Pattern Description: This is a quilt based on the labyrinths used for meditation. I was lucky enough to get to walk the one at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. My husband and I happened upon a quilt by Laurel Reinhardt in Asheville, NC. Luckily, she sells the pattern, so you don’t have to buy one for over $1,000.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes, I suppose. I’m much more of a visual person, and while Reinhardt tries to explain how to piece the pattern in words, I found it easier just to look at the diagrams and figure out how things would work for me.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? LOVE the styling. Pattern also includes how to make this into a tree skirt.

No real dislikes. She recommends triangles on a roll for piecing the angles. I had never heard of the product, so I just cut squares and pieced triangles based on my other quilting books.

Fabric Used: 100% cotton. This quilt is a for some dear friends who are having their first child. They didn’t want a “baby quilt,” so I picked out muted colors. The path is stone is color, the background green, so they go well with my tree motif.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: I made the center piece one large octogon instead of 8 triangles. This allowed me to embroider a tree in the middle on my machine. I stippled around the tree to give it a bumpy effect. (Please note, this is my first time hand quilting, so my stitches aren’t even at all.) Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I downloaded the tree pattern from. It was $10, but worth every penny.

Also, because I could only embroider something so big, I also decided to pull in the wedges as much as possible to make the center smaller. This means that my quilt is 60″ square total, while normally the labryinth itself (without the borders) would be 60″.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes! I plan on making another one for my house sometime. I do recommend it to others, but not as a first quilt. If you’re fine using a rotary cutter, piecing strips and piecing triangles, you should be fine.

Conclusion: Friends have seen the quilt at the love it. I’m glad to be able to give this to them, and to have finished it before the baby is due!

Note: this pattern is definitely “homegrown.” It is printed in black and white with homemaade drawings/pictures. It works great, though. Shipping is prompt and in a tyvek envelope to protect the pattern.

We all have teachers in our lives; whether we can recognize them for what they are or are thankful for them, they are there. Some teach us about life and love, some teach us about math and science and some teach us about ourselves, and our spirits. Season’s of Magic is the story of a young girl’s journey, with a much loved teacher, through the seasons of a year and a crash course in the seasons of life.

Erin is curious about her family’s practice of celebrating the changing of the seasons. In class she listens with interest as her friend Rachel explains why Christmas is so important to her family, and Erin discovers that she isn’t sure why her family celebrates the Winter Solstice. Her mother suggests that she ask Evangeline, an elderly neighbor, to teach her about the seasonal changes and the magic within them.

Through her studies in the natural world of Mother Nature Erin discovers that with each celebration and changing season, she is changing in her relationships with others and with herself. She is learning about the world and people, and her family’s religious beliefs. A particularly hard lesson is one which we could all use some help in dealing with, the death of a dear friend.

This book is a wonderful guide to the seasonal holidays, for children and adults alike. It is written in a gentle tone that makes it seem as if Evangeline is there for us all, and in a way, she is. It does not put down other religious beliefs but rather encourages an exploration of the similarities and differences between religions, all in a child’s point of view.

At the end of the book is a specific guide to the Wheel of the Year and all of the holidays therein. It is a workbook to help guide the reader through an exploration of the seasons and includes a glossary of terms just to make things perfectly clear. Finally, Season’s of Magic is the guide book you may have been looking for to help children embrace and celebrate the magic of the seasons in a heart touching and loving tale they can relate to.

The labyrinth—it’s not a maze

When I suggest entering the labyrinth, I’m not talking about the maze of Western health care. The term labyrinth refers to any spiral-like pattern (there are many, both ancient and modern) which can serve as a metaphor for a journey—such as a healing journey. Like a maze, the path of a labyrinth begins at the outer edge and takes you through many twists and turns on your way to its center; unlike a maze, there are no blind alleys, no false paths, just one leading you inexorably inward to the center.

At the center of the labyrinth

Any number of things may be found at the center of a labyrinth:
• an experience of your own center
• an appreciation of your power, strength, wisdom
• an abiding peace and calm
• joy and delight
• a sense of wholeness (which is the root meaning of the word health)

The outmoded paradigm of health care

Most older adults in the United States grew up with the assumption that if, God forbid, we ever got sick, our doctors, employers, health insurance plans, and government would work together to make sure we became healthy again. The recent movie “Sicko” brings into stark relief the fact that this assumption, whether or not it was once valid, is no longer so.

Many doctors unwittingly opted into a system which largely takes the choice of how to practice medicine out of their hands, let alone those of their patients. Insurance companies spend enormous amounts of time and subscribers’ dollars trying to limit the coverage they provide, no matter what your policy says. The result is a system which is so expensive that many employers can no longer afford to provide any health care insurance at all. And the government seems unable or unwilling to effect useful change.

A new paradigm for health and wellness

Many people are choosing to take matters into their own hands. Some do this by availing themselves of as much information as possible about their own perceived or diagnosed ills before visiting an M.D. Some people go to alternative health care providers, and some take mountains of supplements every day. While these methods work extremely well for some, for many it may simply be a change in the geography of what remains a largely paternalistic attitude—that the source of healing/health/wholeness resides outside of the individual and in the hands of some presumably benevolent caretaker or the pills which they recommend.

I propose an even more radical paradigm in which each of us takes 100% responsibility for our own well-being. Even though there are times when I lose my enthusiasm for practicing the healthy life-style I prefer—the good food I enjoy preparing, the forms of exercise to which my body responds well, the spiritual practices which give my life meaning and value—I still take full responsibility for this. I know that if something goes awry, it is very likely due to my own inattention and is my body/mind/spirit’s attempt to help me notice this fact. So I begin listening again to see if I can discern what wants to happen. This may include a change in diet (e.g., giving up cold foods for the winter) or exercise (e.g., giving up swimming in a pool because my body didn’t like the chlorine), a renewed spiritual practice, or even a trip to just the right health care practitioner, which I can judge by my response to the treatment or support which is offered.

Using the labyrinth as a wellness coach

The labyrinth helps me with this. Sometimes I walk or trace it for peace and relaxation, sometimes for the joy it brings, sometimes for focus, sometimes for answers: I enter with a specific question, and wait in the center for the answer, which is not always immediately forthcoming. Ssometimes I walk the labyrinth as a prayer, with a mantra connected to my breath. Each day that goes by without accessing my own inner landscape in this, or some other, fashion, I am left feeling less centered, less whole, less balanced. And each day that I do go within, I feel healthier, happier, more alive.
Would you use a labyrinth or some other wellness coach if. . .
• it allowed you to feel more in charge of your own health and well-being?
• it reduced your reliance on health care practitioners?
• it reduced your consumption of pills?
• it left you with more time and money for things which are fun and nourishing?
• it allowed you to listen more effectively to your own inner wisdom?

Your next step to wellness

I encourage you to find out what your wellness labyrinth/coach is and use it regularly. For a walkable labyrinth near you, check out the world-wide labyrinth locator at: www.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org. For finger labyrinths which go where you go, see my quilted lap labyrinths. I also provide wellness coaching.