Last week I kind of slacked off a bit, and managed only three posts.
This week I will try to do better.
Question: if you blog about your own blog, is that metablogging?
Yesterday, Norm, Spence and I visited church, from which we have been woefully absent these last several weeks. Normally, we manage to get to church at least once a month, to sing in the once-monthly pickup choir. Lately, though, we have had other things going on and haven't managed even that minimal commitment.
The church we attend is Church of the Loving Shepherd in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is a small, ecumenical Christian community church that is located on a twenty acre Penn land grant farm. Services are held in the converted barn on the property, which dates back to the 18th century.
During our absence, a new labyrinth was dedicated at the church. CLS (as we call it) already had an outdoor labyrinth on its grounds. The new one is actually laid out in a stencil on the barn floor. The pews are sitting on top of it. It is a beautiful swirl of maroon on the wide oak boards.
I used to think that labyrinths and mazes were the same thing, but technically they are not, althought the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Mazes are like puzzles to solve, with false trails leading to dead ends. In the Greek myth about Theseus and the Minotaur, the Minotaur is a half-man, half-bull monster that Theseus had to find and kill at the center of a maze (although it is always called a labyrinth in versions of the myth).
A modern labyrinth is formed on the Eulerian path principle that each part of the labyrinth is travelled only once. It has no false paths; you cannot get lost. The path of a labyrinth may wander in a beautiful and elaborate pattern, but there is one path and it leads only to the center.
The labyrinth pattern has been used throughout history as everything from a type of battle formation used in ancient India and mentioned in the Mahabharata, to a design element common in ancient Greece and Rome, to its use in medieval cathedrals , and the "turf mazes" cut into the grass in Great Britain; these sometimes were called the "Walls of Troy" because they were hard to get through.
This week I will try to do better.
Question: if you blog about your own blog, is that metablogging?
Yesterday, Norm, Spence and I visited church, from which we have been woefully absent these last several weeks. Normally, we manage to get to church at least once a month, to sing in the once-monthly pickup choir. Lately, though, we have had other things going on and haven't managed even that minimal commitment.
The church we attend is Church of the Loving Shepherd in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is a small, ecumenical Christian community church that is located on a twenty acre Penn land grant farm. Services are held in the converted barn on the property, which dates back to the 18th century.
During our absence, a new labyrinth was dedicated at the church. CLS (as we call it) already had an outdoor labyrinth on its grounds. The new one is actually laid out in a stencil on the barn floor. The pews are sitting on top of it. It is a beautiful swirl of maroon on the wide oak boards.
I used to think that labyrinths and mazes were the same thing, but technically they are not, althought the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Mazes are like puzzles to solve, with false trails leading to dead ends. In the Greek myth about Theseus and the Minotaur, the Minotaur is a half-man, half-bull monster that Theseus had to find and kill at the center of a maze (although it is always called a labyrinth in versions of the myth).
A modern labyrinth is formed on the Eulerian path principle that each part of the labyrinth is travelled only once. It has no false paths; you cannot get lost. The path of a labyrinth may wander in a beautiful and elaborate pattern, but there is one path and it leads only to the center.
The labyrinth pattern has been used throughout history as everything from a type of battle formation used in ancient India and mentioned in the Mahabharata, to a design element common in ancient Greece and Rome, to its use in medieval cathedrals , and the "turf mazes" cut into the grass in Great Britain; these sometimes were called the "Walls of Troy" because they were hard to get through.
Labyrinths have been used to help pilgrims achieve the feeling of symbolically travelling to pilgrimage sites, or simply as entertainment.
Recently labyrinths have experienced a renewed interest as a meditational and relaxation aid. Walking through a labyrinth while practicing the art of walking meditation can help empty the mind in a similar way to repeating a sound or concentrating on your breathing.
Labyrinths can be now be found in public parks, in schools, and of course in churches. There is even a company that specializes in building labyrinths, or providing you a stencil if you want one of your own.
I would like to get into a habit of walking the labyrinths at CLS, either the outdoor one in better weather, or the indoor one whenever it is available (meaning that the pews have been moved aside). The idea of walking an ancient path is appealing, and may help me in my quest to learn to meditate (emptying my mind is a real challenge).
And, given that my sense of direction has never been the best, the fact that you can't get lost is a plus.
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