Every New Year’s our quaint hamlet hosts an extraordinary event; we walk a Labyrinth, the same formation as the sacred one at Chartres Cathedral in France. The one that priests and mystics, common folk and royalty have moved through with intention, in prayer or trance for centuries.
We are blessed to have devoted community members ‘tape’ the entire geometric pattern out in exact mathematical proportions faithfully and with precision in our town, December 31 until 5:00pm January 1. Many of us volunteer as ‘guardians’, taking one hour shifts, overseeing the safe-keeping, offering guidance, keeping candles lit, holding a space of reverence, while people of the community move into a New Year with Intention. It is very touching.
In stockinged feet, the snows banking the sturdy brick hall, the old floorboards creak under the thousands of paces taken, as youngsters scamper and the elderly shuffle though the lovely labyrinth. Our old ‘hippie stock’, the local business folks, ministers, dancers, college kids home for the holidays and out of town family mingle, passing in strides, sitting cross-legged in the clover leaf styled center for contemplation.
I love that our town holds this tradition, that we honor an ancient spiritual practice, that we blend and move in silence for 24 hours. Sometimes a pianist or fiddler brings us live accompaniment, often we play chant music in backdrop. I am one of the guardians. It is always a privilege to be part of the graceful syncopations and transcendent energy being created on the dawn of a New Year.
This year’s Labyrinth was as beautiful as always, winter’s low cast light streaming in amber rays through the windows, participants bowed heads, conveying thoughtfulness, openness to divinity and of course, many in prayer. Whenever I bring an outsider to our annual Labyrinth, they leave in awe – the chaotic outside world evaporates, beauty and symmetry are so potent, peace and simplicity overarching tones. There is grace. Spirit is summoned in a common Town Hall.
Many gestures of communion, friendship, love always ensue for me each year – a Labyrinth breeds harmonious undertones. Inside the sacred space we do not talk, but out in the foyer whispered conversations burble.
This year a woman rushed up to me, earnest eyes, hands outstretched, blonde hair capped in woven wool. “Katina, it is because of you that my life is restored. You saved me!” I did not recognize her. Yet, her smile, our hand-holding was so real. “I went to your Lyme talk a year and a half ago at the Grange and you educated us about the faulty Western Blot Test readings by the average GP’s. I remembered that. This sumer I was deathly ill and my doctor said that ‘one band’ positive on the Lyme disease test did not confirm Lyme. He said I didn’t have the illness. I kept getting sicker”.
“Thank you for replying to me email and referring me to Dr.X, she immediately put me on 2 months of antibiotics, followed by herbs for Lyme and I recovered!” joy streaming from her cornflower blue eyes. “That is wonderful. I’m so happy to learn I helped you, and that you jumped on the treatments.”
“You saved my life Katina, and your educational work and healing mission is so important. In fact, you are changing consciousness. Please keep writing and speaking and hosting the Lyme Light Radio show.”
I felt deeply touched there in the New England white clapboard, mahogany railed foyer. Though others acknowledge my mission often, something in that moment of critical honesty made me realize the thousands of miles I have travelled in 2 years, the hundreds of thousands of words I have written on this subject, the endless hours of conversation and healing sessions I have ministered are not in vain.
I had entered my “walk of intention” into the Labyrinth maze on New Year’s day, with a focus to bring “Out of the Woods”, and my new book “Mending” and my Inspirational speaking into International circulation, with the purpose of uniting the powers of Spirit and doctoring, in harmony. My Intention is to help the weary reclaim their inner healing skills, tools I know how to teach. I want health, comfort, support for us all.
This moment of meeting in parting from our sacred Labyrinth reminded me to keep ‘walking the maze’ of life. Like the priests and nuns and seekers of yore, a heart open to guidance and a mind available to creativity, will stay attuned and in turn the purposeful progress of moving with intention will manifest my path, each of our unique paths, in fact.
May we all be able to embrace our purpose, our heart’s desire, to be open to destiny and meet with the God force moving through and around each of us; to bring healing and hope, peace and love to all we encounter.
2014 dawns with a clarity for me within, yet a chock-full life of demands from the outside. May I maintain my balance point, may my muse remain fed, may my loved ones be blessed and may the higher calling I am moved by, as brilliantly vivid as the guiding North star, hold me fast.
Thank you for your kinship – readers, friends, the sick, the lonely, the seekers and healers. Our lives are not by accident. This earth time is precious and ever evolving. I walk it with you, at pace, to a beautiful, healthier tomorrow.
Cheers for a wondrous 2014.
Katina I. Makris, CCH, CIH
LymeLightRadio.com
Richard I. Horowitz, M.D., is a Board Certified Internist and Director of the Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center, in Hyde Park, New York, USA. He is a founding member of ILADS, and is President of the International Lyme and Associated Disease Educational Foundation (ILADEF), an organization dedicated to the education of health professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne disorders.
Katina I. Makris 