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For whatever deep psychological reason, I like to play with stones. After walking the Grace Cathedral labyrinth in San Francisco, it was immediately obvious to me that I needed to build a stone labyrinth in the back yard.
Similar to building the cave, there was a lot more to it than I had considered when I had the idea. Once again I had gotten myself involved in a massive project that would overwhelm me. It took another ten truck loads of flat stones, and almost that much sand and gravel to make a level pad for the stones. Because of the slope of the land, I could only build it about two-thirds the size of the Chartes labyrinth, which meant the pathways were about one foot wide and the entire labyrinth was about twenty-four feet wide.
The labyrinth was oriented to the compass directions, keeping in mind the 27% declination that Fairbanks is from the North Pole; the entrance is from the North. It was a great laughing pleasure to put in the North and South poles that mark the labyrinth.
Arranging the countless stones in patterns to delineate the walk ways was sometimes quite difficult and it seemed like a never-ending task; sometimes it felt as if some kind of additional help was being given to me and the stones immediately and easily fell into the right place. The color, texture, and pattern of the stones add an additional dimenion to the walk. The ancient stones make it feel as if the labyrinth has been there for a thousand years.
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Similar to the cave, the laybrinth was finished just about the time the snow fell in October. I swept the snow off the labyrinth for a couple of snowfalls, then yielded to the winter.
No matter how many times I walk this northern labyrinth, there is still a sense of relief and perspective when I reach the center. And, in latter difficult times to come, I would walk the labyrinth in my mind when I could not walk it in reality.
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You can find a labyrinth in your neighborhood:
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http://ww11.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org/
