Memo from America – Spring in the labyrinth

Notes from journal three weeks ago.
I decided to walk the labyrinth at Scarritt-Bennett College today. It’s part of a beautiful garden that separates the Hogwarts-looking buildings of an old respectable institution. It was an overcast morning and the labyrinth has been a bit neglected of late, it’s ground uneven and the pathway bricks overgrown with spring grasses. It was quite a challenge to work out whether I was on the specified track or not, and where the barriers that indicate “Go that other way!” were. I’m sure my pathway was not the accurate, careful plan set out in the labyrinth design, with its turning this way and that, seeming to go outwards when one wanted to go inwards, and so on. I carried with me a slight irritation – even the labyrinth wasn’t going to be predictably straight forward today. That was my first lesson. Despite not being able to just contemplate about other things whilst picking my way through the puzzle, I realised that the actual pathway didn’t matter much. I was out in the crisp cool of a northern hemisphere morning, with rain threatening but I really had not a care in the world. I had to let go of the “right path” idea. Then I began to notice the little flowers that were entangled with the weeds. Indeed, some of those I thought most beautiful were probably weeds to a Nashville native. They were testaments to spring – simple, uncultivated, spontaneous, short-lived. They were my second lesson – life produces the unexpected and beautiful. I confess to feeling a little silly as I carefully picked weeds to take with me as a memory of the day’s treasure. It began to drizzle so I set out for my room, passing by a tree that had not even begun to sprout the leaves of spring. Clinging on tight were a few dried up leaves that belonged to last summer. They had not given way with the chills of last autumn. Despite surviving the winter, they would soon be replaced by the lush of new green.
It made me think about retirement. Holding on is not always pretty. Best make way for the new and the fresh.
A walk in the labyrinth always brings a blessing.
Sharonne

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