Can you get lost in a labyrinth?

Sometimes it is hidden behind your doubts and fears and shame. But it is always within you and waiting for you find it. 

That's part of why I love the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth imagery for the Awaken journey. There's only one path on a labyrinth. It's not a maze. It's impossible to get lost, if you just keep on the journey.

 

The path is longer than you think. You're just stepping inside and then you're already ALMOST at the center a few steps later. Halfway through the long journey, however, you're as far from the center as you can get, ALMOST back to where you started.

You might feel lost, far away, like everything so far has gotten you nowhere. You may still be searching for safety outside yourself - in places, people, and things, or by avoiding people, places, and things.

However, your true safety resides within you. It is found through exploring your joys and fears. Finding what you LOVE. If some fear exists, acknowledging it and working through it brings you closer to knowing peace and home inside.

You keep walking. And you keep loving. And this begins with loving yourself. You can send love to those parts and aspects of yourself that you feel need more love, because maybe you've been annoyed at them for quite a while. You find ways to love your tired feet, your confusion, and your sadness - and you even find some amusement at your wild and whacky thoughts.

And then you begin the outward journey, finding that you still have half the pilgrimage remaining. You bring this center of love and peace and safety and ok-ness back out with you to the wide world. 

If you walk a labyrinth with a friend, you might appear to be walking in entirely different directions. Your paths may seem to be at cross-purposes. However, they are on their inward journey, or outward journey just like you. 

And that's why, at Awaken, we don't bother much with judging people. We're more interested in walking with them.