Prayer's Labyrinth

I know many of you have classes and responsibilities up in Bockman, Gullixson, and of course the OCC so you rarely find a reason to come visit we, the North and Westerly centered students, faculty, and staff. But, I recommend that you do so more frequently. Particularly in these days when the prayer labyrinth is spread across the center of the... center... of the NorthWestern building.

I have never done a prayer labyrinth (is that what we say "do" a prayer labyrinth? Maybe it's "walk" a prayer labyrinth.), but I have been forced to walk around one very carefully which is a little like doing a free form prayer labyrinth, right? I mean, if you wear shoes and you encounter a prayer labyrinth you're basically doing a labyrinth without really "doing" the labyrinth. You have to cling to stairs and swing around pillars to avoid the corners of the mat, sometimes you have to hop skip or jump over larger sections as a result of people blocking the sideways and byways around it, and you have to wonder... why don't I just walk the labyrinth? 

My answer is... I don't know where it leads... Will I be in the same place I was when I started... What if I have to go to the bathroom... are people going to be watching me... man, my feet really stink, no way I'm taking my shoes off in this closed environment, who knows if any of us will survive. I guess those are the perils of the labyrinth. 

I hope you have some labyrinth experiences to share with me, because if it is up today I'm going to do it, and your thoughts and advice might come in handy. There are directions right next to it on the floor, so that will help. And, I've noticed, when looking at it from above (an intricate and compelling experience itself) that there is no minotaur at the center, just what appears to be a Bible. So, we've got that going for us.

Expect some pictures and/or history of labyrinths sometime soon. In the mean time what do you think of prayer labyrinths? When was the last time you did a prayer labyrinth? Would we be evicted by the city of St. Paul if we let some grass grow really long and trimmed other grass really short to make our own outdoor labyrinth on campus? C'mon, it would just be for the fall!