of God. If it helps, use this image.
What is dying as you embrace the beauty of your birthplace at the heart of the rose?
What is ready to be touched by fire and burned off?
Walk Out: Saving our Lives by Letting Beauty Rise Within
When you return
we will know you
truly for the first time.
We will welcome news
you bring from home.
Food you bring
will ready us to follow.
Songs you sing
will call us into Mystery.
The only reason
for going into
the open heart
of the labyrinth
rose
is to let your heart break
open
so that you can hear the first cry
of creation
when God birthed
the universe,
and you can
become
large enough
to respond,
let your whole
life unfurl
in all
its magnificence
and purity,
and cry back
to the Holy One
with the beauty
that will rise within you.
Questions
What welcome news do you bring from your deepest home? What parts of you are ready to be known?
What is your heart that is breaking open ready to say this day? Are you willing to become large?
How would you like to respond to God’s creation within you and beyond you? What beauty is rising in you?