Labyrinth Meeting
Sunday, February 15, 2004

This was to be the last meeting of the Labyrinth Committee before the big day, and some decisions could not be put off any longer. The main decision that needed to be made was what, if anything, would be put into the center of the labyrinth? There was also the area near the entrance where no paths crossed. Would this simply be empty, or could we do something interesting with it?

Agenda

Susan writes in an email entitled “Decisions to make”
There have been several suggestions for a center to the labyrinth which include but are not limited to:

• a large stone ‘altar’ (this would need to be put in place on the first workday and the labyrinth built around it)
  • pros: it’s an altar and could hold whatever you want depending
    on the occasion
  • cons: it would leave less room if you wanted to have a group in the center for a wedding or ceremony of some kind
• a well or other water feature
  • pros: water is a great feature to have in a labyrinth
  • cons: standing water means mosquitoes and slime, or constant maintenance
• an aperiodic Penrose tiling pattern (to be done by the junior high RE class)
  • pros: can be done later or as an ongoing project; allows for a flat center area that is unobstructed; carries the theme of sacred geometry
  • cons: could potentially get covered over with gravel; could be costly depending on material used

My personal favorite is the Penrose tiles.

There have also been several suggestions for the ‘untouchable’ area in front of you as you enter (the colored in area):

• Fill area with limestone blocks (as used for the path borders)
• Fill area with decomposed granite (as used for the path filler<)
• Fill with rocks that were brought over from the other property
• Fill with flowers (the pre-K/K class is willing to plant them)
• Have a ‘well’ used as a planter for flowers
• Have objects representative of the 4 directions in the 4 points of the area

My personal favorite is to have flowers, of course they’d need to be watered weekly, but the pre-k/k class would probably enjoy that task.

We need someone to head up (or find a scout group who would be interested in) the task of making an information box that would house both a permanent ‘guide to walking the labyrinth’ and pamphlets on the labyrinth and the church that can be taken. It doesn’t need to be very large, only sturdy, but would require plexiglass boxes to hold the pamphlets and a plexiglass front to hold the guide. We would want it to have an overhang to keep the pamphlets dry. Let me know if you can head this part of the project up.

I’d like to have people sell t-shirts on the Sunday’s following the workdays and the day of the dedication: which would mean Sunday, Feb. 28th, Sunday, March 7th, and Sunday March 21st. Let me know if you can do this.

Mike has pricing on the dedication stone to be placed either at the entrance or in the untouchable zone. We’ve decided on red granite to tie in the brick from the building…the other choices were black (too dreary) or grey (wouldn’t stand out from the limestone enough). It will be a beveled stone 6″ in back and 4″ in front and will probably be buried into the ground about 2″. We will wait until the labyrinth is completed before we have it made, just to be sure we actually pull this off in time for the dedication date of March 21st.

Decisions Made

Susan wrote the following summary of the meeting:

We briefly met today to discuss what would be done, if anything, in the center of the labyrinth and the ‘untouchable’ area. It was decided that for the center we all liked the idea of the aperiodic tiling idea but with a twist. Instead of doing tiles to complete the pattern (which they are welcome to do if they would prefer) we thought a round area of concrete could be hand poured and then scored and painted/stained. This project will be completed by the jr. high class at their convenience; either by tiling or using the scored concrete idea. The sun pattern was the favorite. The thought was it would give the center a nice focal point while not obstructing its use for any type of ceremony or celebration. The idea of moveable benches or ‘sitting rocks’ that can be placed around the inside perimeter of the center can be revisited.

The untouchable area, it was decided, would house the ‘field rock’ brought over from the Hatch Road property, a few hardy plants such as rosemary or other natives that do well in rock gardens, and a ‘basin’ or largish rock that has a ‘bowl’ to it that could be used as a deposit for items people would want to leave either as they enter (things they wish to banish) or before they leave the center (things they want to bring into their lives).

Elements of the four directions will be decided upon and added after completion…ideas include wind chimes to be hung in the trees in the East; a water feature in the West near the entrance (a wishing well?); perhaps planting a tree in the north (the one open area where there are currently no trees); a Sun image that could be hung from a tree in the South…I’m sure we could come up with many ideas for this.

The ‘information kiosk’ is an idea I will take to a member of the church who is looking for a Boy Scout project. It would be a great project for him and really handy for us!

Next up: Limestone, Granite and Sitting Boulders