Sacred Paths

"We are wounded in all the right places" - from Wounded by 1 Giant Leap

I really enjoyed the class experience in Morris Woods. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by mostly plants for an hour and a half and there was such a noticble difference in environment and my experience of the way environment affects each of us as I walked out of the Morris Woods and into the English house parkinglot. My favorite aspect was the final activity - the partnered trust activity. I had explored a beech tree, without sight, and felt the vines of ivy that surrounded the right half of the beech tree and the bare, elephant skin that surrounded the other half. This tree was just perfect, I could wrap my arms around it and my hands could still meet on the other side. After rachelr carefully guided me about 10 meters away, I only had to spin once before I realized exactly which tree I had spent the past few minutes with. I wondered why that is so - how is it I could have known that instantly? As if one is recognizing an old friend, even without ever having seen him/her visually before. I wanted to apply this once more to my site and see what I found.

I decided to do something different today. Rather than walking the path, I took note of some unfamiliar changes to the surrounding area and the way the site itself appeared today. The sky is very cloudy and the wind has a strong, chilly current - probably because the region is in its last few stages of recovery from the hurricane. Inevitably, the winds have stripped the trees surrounding the labyrinth of most of their leaves. When I last walked the labyrinth, there were a few leaves on the path but the path was still easily visible and my walk lacked a deep "crunching noise". Today, however, the path was filled with leaves, especially in the regions closest to the trees. Taking a few steps in the labyrinth, I noticed my feet crushing the leaves under me.

I also wondered about two lines of white paint drawn from alongside the main, walkway towards the library - alongside the labyrinth - and finally to the wall enclosing Rhoad's North (directly behind the Labyrinth). The lines turned into arrows and letters I did not understand by their end. What are the plans for this paint? How will this affect the labyrinth and the trees surrounding it? Maybe I will try and find out.

Image taken from: http://themarkonthewall.blogspot.com/2011/02/morning-reading-dark-glory.html