Recently in order to attend a training day on spirituality, I travelled
from Harrogate to Scargill House near Kettlewell in Wharfedale, which lies at
the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
I used to live at Linton, close to Kettlewell, so making this
longer journey felt rather different.
As I made my way I noticed that the roads became narrower at
each junction, until they were reduced to a single carriageway with passing
places. The landscape also became greener and more wooded as I approached Scargill.
As the subject of the day was spirituality I reflected as I
drove on the nature of journey and it reminded me of some of the myths where
people travel to far off places to receive enlightenment, such as visiting an
oracle on a mountain peak or by travelling to the centre of a thick forest.
I observed how there were few buildings in upper Wharfedale and
the landscape seemed more soothing on the eye and I started to relax. Perhaps
this was due to a phenomena I had
recently heard about that suggests that hard angles found common in an urban
setting causes visual stress; where as a natural setting devoid of these is
more restful. This sounded similar to
how words on a page create visual stress for some people with certain learning
differences such as dyslexia.
One of the spiritual exercises I encountered over the weekend
was to follow the patterns of a labyrinth as a visual and Kinesthetic prayer.
The prayer exercise involved tracing a journey to the heart of a complex
labyrinth where prayers were left with Christ before returning along the same
pathway to the mouth of the labyrinth. Unlike a maze you cannot get lost in a
labyrinth as you return the way you entered with the journey designed to
facilitate reflection and prayer.
In a way I realised that as I made my journey through the
Dales to Scargill House this was like travelling to the heart of a labyrinth
and resembled a mini pilgrimage. In fact had the training day be conveniently
located nearer home I don’t think it would not have had such a significant
impact on me.
So if you are making a journey this summer, perhaps to your holiday
destination, consider the journey and your return like a journey to the heart
of a labyrinth, where at the centre you will be able to leave your prayers with
Christ. In doing so your holidays will not just be time off from work but will
have become Holy Days, which by the way is where we get our word holiday from. So happy holidays
Resources on labyrinth can be found at: http://labyrinthsociety.org and www.pilgrimpasths.co.uk and for
details of events and accommodation at Scargill see www.scargillmovement.org
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