If you’ve ever walked a labyrinth,  you know the experience of meandering around the center, back and forth, in and out.  You think you’re almost there! …then the path takes you away again.

When I left teaching in 1993, I thought I was launched towards my new career in the therapy field. But it didn’t work out. I entered a graduate program, but program was not a fit for me.  I knew I was not in the right place, that this was not my path. So many things about that year did not work out, as if the Universe were hitting me with a 2 x 4! The next year, deeply disappointed, I went back to teaching. It felt like my dream had crashed.

When I look back, I realize how much I had looked outside myself for guidance, taking the advice of others about which degree would be most practical, give me the best career options, etc. I did not choose that program by following my heart.

Within the next year, amazing things happened. I met all the right people and so many opportunities came my way. I began to see that it was the alternative healing arts, not conventional therapy, that really fit for me.  I started to follow my heart into trainings and workshops and experiences that spoke to me and made me happy, such as past life regression, psychosynthesis, hypnotherapy and (as soon as it was created!) EFT. It was a meandering path, but it took me into a career that is my own eclectic blend and unique contribution.

But it did take about four years to get there! You don’t go through a labyrinth quickly, and you don’t follow a straight line. But if you stay on the path, you will not get lost. A labyrinth is not like a maze — there are no forks on the path or dead ends. So I love the image of the labyrinth. It tells me that if you stay true to yourself, you will eventually get to the center, to the heart of the matter, to the place you need to be.

Community Labyrinth at All Saints Episcopal, South Burlington, Vermont