Thanks to hearing Radha Lion’s wonderful presentation at the final intensive of the Haden Spiritual direction program at Mt. Carmel, I learned more about my enneagram type. I am a "Five." I like being a five because fives spend a lot of time taking things in. We are very observant. As well, we’re excellent listeners because we don’t feel the need to talk a lot.

However, the downside is that we soak up information and perceptions to such a degree as to be avaricious about it. We are disinclined to produce outflow. We don’t speak enough. After the intensive, I read The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Evert, and I concluded I need to spend way more time expressing myself.

So when I began to think about creating a labyrinth at the cottage, this project quickly became an exercise in actually doing it, not just thinking about it.

But “why a labyrinth?” you ask. Good question. I love labyrinths. Need I say more? Well, yes, I do apparently.

Walking a labyrinth is a way of “meditating by doing” — good for people like me who have trouble sitting still.

It is important to note that a labyrinth differs from a maze in that it appeals to the other side of the brain from the linear, problem-solving, ego-dominated side we usually work from. What is the source of this effect? Unlike a maze in which there are many false paths and dead ends, there is only one path in and out of a labyrinth. (You can call it unicursal — if you, like me, favour $10 words.)

Source|; http://www.stjohnsdryden.org/labyrinth.html

The result of this difference is that you don’t have to figure out the correct path, as you do with a maze (multicursal). Nor, incidentally, do you care about how fast you do it this time as opposed to the last time. Instead, you slow down; in fact, the twists and turns tend to slow you down. You are invited to leave the goal-directed analytical part of your brain and go to what is intuitive, imaginative, and receptive. You leave chronos time (measured, clock time) and may enter kairos time (God's time or if you prefer, the eternal present, the now).

For me, setting aside my need to measure, control, analyse or influence events is a lesson I have to learn again and again. I need connect to the immanent side of the divine: the receptive, mysterious feminine if you will.

Simply putting one foot ahead of the other will get me to the centre of a labyrinth and then back out. This knowledge frees me from outer distractions and allows me to be open to my inmost self — and to God within.

Confident that God (or the Divine or the deep meaning of creation) has placed me on a life path which, although it goes to and fro or even doubles back, nevertheless unaccountably unwinds towards the divine centre of my being — my soul — is a very comforting thought for me.

The labyrinth acts as a symbol of this journey — or this pilgrimage — inward. When we walk the labyrinth, we are connected to the source of our own being as well as to the calm centre of the path. Trusting in the meander of the path is one of the main reasons the labyrinth is so powerful a tool for psychic and spiritual wholeness.

Source: http://www.unitync.net/Labyrinth.html

Where did the labyrinth originate? Stay tuned! And yes, eventually I will stop talking about it and show actual pictures of the work in progress. I am a Five. I am taking a while to get out of my head ...