I was in a foul mood today. I was feeling as if I’d been walking around in circles and not getting anywhere but just making my way deeper and deeper into the darkness.
I decided to visit High Park, here in Toronto, where I could really do my glumness justice. I figured, if I was going to walk around in circles and not get anywhere, I might as well do it in high style. High Park has this great labyrinth painted on an old concrete slab.
I enjoy this labyrinth often, even when I’m not feeling sad. I often walk the circle treating the experience like an oracle. Today’s question: How do I get unstuck from this bad mood?
As I walked around in the dusk, chin to chest watching my feet, I waited for a sign to inspire me. By the time I finished walking and looked up, I noticed that a dozen or so women had gathered on the outer edges of the old green picnic benches that surround the circle. One of the women passed flowers from a bouquet, another stones from her pocket. The darkness deepened. Bats circled overhead.
It occurred to me that the women may have been celebrating their community, or they might have been grieving the loss of a friend. Maybe they were doing both. In either case, I like think of their appearance as the magical sign I was looking for. Here was a gathering of women, joining me in my dusk with the bats, reminding me that community may be the best way–if not the only way–to find ourselves.