For at least twenty years, I have enjoyed walking labyrinths. Labyrinths are maze-like structures that have been used as spiritual tools for centuries. For the past seven years, I’ve been walking labyrinths throughout the northeastern United States, and blogging about them. To learn more about labyrinths, check out this page at the Labyrinth Society. To find labyrinths near you, try the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator.

The fifth and final labyrinth of the day was at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, Maryland. I’d been walking labyrinths for several hours, and through these spiritual walks, I had come to the point where I identified this as an important statement for me: “I engage the water to connect myself with my origin.” I was getting tired, and I was kind of hoping for a small labyrinth to help me wrap up the day.

To my surprise, I discovered that this was the largest and longest common labyrinth design: a 13-circuit Chartres replica! But I love Chartres labyrinths, so I was okay with how long this would take to walk.

The labyrinth was concrete, with the walls painted on. As I said, I wanted this labyrinth to be a wrap-up for my whole day, so I walked in with this question in my mind: Is “engaging the water to connect with my origin” a mission statement for me?”

The answer I received while walking was Yes! First of all, that’s exactly how I understand my own baptism. Over the past fifteen or twenty years, I have taken my baptism so seriously. I have come to understand my personal identity as “child of God,” and I believe that identity was given to me, or at least proclaimed to the world, the moment I was baptized as an infant. I even own the font at which I was baptized so long ago.

Also, I’m always looking for depth, to see deep down, deep within. Deep within myself, deep within other people, deep within complicated issues in the world, and so forth. And there’s no better metaphor I know for depth than “dark water.” The water is so very, very deep, and it hides such mysteries. It’s been said that we understand outer space much better than we understand the depths of the ocean floor. I think that’s true in so many ways beyond geology. I so much want to explore those depths, and find some of those mysteries.

And I believe that some of those mysteries deep down connect to me. Some of them involve me, or are about me, or are about where I come from and what I am called to do. I believe that my calling in life must be connected to my origin, must be connected to my baptism, must be connected to the vast ocean. And by exploring the mysteries beneath the depths, I can find both my origin and my calling.

And so throughout my life, I engage the water to stir up the depths and see what’s there, so I can connect with my origin, my destiny, my calling, and my identity. Wow. This is a pretty intriguing insight into myself. A good labyrinth day!