Where:  In the garden of Unity Church, at the southeast corner of Wooten and Trail Lake, 5051 Trail Lake Drive right off the I-20 in southwest Fort Worth.

When:  Daylight hours.

What: A small but practical labyrinth outlined with marble bricks and paved with red gravel. Walking a labyrinth is often used as a meditation exercise or form of prayer.

How: Follow the path that opens on the east side of the labyrinth around through many twists and turns until you reach the center, pause, then walk slowly out again. At a slow pace, the entire process takes 10-15 minutes.

Etimology: The word “labyrinth” comes from ancient Crete, where King Minos is said to have kept a Minotaur (a local monster which was the son of a human woman and a bull) in a maze called the Labyrinth.

History: The truer ancestors of the modern meditation labyrinth are the mosic floor labyrinths in Cathedrals such as Chartres in the north of France,. It was in these holy spaces that mazes were designed not as a way to get lost, but as a way to find a personal truth by pushing ever forward as the path wound in complex patterns toward the central goal.  

Purpose: To say that the meditation labyrinth is supposed to be a metaphor for life itself would be one approach, but they are also used to contemplate difficult problems, as a form of penance, or opening oneself to divine revelation. Visitors may bring their concerns to the labyrinth and put them into mind as they trace the paths.

My visit:  I showed up at the Unity Church Labyrinth ready for a spiritual exercise. I wasn’t sure it would help with the things I was facing, but I was intrigued by the idea.

I started my walk at the beginning. At the Unity labyrinth it is easy to find the broken place in the circle, leading into the matrix of paths. No chance of getting lost here; despite the many turns, there is only one path in to the labyrinth, and upon completion, you turn around and follow the same path back out. I paused after entering, looked ahead. Yes, the way was clear. All I had to do was follow the path on its winding way around and around until I reached the center.

I thought of people as I walked, people I loved, people who made me angry, and various organizations, and life and death.

Twice I seemed to approach the center, then was led back out to the edge. But finally, after a long walk along the back, I stood in the middle of all, and waited, hoping for an awareness, a message. I felt a breeze blowing across me. I had not noticed it before; had the wind been there all along?

The wind blows where it will. I started walking back out. I had not worried since I entered the labyrinth; I had not thought of doing anything except putting one foot in front of the other, and freeing my mind to go where it would. The marble blocks were laid carefully in the gravel, making the smooth curves into a kind of Celtic design. The labyrinth was more than it appeared to be, I thought, this simple diagram of earth and rock. I felt soothed, as if things that were weighing me down didn’t matter quite so much. Though upon emerging, The Universe had not struck me with a revelation, still, I felt deeply at peace. And somehow, even though there was no one else in the garden, I did not feel alone.

Other Fort Worth labyrinths can be found at:

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

2700 McPherson Ave.
Fort Worth, Texas 76109

University Christian Church

2720 South University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76109

Cook’s Children’s Hospital

807 Seventh Avenue

Fort Worth, Texa 76104

682-885-4000