People make labyrinths in many places. They may be painted on asphalt, as in Petrin park in Prague, or made of stones, as in Hasenheide park in Berlin, or the Railyard park in Santa Fe. One man made one out of sand on the Thames strand in London. That one was due to be washed away when the tide came in.

The labyrinth is based on a circle. Inside the circle is a pattern of lines forming paths you can walk. You start from the entrance, walk around and around and back and forth, and eventually make it to the center. Then you walk the same path out.

Sounds kind of dumb, no? Why walk a labyrinth? Well, it’s a meditation. The labyrinth is a metaphor for life.

Each one walks a labyrinth which that one has created. You can walk it consciously or unconsciously. Mostly we forget that we created the labyrinth. We complain about it: “Why am I stuck walking this stupid labyrinth?” We blame others: “My parents, my teachers, my society made me walk this labyrinth.” We perhaps dream of escaping from the labyrinth.

Well, you can leave the labyrinth. You created it; you have the blueprint. You can step over the walls. The hard part is remembering that you created the labyrinth and decided to walk it.

But remembering and then leaving the labyrinth is not easy. Almost always you first have to meet someone who is not in a labyrinth. You might then think, “How is that person not in a labyrinth? Everyone I’ve ever known is in one.” That ex-labyrinther might help you break the illusion that the walls of the labyrinth are impassable. You might see that they are just painted lines or markers of little stones.

Sometimes a peak experience will temporarily jolt you out of the labyrinth. Mostly people will be happy to get back inside. They think, “That’s not real! Only the labyrinth is real. What I experienced out there was just a delusion.”

And most, even though they may bitch and moan, don’t really want to leave the labyrinth. It’s safe, it’s comfortable, you know what you have to do. Just follow the lines and you’ll be alright. Outside, it’s scary, it’s dangerous. You have to make all kinds of decisions and accept the consequences. So most stay in their labyrinth til death explodes it.

And if you start to leave the labyrinth, you will get into trouble. People will condemn you. Not walking your labyrinth is antisocial, even criminal. “What if everybody just left their labyrinth? Society would fall apart!” So you might have to make it appear to others that you are still walking a labyrinth in order not to be punished or outcast.

Walk your labyrinth for the rest of your life, or take a chance to dance with romance.