Trust the Path

I’ve started using my finger labyrinth to walk each morning while enjoying my garden.  It’s a grounding ritual, calming me for the day ahead when a “regular” walk on a labyrinth isn’t convenient.  This morning, I got lost.  While tracing my finger in the grooves of the path, I somehow ended up in the center of the labyrinth, twice.

I noticed the thoughts:

• You’re doing it wrong!
• This is what you get for not paying attention.
• How’d you end up back here?

And then I laughed.  Once again, the labyrinth is a metaphor for how I walk the path of my life.  I’m quick to judge, slow to forgive, and convinced I have to do it right all the time!

Am I ever really lost?  Or, am I just on a part of the path that’s unfamiliar or doesn’t meet my expectations of where I’m supposed to be?  When I got over myself, I realized that ending up in the center again was exactly what I needed this morning.  I got another opportunity to stop and receive, noticing all that was around me – a breeze, bluebirds flying in and out of their nesting box, a wren in the birdbath, and a trio of ducks walking just outside the fence on their way to the pond.  Life was calm, and I had the chance to be that way, too.  And wasn’t that exactly my intention for my “walk?”

Note to self:  Trust the path.  It’ll always give you what you need.