Stories Moving in Circles

​Stories move in circle.
They don’t move in straight lines.
So, it helps if you listen in circles.
There are stories inside stories
and stories between stories
and finding your way through them
is as easy
and as hard
as finding your way home.
And part of the finding
is the getting lost.
And when you’re lost
you start to look around
and to listen.
~ Deena Metzger from A Traveling Jewish Theater

Have you walked a labyrinth? This ancient spiritual practice embodies so much of our Advent journey to Bethlehem. It is the walking toward center, the slowing of our steps, the unexpected turning and returning. Labyrinths hold all of these things.
 
I remember the first time I walked one. I was in a training for Spiritual Direction in North Carolina.  On our last night, at midnight we gathered around the candlelit circle. It was late and dark, and I remember being tired from the inside-out. We were told to take our time, to not rush. We were invited to think of a question we were holding onto or to hold some mantra that represented our time together. And in the dark space with only candlelight, we were welcomed into the circle.
 
What I have come to wonder and marvel about from my times walking the labyrinth, is what I carry in with me tends to fall away. Then when I’ve prayed and made my way to the center, what I’ve been more deeply seeking is waiting there for me. You who have walked it, may know what I mean. I remember my first labyrinth in NC. In the days before I’d left to come to the training, we’d put our dog, Nessie to sleep. I began my steps into the circle, carrying my grief around losing her. Sometime later, when I was standing in the center of the circle, I recognized that even more than grieving Nessie, I was grieving my father’s long goodbye with Alzheimer’s. That time was tender and powerful, and I remember sobbing as I walked my way back out. When I’d taken my finishing steps, and was exiting, I remember a straightening of my back and a lifting of my eyes. What I thought I knew to seek, wasn’t what my heart was seeking at all. What I found instead was hesed - lovingkindness.
 
“Stories inside stories and stories between stories.” Deena Metzger’s words have been companioning me since seminary. They speak to this time of Advent journeying, of paying attention to what our hearts are yearning for and these stories can remind us of what’s been holding us the whole time. They speak to the wonder and the gift of this intentional time that can bring us closer and closer to the center.
 
It matters to me that I remember to hold my stories lightly. It matters that I pay attention and listen out for another soul’s story as well. It’s easy to get lost in the dark during this time. I know, I’ve felt that over and over. And like my times of walking the labyrinth, Metzger’s words invite me, when I am feeling lost to `look around and to listen.’
 

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