Dear fellow labyrinth facilitators and friends,
I particularly relate to this quarter’s focus, “Release.” As I consider the possibility of releasing my grip of control (or my illusion of control, right?) on life, I think about the labyrinth facilitator community as a whole. Though our backgrounds, intentions, and goals might differ, I have experienced a common thread among us. We like to be in control. I even wonder if our attraction to the labyrinth and facilitating the labyrinth experience holds a lesson for each of us…As much as we try, we can’t control a labyrinth walk.
During July, August and September may we each trust the process of release that leads to restoration. Let’s not just release control but, also, all that no longer serves us and what might be able to serve others. Hopefully, these materials will help others find comfort in releasing as we lead walks across the globe!
Peace & Healing, Ellen
2015 Theme: Restoration
“All the beauty that’s been lost before wants to find us again” ― U2
July-August-September
Focus: Release
Quote: “I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.” —Carl R. Rogers
Picture/Symbol: Sunset (Photo by The Rev. Warren Lynn)
Color: Orange
Prayer/Meditation:
In this time, we give thanks that all around us the fullness of summer is expressed with abundance. And yet, we should know, such richness is only manifest through selfless surrender to potential and possibility. The tree does not say, “I will not bear fruit.” Waving fields of wheat, corn, beans do not fail to relinquish themselves to a harvest unimaginably greater then their original sacrifice. NO. All is given up. Every last bit of energy exhausted; exactly for this season of overflowing treasure.
So may we, too, offer the world our delicious fruit of generous release. For the sake of so much more, let us offer to the world what we have been given. By our surrender, let us celebrate a means to sate the hunger of countless souls. In letting go the seeds of self, may our gifts find redemption through a harvest of miraculous grace.
Even as the harvest-time world around us gives itself, utterly, completely, for the life of the other, let us, too, send forth an abundant harvest of wisdom, care, and nurture – made possible only after we have let go of our own self-minded intent, bequeathing our futures for the sake of the wider world.
May it be so. —The Rev. Warren Lynn
Ideas for benefiting organization: Local food banks and Global Relief Organizations
Ideas for ambiance: Leaves, acorns, pine cones, harvested items
Music: “The Healing Journey”, Tami Briggs
Click here for a PDF version of these materials
Click here for a Word version of these materials
