Our Labyrinth is open to the Public to Still your mind and Perhaps Find Your Inner Peace
I invite you to bring a plant, flower, bulb or herb to plant in the Labyrinth as your contribution to it's natural landscape. I have chosen to let nature dictate what will grow as well as add a few plants myself. It's always a surprise anytime of the year. Just like life isn't it?
There Will Be Peace In The World
If there is light in the soul
there will be beauty in the person
If there is beauty in the person
there will be harmony in the house
If there is harmony in the house
there will be order in the nation
If there is order in the nation
there will be peace in the world
All life is relationship.
Our interactions with those we love -
family and friends, collegues, acquaintences and even strangers
are just a small fraction of the elaborate network of universal life.
We are connected to everything and everybody even when we are unaware of this profound association.
The word remember means to unite with those people in your family, your community, and your life.
Welcome to my home
Come walk the Labyrinth and Re - Member the light in your soul
Joan
Inspired by the Angels to Julie Flaherty
Our Labyrinth is created with what Mother Nature has provided us . I used stumps to mark the path because that is what I had.
A lesson in perception. At one time the stumps were seen as firewood and now they are seen as path markers and at times resting places to meditate.
Perception is everything. Change your perception of the world and you change your world.
This Labyrinth is full of symbollogy if you are looking for it.
Other Side
One day I walked the Labyrinth with a friend who had lost his mother not too long ago. He got tired and sat down to rest on the stump bench. I sat along side of him facing the same way he was sitting.
I heard "You must look up.I have not left you" so I spoke these words to him.
Then I asked him "Do you understand?" . I answered my own question. "No, you do not, but I have planted the seed."
I got up and continued on the path. As I rounded the bend in the path, I then came back to him but on the other side. I sat down again next to him but sat the opposite way with our backs against each other.
"Do you see what I have done? I have left you but I am still here. Do you understand me? I have left you and am on the other side, but I am still here! Do you understand? She left you but she is still near."
Tears overwhelmed this man. He could not speak the rest of the day.
He had a change of perception and went away with a lighter heart.
Joan. .
Stumps
As I began walking the Labyrinth my eyes began taking in all the sights to behold. First the greenery, then the Black Eyed Susans, then the wild grasses. I continued to walk finding my own kind of quietness inside.
I sat down on the stump benches and became still.
I am an artist so I notice detail in life.
I found my eyes fixated on the stumps used to mark the path. Some had fungus in all colors growing on them. Others had pieces beginning to fall off of them as they decayed. Still others seemingly dead had new growth coming from the center where they had given a seed a place for a new start.
I pondered how these stumps were so much like life. Sometimes we just sit and seem dead, but maybe we are just waiting for a new seed to give us life. Or perhaps we are here just as guides to help others on their path. FG
Experiences, Perceptions, Inspirations
Discovered in Our Labyrinth
We invite you to share your experience with us after you walk this Labyrinth
There is beauty in the sleeping
This is the same view of the labyrinth as above
Changing Perceptions of Weeds
As I was mowing the Labyrinth for a Girl Scout Troop to come walk the path I recalled how I had initially wanted to have the Labyrinth all neat and proper. I looked at all the interesting plants that had found their way into this natural Labyrinth. Behold some of those plants that I had called weeds had blossomed and were certainly a thing of beauty! I had never really looked at them before because I was so busy pulling them or mowing them down.
Then I took my perception one step further. These "weeds" found a place to grow and shine and be a thing of beauty in their own way. One day they were weeds, next day they became a wonder to my eyes. Doesn't this happern to us as humans? If we can just find the right place to grow freely and blossom we suddenly are transformed from a weed to a person of beauty. Once again perception changes and a weed is a pure gift to the eye. Help yourself and those around you to grow in a nurturing place and know they are "a person of beauty" and not just a weed.
When the power of love
overcomes the love of power
The world will know peace
Jimi Hendrix
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls
Mother Teresa
Kind words can be short and easy to speak,
but their echoes are truly endless
Mother Teresa
Dig Deeper, Dig Deeper
Two souls searching, two souls working in the Labyrinth. Each one looking for truths and a path to peace. As we worked to clean up the Labyrinth from it’s long winter hibernation, we began to dig up a Poke Berry root. “I know the birds like this weed, but it becomes unruly and takes over the path”, I said. So we began to dig deeper and deeper. Anyone who is familiar with this wild specimen knows that the root is bigger and runs deeper than a sweet potato. We began each with a shovel, taking turns to move the dirt and unearth this monstrous root.
“Do you see the symbollogy of what we are doing right now”, I asked.
We dug and hacked and finally cut it out, then filled the hole back up with earth and planted another plant in it’s place. As the day progressed we chatted about this and that and our lives. Each one unearthing childhood memories and experiences. Each one digging up perceptions of what we wanted in a relationship. Slowly changing perceptions of what is important in our lives.
