Last week I attended my 16th meeting with the Ohio River Group.  This is a group of ministers who gather to study a particular topic each year and also to share, informally, our joys and concerns about ministry.  I have been spending time with these ministers ever since I was ordained.  This year's topic was "poetry," but it is always a valuable and energizing time, no matter what the topic of discussion.

In recent years, this group has met at Bergamot Retreat Center in Dayton, Ohio.  On that property is the grandest, most beautiful outdoor labyrinth I have ever seen.  The path runs between shrubs and grasses, native to the area, and I look forward to walking it each year.  Even on a cold and rainy day, it has been a good experience because the shoulder-high plants hold you to the path and protect you as you walk.

It was not raining this year, and I had high hopes for a glorious walk under a pure blue sky.  But the large circle of the Bergamot labyrinth did not look as distinct as I approached it, and I was horrified, as I walked, to find it badly overgrown, difficult to follow, almost dangerous with stalks and vines to trip up your steps.  After what seemed an eternity, I reached the pole in the middle, and hugged it in relief, something I've never thought of doing before.  I didn't have the energy that day to walk the path outward.  But I did come back the following day, took a deep breath, and made the journey both in and out.   The path is still there.

What are they doing with my beloved labyrinth?  I asked at the retreat center desk, and they assured me that there is no intention to let it go.  But this drove home to me that labyrinths are fragile and mortal, and in need of care.  I'm sending a contribution to the Bergamot Labyrinth Fund.

Our CUC labyrinth is completing its first season of growth.   It offers its own kind of joy to walk, with waist high shrubs and some shoulder-high grass to define the way.  Bright leaves are now falling indiscriminately on the plantings and on the paths between.  This makes it more visually confusing than it was, but it is even more beautiful to walk.  Be sure to catch a journey through our labyrinth on one of these fall days.