The Labyrinth of Life

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos.  The purpose of that labyrinth was to hold the Minotaur.  It is said that Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it.  

I understand that there is a computer adventure game called “The Labyrinth of Time,” which made me think of the Labyrinth of Life.  Dr. Alex Pattakos, co-founder of The OPA! Way, a Center for “Living and Working with Meaning” and author of “Prisoners of Our Thoughts,” suggests that “A labyrinth is not a maze or a puzzle to be solved but a path of meaning to be experienced.  Its path is circular and convoluted, but it has no dead ends.  A labyrinth has one entrance—one way in and one way out.”   

That sounds like Life to me—“one way in and one way out.”  We are never lost when we walk the labyrinth of life and there are no dead ends. We may go around various twists and curves; sometimes we may circle around the center unable to find our way; sometimes it is dark and foreboding; sometimes it is light and exciting; sometimes we cannot see where we are going; sometimes we move ahead with ease, sometimes we have to creep ahead cautiously so as not to bang our heads on the low ceilings; sometimes we find the need to stop, rest, and reflect, and sometimes we feel the urge to retreat.  That’s life, isn’t it?  We might well call “Life” the labyrinth path.

Yesterday we celebrated our great granddaughter’s first birthday.  In the words of our daughter, Rachel, “One year ago my beautiful granddaughter was born!! She was airlifted immediately to a Children’s Hospital and had open heart surgery in her first hours of life. She was a fighter.  We are blessed.”  Oh, the emotional twists and turns, hopes and fears, as we wandered through that section of the labyrinth called Life. 

In spite of all the convoluted twists and turns of the labyrinth, through the darkness and the light, the feelings of lostness, the sense of dread, and the fear, there comes the discovery of a new turn and a new path, and the awareness that we are not lost.  Yesterday we celebrated Delaney’s first year on her labyrinth path and sensed our own Labyrinth of Life.