In 2009, Richard Irvine made a proposal that Force Academy members participate in a kind of “Meditation Relay”. It took a couple of years, but I liked the idea so much that I started traveling around the community and asked people to take an hour and symbolically pass it off their meditation hour to the next person when they were done. I started this in 2011, and have been doing the relay every year until this year. In fact, I was so swamped this year, I did actually ask a couple of people if they could organize it and I’d take an hour or two where I could. But I’ll tell you what, I wasn’t going to give up on the idea altogether. I’ve made this New Year’s Meditation an annual event, and I don’t want to give up on it.
For this year’s event, I invited my apprentice to participate with me. We met up at Legacy Park in Greenville, South Carolina. It was still damp and cloudy outside, so I had intended on doing a guided meditation. We were hopeful that more people would come, but when no one showed up, I decided to switch gears. We looked around and found a tree with a rather large circular mulch sheet around it.
Looking at Chris, I asked “Think you can map out a simple spiral labyrinth and walk it without the markers?” We decided to take on the challenge. Getting out to the tree, we started at the West Gate. In many traditions, the West quarter represents water, which is where life thrives. Thus walking the pilgrimage away from water marks the wilderness of the unknown. And as you walk back, you return to life as you know it renewed and ready for what comes next. But things didn’t quite go the way it was intended. The lack of markers actually gave rise to a very intriguing joint meditation.
Chris began his walk along the spiral in a counter-clockwise pattern. Because the meditation in is to reflect on your past year, this makes sense because it’s like you’re turning the clock back to remember everything- and on your way out, you’re restarting the clock as you reflect on how you’re going to achieve your goals in the new year. But that’s not what ended up happening.
Once Chris got to the tree at the center of his labyrinth, I began walking my own- also counter-clockwise. I made a few turns in, until I got to the park bench that was somewhat inconveniently in the path.
When I had decided on the location, I figured we would just walk around the bench. But, as I approached it, it hit me- there were obstacles that I had to overcome over this last year, and that bench perfectly fit into the story I was playing out. So instead of going around it- as though I didn’t acknowledge the problem was there- I climbed over it and reminded myself that I overcame those obstacles.
About half way through my walk, Chris started his journey out. But it wasn’t clockwise. Instead, he moved counter-clockwise, just as he had when he came in. Somewhere along the route, as I was thinking about how it was nice that over the last year I had found a local Jedi, I realized what Chris was doing and noticed that he and I were walking parallel to one another- not exactly at the same pace, but enough as though we were walking alongside each other on a trail. It was an incredible metaphor of our journey through this past year during the one full turn before our journeys took us different directions- his out and mine to the tree.
When I reached the tree, I was greeted with a smiling face in the bark. I couldn’t help but smile and realize that the last year was much more to me than I had previously thought entering into it. With that face, I just couldn’t help myself, I started talking to the tree about my year and trying to bounce information off of it to find a goal that could reflect what I learned about myself on the journey inward, and improve me as a Jedi as I take on 2019.
Upon finding one, I smiled at the tree, and started my walk out. This time, staring to the sky and talking with God. Asking him to help me with my goal. The branches reminded me of all the connections we make in life. Water-ready to drip off of them and help sustain the trunk of the tree itself. But caught up in the tree was a reminder that there is more than just a tree to be looked at. It was a pterodactyl kite.
Now I am aware of the fact that we can find symbolism in everything, but the idea that a kite could get entangled in all of those connections and loose its ability to soar with all of it’s majesty in the sky was not lost on me. When we focus on everything else, and not on what is around us- we can easily lose ourselves.
By the time I reached the edge of the mulch canvas, I realized I was walking out the South Gate. A gate which is represented by Fire. When we speak in terms of a new year, this gate perfectly represents the concept of new beginnings. Which, if I’m being honest, was more appropriate than me making it all the way back to the West Gate where I was trying to end my meditation. Intriguingly, Chris’s exit was to the North Gate, and given it’s leaning towards Earth, ended up being the most symbolic gate for his own 2019 goal.
At the end, we closed out our meditation by going to the pavilion and etching our goals into a candle to be burned completely before the Force Realists’ Meditation event is concluded at 10AM GMT New Years Day.
Have a wonderful New Years, everyone. May the Force transform you.