We would like to implement the Global Healing Response for the gun violence in the USA that includes the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting and the community of Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children, 2 adults and the shooter on May 25; the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY that killed 10 adults at a supermarket on May 14; and the other 212 mass shootings in 2022. At the same time, we continue to be aware of the war in Ukraine and the horrible violence there.
As you might remember from previous Global Healing Responses (Katrina, Myanmar, Haiti, Japan, Hurricane Sandy), the GHR is an international effort through which countless labyrinths will be made available worldwide for people to walk, with a unified intention to bring peace and coherence to the world.
I would encourage us to walk the labyrinth, and to invite others to walk, with a three-fold intent.
- First, for the victims, survivors, families, and community of these shootings.
- Second, for the collective grief, anger, fear, and frustration we all are feeling (including the children’s fear of going to school).
- And finally, walking with the question “What can I do to make a difference right now, and in the future, to create change that will contribute to ending this senseless violence.”
It seems the USA can use healing from all over the world. If you live outside the United States, please join in the response. If you are a current or retired teacher or affiliated with an educational setting, perhaps this is a good time to share this response with them. The labyrinth could prove to be a wonderful coping tool for children who are needing help managing anxiety, grief, and trauma.
Of course, these tragedies have shaken all of us. Please be kind to yourself. We have a wonderful labyrinth community—let’s open our circle and envelope those who might begin to heal on the labyrinth.
Blessings to you as you are a catalyst of peace, healing, and love during this time of pain and fear.
Thank you to The Legacy Labyrinth Project, The Labyrinth Society, and Veriditas for sharing many of the resources provided on this page. And thank you to Johanna Manasse for writing the lovely meditation we will all share.
Details
Date: Saturday, June 4, 2022 at noon, your local time.
If that day is not convenient feel free to do your walk on Sunday, June 5 or choose a time that works for you and your community.
Suggestion for activity:
Gather your community, friends, family or walk alone. Whether you conduct your event in person at a public labyrinth, outdoors or indoors, or even virtually there will be healing energy in the circle you create.
Suggested Intention for this walk:
Globally, we will all walk with the same intention
My intention for this labyrinth walk is to feel the coherent energy of my own heart, then send that coherent energy to the victims, survivors, families, and communities of these shootings. Let me be open to hearing what action I can take to decrease gun violence.
Suggested Meditation:
We will all use the same meditation that you can read to yourself, prior to saying and walking with your intention. A PDF version of the meditation click here.
We offer up the pieces of our hearts, the pieces of our broken spirits
We walk because we must—
for those who walk this earth no more,
for those consumed by unspeakable loss,
for those who bear the immediate burden of forever altered lives,
for those consumed by guilt and shame and powerlessness.
We offer up the pieces of our hearts, the pieces of unanswered questions, of rage, of sorrow.
We walk because we must—
for those whose hearts are hardened and whose ears are deafened to the pain and suffering of others,
for those who feel powerless to effect change.
for those who know not how to heed the call for help.
We walk because the pieces of our hearts connect with the pieces of the hearts of all others who walk because they must.
May our pieces become joined to create a blanket of loving compassion to cover every hurting heart, every closed heart, every raging heart, every confused heart, every numbed heart.
May we learn to lead in Love. May we walk in Love.
May we gather up the pieces until we are whole again.
–Johana Manasse
Resources
Finger Labyrinth: Click here for a PDF printable finger labyrinth.
Find a Labyrinth near you: Click here for the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator.
Covid Considerations: Click here for information about how to conduct a Covid friendly event and create a Covid friendly labyrinth. Of course, it is necessary to adhere to all Covid 19 recommendations that apply to your community. If you are walking in a group, perhaps outdoors would be best. It is also an option to meet with a group virtually and walk finger labyrinths in unison. And please, don’t underestimate the power of each of us walking a labyrinth alone with our unified intention.
Centering Ourselves: To create peace and healing we must commit to centering ourselves before we form a group and enter the labyrinth. I invite you to watch the videos that were created by The Legacy Labyrinth Project about How to Walk a Labyrinth with Intention and How to create Brain Heart Coherence.
Please let us know when you will be having a walk by posting it on the Global Healing Response Facebook page or as a comment below this post.
I urge you to pass this information on to anyone (or group) who might be interested in participating in the Global Healing Response. We learned during other responses that those outside the labyrinth community wanted to participate. Hopefully, that will be the case this time.
Remember, never underestimate the power of the labyrinth AND unified healing energy!
Peace and Healing,
Ellen Bintz Meuch
Global Healing Response, Founder
The Labyrinth Society, World Labyrinth Day Coordinator
Veriditas Certified Facilitator
Please join me on Zoom for COLOR WITH INTENT (labyrinth based) this Saturday 4 June at 12 noon EDT to focus our intention for all affected by the killings in Uvalde and Buffalo. This is in response to the GLOBAL HEALING RESPONSE invitation to the UVALDE, BUFFALO AND GUN VIOLENCE, and will use the meditation and specific intention offered by GHR, in common with the many others who will be doing so on this day.
In Color with Intent, we don’t usually walk a labyrinth following the 3Rs guide, but rather work with its energy to transmit the vibration of the intention using pen/pencil coloring to connect with and manifest this intention. Have a paper labyrinth and color pens/pencils to take part. We do strongly ground and release as part of the practice. The approach will be gently introduced in the call, and you can find out a little more here: https://www.clivejohnsonministry.com/mcwi.html (the practice grew out of the shared intention focus of a small group of labyrinth friends in response to the war in Ukraine).
The Zoom link for the event is below. Simply click to join at the time of the call.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83799123274…
We’ll walk to End Gun Violence at the Shalom Labyrinth at Unity of Charlottesville, Va
Saturday, June 4, at noon
Thanks for sharing this , from Moosomin Labyrinth Saskatchewan Canada , Carol
I will be gathering in global solidarity with you from my place in the world. Thank you and I am sending the call out far and wide.
Chris K.- I gathered my long time friend and husband and we walked with heart/brain meditation then the intention provided. We walked our favorite outdoor labyrinth. My heart felt open but broken at the same time. The broken-ness was the part that was hard. We cried for all the parents of these children, whom we recognized have hearts much more broken.
We set another intention for the mending of those hearts. This was difficult. We all felt grateful there was something we could do. Thank you
My friend and I walked the labyrinth with the intention of sending energy and love to the victims of these mass shootings, their families, the killer and his family and all those who keep guns out of fear. We were the only two on the path . As we were walking a young boy about 10 and his mom came into the labyrinth. I looked at that happy go lucky boy running on the labyrinth and being so joyful and free and I almost broke down as I found myself sharing with his mom our intentions for this walk. Watching him I realized he is the exact age of the children killed in Uvalde. He is the exact age of those brilliant and brave children who wiped blood on themselves and laid on top of a dead friend to save their own lives. He is the exact age of the survivors who are now traumatized for life. His mother is close in age to all the suffering mothers in Uvalde and elsewhere whose children have been affected by gun violence in our country. And here they were on vacation enjoying the beautiful Orcas Island day. Little did they both realize they were walking and bringing happy energy and joy to all those who can’t find those emotions today, to all those who shall never walk today, as well as all those whose footsteps are frozen in their own fears. I was struck by how the labyrinth really is the miracle. It never fails to bring the perfect people and perfect experiences at just the right moments to the intentions at hand.
Nancy Ayer
Advanced Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator
Orcas Island, WA
Oh, Nancy! This is beautiful. Tragic, but your words are beautiful.