Easy Path

Walter Savage Landor is remembered for saying “There is no easy path leading out of life, and few easy ones that lie within it.” As we move towards World Labyrinth Day, this is a point to ponder.

The first Saturday of May is always World Labyrinth Day, and this year that happens to be May First, overlapping with whatever merry-making this May Day can include. 
May Day festivities are usually held on 1 May or the first Monday of May, and the current public health situation does not provide an easy path, there will likely be many changes to how it is marked. 


May Day is an ancient festival of spring in many European cultures, and dancing, singing, and eating cake are part of the celebrations; none of these would detract from a labyrinth walk. 
         The winding path can be disorientating, reminding the walker that life is not always predictable. This is not a deficit, the path of a labyrinth is one of inevitability. If you are mindfully moving forward, you will reach your goal, it is easier than many of our stumbling life paths might suggest.   
Group walks on large labyrinths are unlikely in 2021. It is the nature of the winding path that if more than one person is walking the path, they will pass each other in close proximity: a circumstance to be avoided. 
There are labyrinth facilitators and builders who have used this past year to design and create labyrinths that allow for two-metre physical distancing. Others have adapted designs to conform to a one-way system, where there is no chance for meeting another walker coming back. Clusters of smaller paths have replaces some large installations, permitting safe and solitary walks without losing labyrinth energy. 

Many labyrinth users will gather online or in distanced groups, and use hand-held labyrinths to tap in to the energies of the path, and especially to walk with Intention of unifying the global community.
“Walk as One at 1” is the slogan for World Labyrinth day. Walkers all join in sending a ripple of prayerful progress from the Pacific, shifting West around the planet until it returns to the starting place. North and South, fast and slow, participants express ideas of Unity, of the Oneness of all things, of the single family of humanity.
has likely never been a time when humanity would not benefit from such prayer and consideration, yet 2021 seems to have the people of the world in astonishing circumstances.


If you are not near an adapted labyrinth path to walk on World Labyrinth Day, consider using a table-top or hand-held path. Despite their small size they do create and magnify the Spirit of the labyrinth, and they can be used in total safety.
There are electronic options such as Labyrinth Journey <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/labyrinth-journey/id1420284868> Or download one when you sign up for the newsletter, here on this site.