The Labyrinth Project @ Wilson College: 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Labyrinth still Lingers

What a joy to walk past the green today and still be able to see the trace of the labyrinth in the grass. I was able to walk the labyrinth one last time. "The Labyrinth Project" has blessed me this semester and I hope and trust it has been a blessing to others and to our community.
At the labyrinth workshop last month I remember Lauren Artress saying,
"Some of us allow the labyrinth to become an organizing principle of our lives.” I may just be one of those people! I may like to think that I found the labyrinth but, it would be more accurate to say that the labyrinth found me. Thanks be to God.

Commencement Benediction 2013

Class of 2013

As you prepare to leave this place and go onward

To new discoveries and new challenges

May you be blessed with good traveling companions

May you be blessed with humility and humor and a heart for service

May you be blessed with courage and creativity for the journey

each and every day of this amazing life

you are blessed to live

And may the God who names you, and loves you beyond measure

bless your journey with joy and with peace

Amen

Baccalaureate Service

Our Baccalaureate worship service yesterday fell on Pentecost Sunday - a wonderful day for Commencement! The Wilson College Choir and Hand Bell choir took part along with senior class liturgists. It was a joy-filled celebration. A portion of the sermon, "One in the Spirit", spoke to The Labyrinth Project....

".......I believe we experienced community a new way of being community - mindful of mind, body, and spirit - two weeks ago on World Labyrinth Day. So many from our community and beyond came together to create and walk a labyrinth on our main green. Scores of us walked the labyrinth at 1pm in unity with those all over the world who were, “Walking as One at One.”
One person told me afterwards that as she walked the labyrinth she looked down at all the stones that had been painted …then she took to to noticing all the feet that were walking with her …so many feet, going in different directions but all on the same path. ….and the feet represented bodies, and bodies contained hearts. She made connection with her fellow pilgrims in a new way that day. Such new connections are our life blood. They keep is moving forward, outward, onward and upward.
For Pentecost didn’t just happened once, a long, long time ago. Pentecost isn’t over and done. God’s grace is ever being repeated and extended throughout our world. Those thin times when a new spirit breaks into our ordinary existence.

In every possible way the gospel insists that ALL were filled with the Spirit. In other words everyone in this room this morning, students, friends, family, staff, alumnae, faculty, and trustees, all of us are invited to breathe deep of the wildness of God’s Spirit. To what end? To the end that we become prophets, visionaries and dreamers. People who vividly imagine a world different from and better than the world as it is. They denounce injustice. They envision new and better ways of thinking, being and doing. Whatever other spirits may invite you to take certain moral shortcuts, to value profit more than people or to ignore the little, the least the lost, and the last of the word, resist them. It is the prophets, visionaries and dreamers who strive to create the world as it could be –as God intends it to be. Let your human spirit be tuned to the frequency of the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned to that frequency and you are already on your way to becoming a prophet, a visionary, a dreamer

Class of 2013, in the mystery of your life, may you be conscious of the unfolding Pentecost within you. May you continue to live the labyrinth, rather than the maze. May you breathe deep and breathe well. May you look forward to living every day in the world; delight in your own vibrancy and resilience; marvel at your ability to imagine; stretch to feel the emotions of the heart; shape words and work and visions not yet dreamed." AMEN

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Taking Down Our Labyrinth

a painted symbol of our journey

Kelly Myers collecting painted stones

many hands...

taking up the marking rope is much speedier than laying it!

the labyrinth lingers in the grass...long may it linger in our lives!

the painted stones now form a river of color behind Edgar Hall

The Bottom Shelf Review

The annual issue of the Wilson's own literary magazine, The Bottom Shelf Review, is now out! Read amazing prose and poetry works by Wilson authors (students and faculty/staff), including a special section featuring works written in honor of the labyrinth. You can find it here: http://www.wilson.edu/student-life/activities-and-clubs/bottom-shelf-review/index.aspx

ENJOY!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Every blessing as you journey through finals week

The end of the semester is in sight.
May you remain centered and calm for your final exams.
May next week contain both rest and play.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Art and Creative Writing Exhibition and Labyrinth Resource Table

The exhibition and resource table set will be up in Lenfest Commons until Friday. Please take a moment to make a comment in our ‘Labyrinth Log’ What was your experience of the labyrinth? Feel free to share your story!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Labyrinth Day Time-Lapse Video

The much anticipated Labyrinth Day time-lapse video is now up and ready for the world to see. Fun fact, it took over 13,000 pictures through a span of 36 hours to stitch this great event together. Click on the link below to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WzzPeu9Rqc&feature=youtu.be.

A special ‘Thank you’ to James Butts for all his work on producing this video

More photos from World Labyrinth Day!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Thank You

‘Thank You’ to everyone who participated in our World Labyrinth Day celebrations. It was a very special day and between all of us we built and experienced something beautiful.

The labyrinth will stay in place until Monday 13 May. Take time this week to walk the labyrinth or just ‘be’ in the space.

Please write your labyrinth experience/feedback in the ‘Labyrinth Log’ at the labyrinth resource table in Lenfest Commons.

Come to the Main Green at noon on Monday May 13 to ‘close’ the labyrinth and help move all painted stones to the stone area behind Edgar Hall. Anyone who wishes to can claim their stone from that area. Our labyrinth will go out into the wider community.

