NAPLÓK: N. D. S. L. (Vajdics Anikó) Legutóbbi olvasó: 2025-07-16 20:08 Összes olvasás: 89319| 153. | [tulajdonos]: maze or labyrinth | 2018-10-12 22:57 | Labyrinth or a Maze – my first (and hopefully not the last) EBN-congress ( 4-9 September 2018 Batschuns)
“The beauty of the world is the mouth of a labyrinth. The unwary individual who on entering takes a few steps is soon unable to find the opening. Worn out, with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated from his dear ones, and from everything he loves and is accustomed to, he walks on without knowing anything or hoping anything, incapable even of discovering whether he is really going forward or merely turning round on the same spot. But this affliction is as nothing compared with the danger threatening him. For if he does not lose courage, if he goes on walking, it is absolutely certain that he will finally arrive at the centre of the labyrinth. And there God is waiting to eat him. Later he will go out again, but he will be changed, he will have become different, after being eaten and digested by God. Afterward he will stay near the entrance so that he can gently push all those who come near into the opening.”(Simone Weil: Waiting for God)
– Do you know the labyrinth? – asked Bruno.
– How do you mean?
– I mean, there is a difference between labyrinth and … I don’t remember the name in English, in German we say „Irrgarten” what means „crazy garden” – it is designed for getting lost, to create confusion. The labyrinth is different: it is a spiritual journey to find the stations of your life from the beginning until the end.
– Oh, really? That’s interesting.
– The Irrgarten has a lot of pathways and dead ends to confuse the visitor, the labyrinth has a singular path leading to the centre, you can pause there then you turn around and walk back.
– I have just seen a film in which they used the term maze, not the labyrinth and I didn’t understand why.
– Oh, yes, Irrgarten is maze in English.
This conversation happened somewhere at the entrance of „Propstei” St. Gerold, the monastery where the participants of the 14th European Bibliodrama Conference (titled „The soil of our hope”) made an excursion on the third day. After having a wonderful austrian pie with coffee or tee we had four different programmes in small groups. Some people had a guided tour in the monastery, others chose to sing carols in the chapel, there were persons who visited the so-called Silent Place. I joined to the group that tried the prayers’ labyrinth built in the forest near the „Propstei”, I entered at the mouth, walked it’s curves, stopped at the line poles that repeated symbolizing the stations of my life, entered at the centre, sat down on a stone and waited to be eaten and digested by God.
It is impossible to tell everything, all the details, all the impressions, all the sensations you feel when you find yourself in the middle of an event what is not the first for the others but for you it is. Has it been a labyrinth or has it been a maze? Well, sometimes I felt quite confused like being in the middle of a maze.
It began with the travelling. The airport with its pathways, passages, straights lines, squares and corners can seem a maze, a complete „Irrgarten”. You enter, try to find something like a centre (the points you need for checking), you look for the exit where you enter another universe (the cosmos of the airplane), hopping not to get lost, not to arrive at dead ends. When you start feeling sure and safe you find yourself in a railway station where the whole thing starts over until you arrive safely your accommodation, namely the Bildungshaus in Batschuns.
It is impossible to tell everything: my journey in the labyrinth of words, while working with the biblical text (Isaiah, 40:12–31) in group, in pairs and individually; my roaming in the international maze of words while trying to understand Finish English, German English, Polish English, „Österreichische” English and other English, trying to make understand myself (a Hungarian variation of English).
I remember faces, gesture, smiles, hugs and starry eyes. I remember the farewell party as a cavalcade of flavours, sounds and rhythm – a trustful atmosphere in which we were not afraid to show our crazy side. I returned home with the conviction that life is full of joy.
Life is full of joy – it is not a stressful sentence, is it? But it’s a sentence. What if I try to see it by Katie Byron’s method as I learnt it from Maria Stachel the last day when we had „Open Space”-workshops:
Is it true that life is full of joy? Yes, it is. Can I absolutely know that it is true? Yes, I can. How do I feel when I say this sentence? I feel happy and satisfied, renewed in strength, I feel I could mount up with wings like eagles, I could run and not be weary. Let’s make a turn-around: I am full of joy. In what circumstances can this be true? My answer is: it can be true when I go to a European Bibliodrama Conference.
See you next year in Scotland : Anikó Vajdics (Hungary)
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