About two weeks ago, I was collecting the items we’d need for our trip to Niagara Falls to see the total solar eclipse. We wanted to have the option of crossing into Canada, so I needed passports for my spouse and myself, and birth certificates for the kids. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one of the birth certificates anywhere. So I decided to drive up to Scranton to the State Vital Records Department to get a new one. Thank goodness I was on vacation – in addition to the two-hour round-trip drive, I expected to sit and wait there for some time. To my surprise and delight, there was no line at the Vital Records Office, and the clerk was very friendly and quick. I was in and out in five minutes, with a new birth certificate in hand! I had some extra “found” time, so I wondered if there was a labyrinth anywhere nearby. There was, just a few miles away!

This labyrinth is in Crowley Park in Scranton. It’s an eight-circuit medieval style, made of inlaid bricks. It was a rainy day, but the rain stopped while I was there, and it felt almost like a welcome to walk. Because my upcoming trip was on my mind (and was in fact why I was in Scranton in the first place), I decided that my question for the labyrinth would be: What is my goal for this trip?

I realized that if I didn’t go into this trip with a conscious goal, then I’d get easily anxious, cranky, and miserable whenever something went wrong. Because I’d be working with the unconscious goal of making sure everything is perfect. Having a goal in mind would help me keep things in perspective, I thought, and help me contribute to a good family experience.

The answer came pretty quickly: My goal is to see cool things together. After all, the two big things we expected to do on this trip were to tour Niagara Falls, and see a total solar eclipse. Two really cool things to see! But I knew that the weather was a huge factor on both of those things, and it was possible that we wouldn’t experience either of them the way I wanted. So if my goal was simply to “see cool things,” then that was attainable. Even if it was too cold to take the boat ride on the Maid of the Mist (and indeed it was), we’d perhaps miss the most spectacular views, but we’d still see cool things. And even if it was so cloudy on eclipse day that we couldn’t see totality (and indeed it was), we’d still see cool things happening during that time.  

Usually I write these blog posts within a day or two of walking the labyrinth. It’s interesting to write this one later, and reflect on how the experience of the labyrinth really helped me with something. I think asking this question that day bore some real fruit on the trip.