This is one of a series of posts about a trip I took to walk labyrinths in July 2022. See this post to see why I refer to these labyrinths as my “Emmaus labyrinths.” Note: the numbering refers not to how many labyrinths I walked on this trip, but to the total number I’ve blogged about so far.
I arrived at another small but beautiful 5-circuit medival labyrinth, located at Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church, this one with stone walls and a gravel path.
This was the third labyrinth I walked on Saturday morning. By this point, I decided that I wanted to take this journey in a different direction, spiritually speaking. One of the things I was thinking about quite a lot lately was the marketing for my new book Darkwater. In particular, I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming talks I’m planning to do. I hope to visit churches, as well as mental health facilities, and talk about the intersection of faith and mental health. I say it’s a marketing tool for Darkwater, and that’s certainly the excuse I’ll use to provide these talks, but that’s not the only reason I’m doing these talks. Even more than selling books, I’m hoping that they’ll be helpful to people. Perhaps this is one way I can “weed the world” around me, making a difference in little ways. And if it sells some books, hey, that’s a nice side effect.
So I asked the question, “What is a good image to use in my upcoming talks?”
Immediately I heard encouragement to talk about the Road to Emmaus, to share the image I received in a recent spiritual direction session, the very image that has formed the “uber-question” of this journey. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I spent some time exploring the image of Cleopas and his friend’s journey on the Day of Resurrection. I found that it felt like my view of life right now: a journey, filled with ups and downs, but a journey which Christ walks with us.
That image has become the predominant image of this labyrinth journey, and perhaps it could form part of my talk. Perhaps tie it in with the image I discovered yesterday about my depression feeling “hot” instead of “cold.” Put these things together, and I can describe a journey which can be miserable, but along which you have companionship which makes all the difference. That sounds like a Darkwater image to me.
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