As I lay in bed it all came to me the beauty of the day, the beauty of the experience and what it all meant to me. It reminded me of what my Angel would say, “Dig deeper, dig deeper.” So many layers of perception, so many chances for new perceptions of life.
Joan
Follow your Path
Follow your Dreams
Check out this site!
It has a virtual Labyrinth with incredible meditations
to dwell on during your walk!
Their meditations are worthy of repeating:
Anything you don't love, you will repeat until you do.
Change your life with your very next thought.
You will never be given a challenge you cannot solve.
Gratitude opens the gateway of the heart and lets the truth of love radiate.
A complete healing is activated through gratitude and love.
Life is a journey, not a destination.
There is nothing done or not done that is not worthy of love.
No strength is greater than
Calm
No power greater than
Peace
TITLE: LIVING LABYRINTH FOR PEACE ARTIST: SANDRA WASKO-FLOOD OPENING RECEPTION: Sat December 6th 2008, 6-8pm CLOSING DATE: Sat January 10th, 2009 118 N. Howard St. Baltimore, MD 21201
This exhibition will be the show you will remember more than any other this year. You’ll see interactive labyrinth with lights, light box wall pieces, innovative prints, photo etchings, monotypes, photos, fabric wall hangings on themes of peace using symbols such as labyrinths, spirals, and cycles. Sandra Wasko-Flood will bring the splendor and gleam, and the exploration of peace within the heart of the universe to Sub-basement Artist Studios here in downtown Baltimore.
Unlike mazes, with many confusing paths, labyrinths have one path that leads to the center and back. Many people find that the single meandering path slows the breathing focuses the mind and induces a peaceful or meditative state. This experience can make it easier to express feelings and wishes, make decisions, or resolve conflicts: to find your path to inner peace.
Sandra Wasko-Flood, a visionary artist, teacher, and labyrinth builder since 1991, studied art at the University of California Los Angeles, University of Wisconsin Madison, and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At the Subbasement Artist Studios, visitors will experience the “Rainbow Labyrinth of Peace,” an interactive installation of computer programmed lights designed to be walked, as well as peace workshops, creativity events, Labyrinth walking, art exhibit and music. Living Labyrinths for Peace, Inc., sponsor of the exhibit, creates labyrinths of art, science, technology and nature, for learning programs that lead the way from inner peace to world peace. (www.labyrinthsforpeace.org) The workshop leaders: Jennifer Judelsohn, international workshop leader on spiritual practices Marty Cain, internationally acclaimed labyrinth builder Barbara Epstein, school psychologist and life coach Coleman McCarthy, renowned author and professor of peace studies at Georgetown University Sheryl Chastine, Holistic Health expert and multi-ethnic counselor
Living Labyrinth for Peace Additional events:
Wisdom of Mandalas & Labyrinths Workshop Saturday, December 13, 2-5 pm *
Labyrinths for Creativity and Peace Workshop for Adults: Saturday, December 20, 2-5 pm *
Poetry Peace Readings: Sandra Wasko-Flood will read a selection of her latest Peace Poems as well as some selections by her favorite authors. Saturday, December 27, 2-5 pm * Peace Panel: “Inner Peace to World Peace” Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 2-4 pm
Labyrinths for Creativity and Peace Workshop for Adults: Saturday, January 10, 2-5 pm * (*)= CONTACT GALLERY FOR WORKSHOP REGISTRATION DETAILS www.livinglabyrinthsforpeace.org Sandra Wasko-Flood 703-217-6706
For more information please contact Tobe’ Ifeanyi, at (410)-659-6950 GALLERY HOURS: Monday –Sunday: Appt Anytime -- Saturday: 11am-5pm Email: info@sbastudios.com Web: WWW.SBASTUDIOS.COM
Fill In the Blanks As I observe and experience my life, I have been made some times painfully aware that we as human beings "fill in the blanks". We watch someone walk in front of us or speak to someone and we immediately "fill in the blanks". We create the story of what we perceive is happening. We then judge the other's intentions, form an opion because of their looks and make snap decisions. If we just wait awhile to find out all the details, we would be more at peace with each other.
I had a friend who had been sick. I had called him when he got out of the hospital and expected him to return the courtesy and call me. I waited and waited and waited. No call. I began filling in the blanks. He does not care about me, he is being self centered and not appreciating all I did for him. On and on and on my monkey mind kept going until I had totally sabotaged the relationship. Then the phone rang................ "Your friend wanted me to call you and let you know he is in the hospital. He had heart surgery. He is in intensive care."
My story that I created was just that - a story. I watch people, couples, governments and people fighting and realize that we all fill in the blanks. This creates wars of all kinds. It can be stopped by quieting our minds and just wait for the whole story to make itself known before we are so quick to judge.
As you walk the labyrinth, quiet your mind, delete your thoughts and allow pure inspiration to come without you filling in the blanks. Joan
