On January 11th, 2016, I started a daily practice of writing a joke meditation of the day called Cracked Pot Meditations. I was still recovering from the treatment of cancer, and I was having very challenging cognitive issues, so I chose just to put something simple and easy to write every day. Posting it to the blog allowed me to have some accountability. Some of those meditations were poorly written and unedited. I have gone back and begun editing these and adding an illustration, starting with the April 27th meditation. I hope you enjoy.
Meditation for April 27th
Urban Labyrinths
The meditation of walking through a maze is as old as civilization itself. They represent a journey from the outside towards the inside. This is a spiritual path we take both physically and emotionally.
There are labyrinths at cathedrals, parks, and other places that support meditative life. When one needs to take a few moments, one can walk through one of these labyrinths.
If you don’t know where one is or don’t find the labyrinth to have the power needed to cut away the material strings attached to us, we go and get lost.
The whole world is a labyrinth! You can literally get lost in any city, town, canyon, desert, forest, Costco, or Walmart.
Some people have great senses of direction, but many get confused in their own apartments, so it is easier to get lost. Go to a neighborhood you have never been to and walk around. Don’t use your phone’s GPS. Look at the garden through the windows and say hello to all the dogs and cats you pass.
This is guerrilla labyrinth meditation. You don’t need Dante’s Inferno or a Dungeons and Dragons game to walk through a maze of traps and monsters; our world already has those! If you need the scary mosey to hell, pick a scarier neighborhood and do it at night. I know some scary suburban neighborhoods where people are suspicious of anyone wandering aimlessly with a backpack. You must look for dogs, skunks, overzealous cops, motion detection lights, and the Cult of the Neighborhood Watch Association. These are hazardous and can put an end to your labyrinth walk, but bravery and a willingness to put up a fight will get you through. Don’t let a wrought iron gate with security personnel keep you from wandering a dangerous neighborhood.
Go out exploring. Get lost. Don’t use your phone. Someone very real once said, “Not all who wander are lost.”
Prayer
Daedalus,
I will wander through your Gods’ labyrinths.
I will stop and see things.
I will never be in a hurry.
People in a hurry don’t get life.
They miss everything.
I won’t get there by car,
For I must see things up close and at my pace.
Help me get lost.
Never allow me to always know where I am,
And where I am going.
I must always be at a fork in the road.
I must always be thinking about where I want to go.
May I forever be in a natural grocery store and reading ingredients.
Minotaur,
You want me to never make it to this maze’s end.
You are part human and part animal.
The human part is what makes you so evil.
As a human,
You enjoy helping in my failures.
As a human,
You enjoy watching me go the wrong way.
As a human,
You enjoy seeing me going back the way I came.
As a human,
You love being in my way.
As a human,
You love being stronger, smarter and better than me.
As a human,
You love watching me give up.
As an animal,
You just want to be.
Amen.
Craft
Things you will need on an urban labyrinth walk.
Backpack
Proper clothes
11-foot rope
Headlamp
Flashlight
Something warm to put on when the sun goes down.
A Leatherman or a pocketknife
Water bottle with water
Thermos with a local organic fair trade shade-grown coffee – no cream or sugar because cream and sugar are for people who should just be at home watching Murder She Wrote, eating bonbons, and complaining about the weather on the phone to their sister.
Chalk – to help see where you’ve already been or to leave secret symbol messages for other wanderers.
Poop bags for you and your dog
Garbage bag for litter removal
A box of granola bars for sustenance
$15.85 in cash
Headphones and a music player (a newer “smart” phone has MP3 player capabilities. Maybe make yourself an urban labyrinth mix.)
A P226 SAO Legion machine pistol.
Goal
Just go out and wander around. It’s good exercise, and you’ll learn a lot more about the world around you and the people in it than you will possibly learn by being on the computer.