enter … the path of Love

This week, I experienced a way to
enter
into Lent.

I had been invited by a local school to introduce
the labyrinth
to students from Kindergarten to Grade Six.
I instructed … they asked questions … I enjoyed responding
and then
I watched
as they walked, some slowly, some quickly
around the winding path
to the centre
where they sat
quietly.

***

In the Christian Tradition, Lent occurs every year.
It is a 40 day Season
intended to be a time for
re-commitment to spiritual practice
and for
personal/community reflection on how we are
walking
the path of Love.

The Wise Ones knew that this yearly Season would be needed
because we slip, we forget, we step off the path
and need to, yet again, set our intention
to return
to walk 

on

this path

the path of Love.
***

This Lent
I will be reading, re-reading, and reflecting on
the poetry of
David Whyte.
The following poem, entitled
Still Possible
speaks to me
as I once again
enter
into this Season
to re-return to the path.
***
These are selected verses taken from
David’s book by the same name.
***

It is still possible to be kind to yourself,
to drop constraints and fall often
to your knees, it’s not too late now, to bow
to what beckons …
It’s still possible to feel that spring
is in the air, to intuit these days
as pilgrim days …
It is still possible not to hold too tightly
to what you think is true, to bend your head
and assume humility beneath the eaves
of a still spreading sky …
It’s still possible to be a soul
on its way to beautiful …
Oh yes, it’s still possible to taste
the natural God-given sweetness
in every cloud in the sky, in every little
you eat; in every breath you take,
in every hand you touch, in every day
that you wake, with every tear that you shed …
It’s still possible to fully understand
that you always have been the place
where the miracle has happened:
that you have been since your birth
the bread given and the wine lifted,
the change witnessed and the change itself,
that you have been all along,
a goodness that can continue
to be a goodness to itself.

It’s still possible in the end
to realize why you are here
and why you have endured,
and why you might have suffered
so much, so that in the end
you could witness love …

***
It’s still possible to enter into Lent.
It’s still possible to walk the path of Love.

*** ***** *