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.

At my therapy session this morning, I considered what it means to “re-enter” from this two-week Christmas break that I’ve been calling a “Retreat,” with the self-designed title Ponder Anew What the Almighty Can Do. I’ve been pondering throughout these two weeks, pondering old and new thoughts about God and faith, and I’ve been working on something that I can only call my “opus,” a collection of reflections about my own thoughts on God and life. My therapist and I considered what it might look like to return to “normal life” in a few days, what I might take from this retreat, how things might look different.

The idea we agreed on was that I would take some time each morning for myself, for pondering. I wouldn’t be able to do this for anywhere near as long as I’ve done on the retreat, but maybe 30-60 minutes a day would be a good way to start my days. This pondering time will not be structured, but might include prayer, thinking, reading, walking, writing, and so forth. So as I approached my first labyrinth of the day, I thought I might like to “test the spirit” of this idea, see if whoever I connect with at labyrinths (God? My inner self? My muse?) might agree.

I arrived at St. James United Church of Christ in Limerick, PA. The labyrinth was nice, simple. Nothing flashy, nothing grand. Just blue paint on a pavilion floor. It’s a 7-circuit classical design with cement path and painted walls.

I entered with this question on my heart:

Am I called to add pondering time to my daily routine?

The answer I received was an unequivocal “yes!” I will benefit from this. One thing I was worried about was that this might take some time from my work day, but the truth is I already work too many hours, and they’re not all productive. This will reduce my working hours a bit, but I bet I’ll get better work done in the remaining hours.

Some days I might even let an anxiety or two I’m feeling about the upcoming day in, and ponder that anxiety. That might be incredibly helpful. I’ll take my journal with me each day to this pondering time, and sometimes I’ll write in it, but not always. There will be no rules to this, except that I will do it. It doesn’t need to be a full hour, but that will be the target at first.

I plan to start this my first day back at work after this retreat. And I plan, for now, to do it in the sanctuary at my church. There’s something odd about that, since that’s my workplace, but the sanctuary is not my office. And I’m sure that if somebody sees the pastor in the sanctuary first thing in the morning, apparently praying, they’ll let me be! Some other details are yet to be worked out, but I’m going to start this soon, and it’s my hope to have a little of this retreat’s Sabbath energy each day.

This is faith time, time to be mindful and ponder my faith, in various ways. We’ll see how it turns out!