Articles | Book Reviews | Education
Labyrinth at jail offers another path
by Chris Stesky
Staff Writer
(Editorial Note: The following article is reprinted by permission from the Recorder and Times in Brockville, Ontario, Friday November 14, 2003 and represents an interview with Chaplain Crystal Butt regarding the installation of a labyrinth at her facility)
People can get lost in a maze but may find themselves, spiritually, in a labyrinth even if it's inside a jail.
Labyrinths are ancient patterns used all over the world, featuring a circular path leading to a centre. To leave it, one retraces the path. A maze, on the other hand, has false paths that lead to dead ends.
In the belief that walking a labyrinth can have a healing effect, a blue labyrinth with the image of a leafy tree at its centre has been painted on the concrete floor of the Brockville Jail's outdoor exercise yard.
"It is the only labyrinth in a correctional facility in Canada", says Crystal Butt, chaplain at the jail. It was created this summer to give inmates another path to self-discovery.
Butt had heard a presentation in September 2002 about labyrinths, given by Ruth Richardson, who uses the labyrinth in nurses' training at Algonquin College.
"The idea caught my attention", Butt says. Last spring, she approached Richardson about creating a labyrinth at the jail, and Richardson said, "No problem."
The two worked out a date for the project and got security clearance for those involved. On June 26, volunteers from Bells Corners United Church showed up at Wall Street United Church, across from the jail, to design the jail's labyrinth, based on the Santa Rosa labyrinth. Then they were let into the yard, where they taped down the pattern. Using a long-handled paint roller they filled in the wide pathway with blue paint, then removed the tape.
Unlike traditional labyrinth designs, the jail labyrinth has people walking on a defined path, rather than between defined walls. This gives a sense of freedom rather than confinement in a sterile high-walled setting that is all about confinement.
"They are not walking between walls laid out by someone else but walking a positive path,"Butt says.
It seemed a good idea to have something alive pictured in the centre, Butt says. A week later, a talented inmate who needed an outlet for his creativity, something hard to come by in a jail, offered to paint a tree in the large blue centre of the labyrinth. While those with a spiritual bent might see it as the tree of life, the inmates like to call it "the big shade tree".
Adult inmates and young offenders are all given the opportunity to walk the labyrinth during their 20-minute daily exercise period. When Butt introduces it to young offenders, she tells them the path can be the path of their life or the path of their inner being. She says that whatever happens is supposed to happen. There is no predictable reaction, because it depends on what the person brings to the experience.
She tells them the centre of the labyrinth is "the place to soak up whatever is there for you." They can stay as long as they want and then walk out again, on the path.
The journey begins on the threshold, as the person waits and gathers himself, focusing for the walk. Then the walk begins. For many inmates, it is a quick walk, even a dance, along the path to the centre, and a quick walk out again.
But others open their minds during the walk and their thoughts and emotions flow freely. Possibly, at the centre, they may have a new awareness about themselves or their lives. This discovery stays with them as they walk out of the labyrinth. If they wish, they are encouraged to talk over the experience with the chaplain, to put it into perspective.
Inmates often come to the labyrinth filled with frustration and stress. Butt believes they benefit from the labyrinth no matter how fast they take it.
One inmate told her he likes to do it because it's a form of self-discipline, something he hasn't had much of in his life. It's something he does for himself every day.
Another young man, feeling angry and frustrated, got only more so as he walked. When he reached the centre, he wanted to blow everything up. When he came out of the labyrinth, he told Butt he was glad it was only a vision and said that somehow it had helped him feel less stressed.
A third walked the labyrinth three times with no response but on the fourth day felt his burdens fall away, Butt says.
Labyrinths have been traced on rock, marked out on the ground with stones, carved into turf and used to decorate artifacts in civilizations all over the world, dating back thousands of years. Today, original designs are being restored and replicas made all over the globe, and modern, innovative designs are proving just as popular in churches, hospitals, retreats and more.
Not attached to any one faith or tradition, they offer a means of meditation. The walk to the labyrinth's centre echoes an inward movement to the deep centre inside each person.
Several ministers and others who give pastoral care in Brockville and area had the opportunity Wednesday to walk the jail labyrinth. For some it was the first time they had travelled a labyrinth. After all had completed the walk, Butt asked for their reactions.
Some, conscious of their own freedom to leave the jail yard, in contrast to the inmates, found their thoughts going to the men confined in the jail.
Debra Wade, pastoral care co-ordinator at the St. Vincent de Paul Site of Providence Continuing Care, expressed it well: "This labyrinth is a touch of heaven in a stark place. I was praying for them. I hope (the labyrinth) brings them comfort and peace."
Rev. Doug Warren said that Wall Street United Church plans to make a permanent labyrinth on the floor of its Serenity Hall. In future the church intends to construct a labyrinth on property outside the church in sight of the nearby hospital and funeral home where people may come to
find comfort and healing.
Posted by editor on January 12, 2004 12:53 PM