Peace on our onward journey,

Rosie

"Labyrinth: build it, walk it, live it."

Monday, May 6, 2013

FIRST Sunday

Our FIRST Sunday event last night was outside, next to our recently built labyrinth.

After worship, we had a candlelight labyrinth walk.

Thank you, Taylor Staudt, for sharing the pictures!

World Labyrinth Day Photos

Click here to open slideshow of our World Labyrinth Day Celebrations at Wilson College:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilsoncollege/sets/72157633425820722/show

A special thank you to Deborah Collins for taking the photos and sharing the link.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

World Labyrinth Day!

We have just celebrated the most wonderful World Labyrinth Day at Wilson College. Photographs and reflections will follow but for now, it is enough. My heart is full. I am thankful. Thanks be to God.

Friday, May 3, 2013

The Labyrinth Is Marked!

Thanks to everyone who helped mark the labyrinth yesterday afternoon, especially Pat Butler who had created a wonderful cardstock mock-up complete with string and push pins.

We had to move our partially completed labyrinth a few times to avoid the sun-dial but by third time of trying we had it down – a seven circuit classical labyrinth on our main green!

Monica Lyons ‘13 celebrates the completion of our task!

World Labyrinth Day Image by Jan Richardson

This Saturday, May 4, is World Labyrinth Day. In celebration of the occasion, I thought I'd share this piece of art that I created for a friend some years ago. It's called Saint Catherine's Labyrinth, and the words along the path are from Saint Catherine of Siena. And of course a blessing for the day as well:

Walking Blessing

That each step
may be a shedding.
That you will let yourself
become lost.
That when it looks
like you're going backwards
you may be making progress.
That progress is not the goal anyway,
but presence
to the feel of the path on your skin,
to the way it reshapes you
in each place it makes contact,
to the way you cannot see it
until the moment you have stepped out.

Happy World Labyrinth Day to you, and blessings on your path!

After-School Tutoring Program Paints for the Labyrinth

Thank you to Eric Mandell, Krista Dewald ‘16 and everyone in the After-School Tutoring Program at Wilson College for helping paint stones for our community labyrinth!

Labyrinth Project Buttons

Thank to Sherri Sadowski for providing her button maker so we could make Labyrinth Project Buttons.

Three sizes and thee styles!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE:          April 30, 2013
CONTACT:    Rev. Rosie Magee, Helen Carnell Eden Chaplain
                   Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3307
                   Email: rosie.magee@wilson.edu

WILSON COLLEGE HOSTS ACTIVITIES TO

MARK WORLD LABYRINTH DAY ON MAY 4

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Communities all over the world will come together for World Labyrinth Day on Saturday, May 4, to promote peace in our lives and world. Wilson College will observe the day by creating a temporary labyrinth on the campus green and hosting activities centered on the concept of the labyrinth, in which those who walk it are said to “find” themselves rather than getting lost, as they might in a maze.

The event is free and open to the public.

At 11 a.m. in Warfield Hall’s Allen Auditorium, the Rev. Dr. Margee Iddings will present “Preparing to Walk a Labyrinth,” where participants can learn more about this ancient practice before experiencing it themselves. A picnic lunch will be held at noon outside Lenfest Commons, where labyrinth art and a creative writing exhibit will be on display.

An opening ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m., featuring the Wilson College Choir, hand bell choir and members of Wilson’s Orchesis dance troupe. The ceremony will conclude with the formation of a human labyrinth at 1 p.m. to coincide with the “Walk as One at One” connecting people throughout the world observing World Labyrinth Day.

An indoor labyrinth will also be available throughout the day in the lobby of the Brooks Science Complex. Resource materials and facilitated walks will be available.

On Sunday, May 5, the college will hold a candlelight labyrinth walk at 8 p.m. on the campus green. All are welcome.

The labyrinth will be in place for one week and community residents are welcome to walk the path.

This event is part of a semester-long labyrinth project at Wilson College. For more information, visit the project blog at http://thelabyrinthproject.blogspot.com/ or contact the Rev. Rosie Magee at rosie.magee@wilson.edu or 717-264-4141, Ext. 3307.

Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 30 majors and master’s degrees in education and the humanities. Wilson has been named a “Best Value” college in its region for 11 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” for providing quality academics at an affordable price. The college has been ranked one of the best regional colleges for undergraduate education for nine straight years by U.S. News.

Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college had a fall 2012 enrollment of 695, which included 17 students from 9 foreign countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.

First Sunday

Monday, April 29, 2013

International Multilingual Poetry Reading

Sunday afternoon was the semi-annual International Multilingual Poetry Reading in Patterson Lounge sponsored by the Spanish Department, the Spanish club and Music Club.

There was a great turn out to hear poetry read in 14 different languages including Latin, Urdu, Nepali, Irish and Punjabi. There were also wonderful musical interludes brought to us by the newly formed music club.

The Labyrinth Project was represented in Bea Sanford’s reading of Sharon Erby’s poem, ‘Indiangrass’. This poem was awarded first place in the staff/faculty division of the Bottom Shelf Review creative writing invitational and can be read at the April 9 entry on this blog.

It is amazing to me how language (both spoken and musical) communicates in a way that transcends our ‘understanding’ of a particular language. Perhaps being community together is our ‘first' language.