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 nine 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.

I was in New York State walking labyrinths all day. Finally, late in the day I finally left Westchester County and arrived at the Holy Mountain Franciscan Retreat Center in Garrison.

The labyrinth there is on a hill with a magnificent overlook. It’s a five-circuit medieval design, with a mown path in the grass. I always find mown paths to be fascinating, because they require constant care. Wait just a few weeks, and the labyrinth will simply be gone.

This one was clearly taken care of well, and one thing that delighted me was a collection of wood in the back section, where the walls were a bit less clear. They had placed this wood there to help people walking it to see the path well! (Perhaps someone had made a mistake while mowing, and this was acting as an aid until the grass grew back?)

All day, I’d been asking questions of the labyrinths about my recent creative drought. At the previous labyrinth, I asked where the deep waters were in my life right now, and the clear answer came: in my faith. So now, I brought this question into the labyrinth at Holy Mountain: How can I creatively share the depth of my faith?

A few ideas went through my mind as I walked, but the one that seemed to stick best was this: to write some short form poems or “word jazzes” about faith things. I thought maybe I could try to write one a day, based on the scripture I read in my morning devotion that day. I could reflect on that reading, and let my mind wander and write something about my understanding of God that connects with it. I could probably do this in just 15 or 30 minutes a day. And then I could post them to Instagram or Bluesky or some other social media like that. Wouldn’t even have to be every day, but perhaps a few times a week. Something I can play with over the next month or two! Definitely something to put on my whiteboard.

Just as there’s a Peace Pole posted in the center of this labyrinth, maybe I can put these posts at the center of sharing my faith.