Last Saturday, I walked a labyrinth.

It is something that I have always wanted to do but never have had the opportunity – at least not in the realness of cobblestones crammed with twists and turns.

Walking a labyrinth probably seems like such an odd thing to do for some. I have to confess my husband wasn’t quite sure of its purpose and I really didn’t know how to explain its tug.

So I didn’t try. I just encouraged us both to walk.

Off he went with a pace like he was trying to win a race. We do that don’t we…move through life with such velocity that we miss the fact no one is racing save us. His human nature kicked in. Move along, things to do and places to see. Instinct changed his pace. It always does.

I think I whispered once or twice, “Slow down. Consider the turns…the almost there’s but not. It is a lot like life, don’t you think?”

I am not sure he thought that at all.

So, I stopped talking and kept walking which is what I should have been doing all along.

Walking the labyrinth isn’t a group event. It is singular moment. Mystery wrapped in the ordinary act of putting one foot in front of the other. While my husband raced past, I didn’t fully enter in. Like a puzzle not fully complete it is calling me back to do it again.

And, so I will. Step in, walk around and listen to the stones speak.

When the mind is muddled it does one good to walk it out. To lace up one’s shoes and get out of the place where you are jumbled and move into something different.

The hard part is not carrying the weight with you like a pack mule.

Last week, I was there with my shoes on. Seeking to extricate myself from the crazy mess I made, I knew I had to go even if it was in my own backyard.

These walks are the praying kind. Where words are laid aside and a quiet awareness joins in.

We pass through life so quickly these days. Yet in our haste to be somewhere or be someone, we become indifferent to what is right before us. We give away so much and gain nothing in return.

What God gave Adam was not forgiveness of sin. What God gave Adam was the right to begin again.   Elie Wiesel

So, with shoes laced up I crossed this familiar threshold – to begin again.

This was a silent – walk it out. The kind when words were not found but grace makes its appearance.  Beauty right before me.

Sometimes it is easier to see when I am not so busy talking.

Sometimes it is better pray that way too.

Dawn

A new breath

A fresh song

Lord, I pray that my heart is redirected today because this life is full of choices.

May I release the grip on the past – in all its good and bad.  May I stop striving for the tomorrow to the detriment of my today.  May my heart and my head learn to savor the gift of my now in all its raw beauty.

Awake in me the slumbering graces of gratitude and joy.  If a song of joy is the echo of Your life in me, I fear that a silence booms an absence that should never be.

So this morning as the sun peeks across the horizon, I place myself in its warming beam and feel the embrace of the One who thunders in whispers and who paints the morning sky.  Who loves with immensity my heart can barely fathom and yet, begs to drink it in.

This morning I choose stand in awe of my Creator.   Reverberate in my life today, Lord.   Let me not miss a single moment for each one is a gift – a precious opportunity – to choose to live the story You have given me.  Oh, that I may live it well with gratitude and joy.

Sing over me

Sing within me

Sing through me…I am Yours.

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.

Jeremiah 31:25 ESV

The waves are crashing on the beach and their thunder echoes deep into this soul. This has always been for me a spot where I can catch my breath in a world full of hurried living.  Everyone has “that place” where the voice of God speaks in the softest of whispers and peace envelopes even the most unsettled parts.  The beach just so happens to be mine.

I don’t know why but when the sand meets the roaring waves and the sky falls away into deep waters – there my soul finds rest. This visit came at a time when much of me was spent.  The state of our hearts never goes unnoticed by the One who fashioned each one His hands.  He discerns the when’s and the why’s a soul becomes weary and languishing.

He knows.

He always knows.

Then, He provides.

He replenishes.

I have come far enough down this road of life to realize that seasons don’t just pertain to winter, spring, summer and fall. In the circle of life created by an omnipotent God, seasons are an integral part to all things living and breathing.  Seasons may define but should never confine a life and a soul.  As our God endlessly works – shaping and molding His creation – we must purpose in our hearts to allow change.  Better yet, to embrace it.

And for me, it is so much easier to do so at the beach.