Our labyrinth is a tool for prayer, meditation and mindfulness.
Depending on your goals and intentions, you can use a labyrinth to help heal your mind or body, grow closer to God, or simply relax. You are welcome to come use this tool any time. It may be especially helpful during this time of anxiety and isolation.
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A Word From Pastor Cindy
This last week as COVID-19 became a pandemic has been surreal. I've been consuming information like someone starving but before that information is fully digested, there's a new set of grim photos or startling facts and new limits to daily routines. Empty restaurants. Empty stadiums. Empty shelves that the stores. Exhausted healthcare professionals. Sick people quarantined together on cots in gymnasiums. Truck caravans carrying away the dead. Hundreds of heedless young adults partying together on a beach in Florida. All of the residents of California ordered to stay home. Sundays without church.
My daughter in Alaska now has her four children (10 years old and under) at home all day every day. She's trying to make their time enjoyable and meaningful with lessons and crafts, stories and games. She is fortunate that her husband works in an essential profession and makes enough to support them. But, she does worry about doing the right things to keep them all safe. She tries to get enough information to make good decisions without becoming "freaked out."
It is strange to fight an invisible enemy. So much of this battle is in our heads - how we picture the reality, how we understand our role, how feelings of control or powerlessness shape our perceptions. We tend toward one extreme frame of mind or another - either paralyzed by fear or living in reckless denial. The goal is to find the balance of being courageous and cautious at the same time, of caring for ourselves without ignoring the needs and safety of others.
It is hard to know what to do when we can do so few of the usual things we do. I have found hope in the drive of people to keep doing good, life sustaining and joyful things while still being safe. Theaters putting their productions online. Two men hitting a ping pong ball back and forth from the windows of their separate apartments. Neighbors making music together from their separate porches. Friends making washable face masks for hospital employees. Young people delivering food to old people. Scientists working on developing tests, vaccines, and cures. Professional athletes making donations to support the workers in athletic stadiums. Bipartisan efforts in congress!
In addition to providing practical help to people around us and making emotional connections of support to folks we know near and far, we can use this "time out" to grow: to reflect on how we'd like to be different/better people; to develop better habits; to gain knowledge; to practice a new skill; to complete those tasks for which we never seem to have time.
Someone told me this week that very few families passed on to later generations stories of the 1918 flu pandemic because those who survived were too overcome with grief over numerous lost loved ones and guilt over surviving.
My prayer is that the stories of the 2020 pandemic will be stories of courage overcoming panic and compassion overcoming selfishness. May we tell stories of how our collective efforts effectively "flattened the curve", kept more people healthy and saved lives. I pray that this time of fear and hardship as we face a common though invisible enemy will draw us together and shape us into better people.
My daughter in Alaska now has her four children (10 years old and under) at home all day every day. She's trying to make their time enjoyable and meaningful with lessons and crafts, stories and games. She is fortunate that her husband works in an essential profession and makes enough to support them. But, she does worry about doing the right things to keep them all safe. She tries to get enough information to make good decisions without becoming "freaked out."
It is strange to fight an invisible enemy. So much of this battle is in our heads - how we picture the reality, how we understand our role, how feelings of control or powerlessness shape our perceptions. We tend toward one extreme frame of mind or another - either paralyzed by fear or living in reckless denial. The goal is to find the balance of being courageous and cautious at the same time, of caring for ourselves without ignoring the needs and safety of others.
It is hard to know what to do when we can do so few of the usual things we do. I have found hope in the drive of people to keep doing good, life sustaining and joyful things while still being safe. Theaters putting their productions online. Two men hitting a ping pong ball back and forth from the windows of their separate apartments. Neighbors making music together from their separate porches. Friends making washable face masks for hospital employees. Young people delivering food to old people. Scientists working on developing tests, vaccines, and cures. Professional athletes making donations to support the workers in athletic stadiums. Bipartisan efforts in congress!
In addition to providing practical help to people around us and making emotional connections of support to folks we know near and far, we can use this "time out" to grow: to reflect on how we'd like to be different/better people; to develop better habits; to gain knowledge; to practice a new skill; to complete those tasks for which we never seem to have time.
Someone told me this week that very few families passed on to later generations stories of the 1918 flu pandemic because those who survived were too overcome with grief over numerous lost loved ones and guilt over surviving.
My prayer is that the stories of the 2020 pandemic will be stories of courage overcoming panic and compassion overcoming selfishness. May we tell stories of how our collective efforts effectively "flattened the curve", kept more people healthy and saved lives. I pray that this time of fear and hardship as we face a common though invisible enemy will draw us together and shape us into better people.