By Shelby Selvedge —
I recently have spent some time learning more about labyrinths and the purpose behind them. I was asked to draw a labyrinth and it prompted me to want to know more about it in hopes it would inspire my drawing, it did. What stuck with me is the process of releasing or focusing on something on the way toward the center, gaining insight or revelation in the center, and then bringing that back to the rest of your life.
This process reminds me of how I experience God through nature. God speaks through nature, his creation. This is a prominate way he speaks to me. When I am stressed, have a decision to make, a hurt to process, or an idea I want to explore I often seek out time amongst the trees, by a lake, in the mountains, or on the beach. Hiking or walking in nature is the most frequent way I delve into nature. It is like walking a living labyrinth.
I have an intention, something on my mind, as I embark on my walk, hike, or climb. I release it to the wind, the trees, let it out in my footsteps, and feel it flow around my body and out with my breath. Whether I end up at the top of a mountain, by a water fall, or around the lake before heading home, something always flows back in and gives my thirsty soul life. For me it can be a feeling, an idea, or resolution, or even simply God’s peace. On my way home I carry what I received in my interaction with nature, the living labyrinth, and bring it back to my more routine moments.
Its not a one time event but rather one I do frequently. It never looks the same either. Sometimes it’s a grouling climb to the summit of a mountain pushing every fiber of my being, other times a walk around Greenlake, or sitting quietly in a forest. It doesn’t matter the type of way I choose to interact with nature but my intention and mindset behind it.
What ways do you interact with nature as a living labyrinth?
Do you see God revealed in nature?
How can we mindfully enter nature as if it were a labyrinth: releasing, receiving, and returning?