For our class closure, all the first-year DASD students walked the labyrinth together in silence. The experience reminded me that the interior journey is not just about the pace set in the relationship between you and God. The spiritual life is also lived out at community -- and sometimes you have to move at the pace of the community's SLOWEST member. But, hey, we're here to slow down and notice, even if that can be frustrating sometimes. Both the self and the community are vital. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Let anyone who cannot be alone beware of community. Let anyone who is not in community beware of being alone."
Surrounded by my first-year community of DASD students in various stages of walking the labyrinth, I opened my eyes after resting in the center of the labyrinth, and the world seemed sharper -- colors and lines more distinctly defined. Living in community is hard, but good.
1 comment:
Very Jewish. Now you know why I go to services even when I don't feel like it. And why I lead them, even though I'm exhausted, like today. How I'll make it to Shabbat, I do not know. But I'll be there. Because the congregation depends on me. And when I'm absent, I get five phone calls at work the next week! Halachically observant Jews cannot hold worship services without 10 men present -- community.
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