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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Although France is certainly the place to be for delicious crepes and designer-brand shopping, more spiritual tourists prioritize walking the labyrinth built into the floor of the Chartres Cathedral.
However, because the cathedral is more than three thousand miles away, Walpole’s seniors gathered at the senior center on April 25 for the next best thing: to walk a portable labyrinth modeled after the one at the Chartres.
Fifteen years ago, members of Walpole’s United Church took on the project of recreating the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth during a Lenten program.
“We were exploring different ways of praying, and walking meditation was one of them,” said Lois Czachorowski, a member of United Church, who brought the labyrinth to the senior center.
She added that the project took the entire period of Lent to paint the design onto an enormous piece of fabric, and that participants helped to paint prayers onto the underside of the labyrinth.
“We’ve had children run, healing walks, all kinds of walks, but it’s very moving seeing the elderly walk,” Czachorowski said. “There’s something very courageous about seeing the people who have never walked a labyrinth walk for the first time.”
For several of the seniors, it was their first time encountering a labyrinth. Although others had walked labyrinths before, including the outdoor one at United Church, it was still a very centering and quieting experience.
The participants helped one another through the labyrinth, both physically and emotionally, by lending their arms as support for those with difficulty walking and hugging one another at the center of the labyrinth. While it was certainly an individual experience for the participants, it also ended up being one shared by the seniors.
“Labyrinths sort of echo life,” said Czachorowski. “You think you’re on the right path, but then there are all of these twists you don’t expect, and then you find your way.”
However, she made it clear that the labyrinth is not meant to trick walkers; unlike a maze, which has many confusing paths and dead-ends, the labyrinth has a single path, which is used to both walk to the center of the labyrinth and to lead back to the entrance.
Ora McGuire, who had worked with Czachorowski to bring the labyrinth to the senior center, was left nearly speechless by the experience.
“It’s like being in a different time,” she said. “It’s so spiritual.”
McGuire is well known at the senior center for her origami peace cranes, and she was delighted to see that a fellow member had folded dozens of cranes to commemorate the importance of the labyrinth walk.
With beautiful weather on its way, the participants agreed that a trip to the United Church’s outdoor labyrinth would be in store.
Members of the community participate in walking the United Church’s portable labyrinth at the Walpole Council on Aging. Photos by Laura Drinan
