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
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
".......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.
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:
A special
‘Thank you’ to James Butts for all his work on producing this video
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.
Please
write your labyrinth experience/feedback in the ‘Labyrinth Log’ at the
labyrinth resource table in Lenfest Commons.
Peace on our onward journey,
The
labyrinth will stay in place until Monday 13 May. Take time this week to walk
the labyrinth or just ‘be’ in the space.
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.
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.
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!
"Walking
Blessing" © Jan L. Richardson from In Wisdom's Path:
Discovering the Sacred in Every Season.
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!
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