Follow the Path of the Labyrinth in 2011!

It's 2011, and the New Year is solidly two days old.



Like many people, you've probably made several resolutions for the year and also have great expectations about how this year will unfold.

You've given up habits and people from the past, hoping that they will remain forever a distant memory.

Yes.

Plans. Strategies.



You probably even have a few vision and treasure maps that you've learned from a workshop or two.

So are you confident about the way this year will unfold?

With all the workshops and "equipment" you have going into this bright new year, are you absolutely confident that life will unfold exactly as you have planned? Perhaps not.

Part of your uneasiness is probably coming from the fact that intuitively you know that life should not be run like a corporation!


Remember this time last year?


Remember how you felt?

What happened at the end?

Now, two days into the New Year, I don't want to be the one to throw cold water on all your plans and strategies...

But I tell you to take a look back at 2010 ...2009...2008...just the last three years...and see if any of your plans, strategies, treasure maps, vision maps and all the praying and affirming brought you to exactly the place and time you expected to be at the end of the year.


Go on.

Take a moment and look back.


Ah ha...

Now, you see.

What you should see is that despite all the plans and strategies, your life unfolded in its own way: in some good ways and in some bad ways. At some times...in very, very good ways and at other times in very, very bad ways.

So, what now?

Where do you go now, two days into the New Year?

Where do you go now that you see that all your plans, strategies, treasure mapping, visioning did not work out the way you thought they would.

It is not my intention to get you depressed. NO!

It IS my intention to offer you an alternative way to look at your life as it unfolds this new year, 2011, without you placing resistance in your thoughts and obstacle courses in your actions.

The alternative is to follow the path of the labyrinth.


With a labyrinth walk, you're never sure where the path will lead, even though you may be able to see ahead to the general direction. It's not until you get to the crossroads that you realize that the path you thought you would be walking down is not indeed the walk you must now follow.

Your first response may be fear...even panic. But the thing to know, unequivocally, is that as scary as it may seem the labyrinth path will get you out and back into the light. The important thing is not to resist...but to follow each step on the path...step by step. You may peek ahead on the path, but you've got to let go of trying to determine where the path will lead.


In learning to let go, you'll begin to fully trust the path and the steps that you're taking with the assurance that no matter how convoluted the path may become as you navigate step by step, you will make your way out and back "home."


I offer this walk because in the last 10 years of my life, I have been following the path of the labyrinth, and I was one of the most unlikely candidates.

I was always a person who had to know with certainty where I was going! Indeed that was a life with few surprises and, in essence, devoid of few really joyous moments...until I learned to walk the labyrinth.

My first walk around a labyrinth was in 1998. This was at the dedication ceremony of the new labyrinth at Unity Village in Lee's Summit, Missouri.

As bold as I used to be in those days, I was the first one to step onto the labyrinth after the dedication. I was leading the group of folks following behind...boldly and without much thought of what I was doing.

I also was moving very fast, because I saw how many people needed to get through to the end.


I didn't care that I didn't know where I was going: the labyrinth is an intuitive walk and all you do is follow the lines, one foot at a time, knowing that eventually it would lead you out "somewhere."

I smile as I reflect back at the boldness and confidence of that poor Soul!

Wow!

What a difference 12 years have made!

To walk so boldly out into an unknown path, simply following and going where it led, was pretty ...BOLD!

Now that I know how to maximize my time on the labyrinth, I proceed slowly, focused as I walk on a prayer or two, and connecting to "the within."
There are many types of labyrinths and many ways people walk them too.**But for me, I know that the slow walk is my "right" way. When I walked before, I was walking with confidence of EGO, certainly not with the confidence of having connected to my Soul!


The Labyrinth Walk that I'm offering you do is a Soul Walk! It's more a meditation than a "walk!" You need to go within as you move, acknowledging the path ahead but only focused on one step at a time.

There are many twists and turns on any labyrinth. Oh, so many!

I learned this, too, after I I'd taken that first step onto the labyrinth. Indeed, I now see that labyrinth walk was a metaphor for the unfolding of my life thereafter. This is especially so in the last 10-plus years, where I've taken routes I never, ever would have willingly walked down, much less learned to navigate. I also would have missed the wisdom and true richness of the experience!

I now know, without a doubt, that the comforting, loving, faithful hand that led me along the path is the same comforting, loving, faithful hand that always has led my every thought, my every step, my every move.

I simply didn't know it.

That hand...that guidance...that intuitive knowing...was my Soul...reaching in and begging me, urging me...to trust...keep trusting...keep believing..."keep following ME"...the "I AM!"

I simply did not know this Soul back then.

It's that same hand that led us to the world we're now operating in today.

Ten years ago, few of us could have imagined that we'd be sharing pictures of our families in cyberspace, having strangers gaze upon them and pass judgement. Back then, we would have LOL. (Laughed Out Loud!)





But step by step, month by month, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, family, friends and strangers alike met through cyberspace. Today, we google, facebook, tweet, link in... ...we send Plaxo cards or eCards through Hallmark or any of the other places offering this service.

We cannot escape the fact that our world has changed!


There seemingly was NO grand scheme that said that we would ALL be operating in the way ***Sci-Fi movies of yesterday predicted we would. But today, just look around you: the Sci-Fi world is here, but now it's called, Wi-Fi!

There was a Master Planner all along! We simply didn't know the plan and didn't know the hands that were at work.





Now that we're living in this world we know the TRUTH: God was at work all along when he entered into the minds and Souls of each and every person that contributed to growth of companies, like Google, facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all the technology companies before, such as Cisco and others that spoke about Networking, and even the traditional Information Technology companies, like IBM that opened up a world of possibilities for us. [IT companies, such as Netscape, are no longer around, but they also paved the way for the new world we now know and live.]




So, now here we are: 2011!

My advice is that instead of panicking when you break your first resolution, you smile instead.

Then, begin to learn to trust that guiding force within you...leading you down that unknown path.

Begin to walk the labyrinth!

All you need to do...is the next right thing...take the next right step...

Where will it lead you 10, 20, maybe even 30, years from now? Who knows in terms of the circumstances of your life. But you can be sure that if you truly connect and trust that connection, following it in all ways, you'll find your way back "home." This is a plateau that often eludes even seasoned spiritual followers, simply because of the unwillingness to completely "Let Go and Trust!"



Do you remember the story of Hanzel & Gretel and the crumbs being eaten by the birds? Do you remember that they eventually made it back home, albeit quite a few years after, but much richer than they ever dreamed possible and with lots "to give" to their dad?

It's the same force that is leading you from within: Follow that labyrinth to find your way back......home...to your Soul!




Have a wonderful, joyous 2011, walking the Labyrinth, if you so choose, by learning to "Let go and Let God!"


Namaste',

Che'
NOTE: **There also labyrinths that are square and those that people "do" (i.e. trace) by hand, as a form of meditation. All labyrinths are not intended for spiritual purposes, either.

***Cut/Paste this link to see "A Social Media Christmas."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA