02.21.12
The End of the Maze and Other Lies God Tells Us
The labyrinth stood by itself on the other side of the road. To get to it, I had to cross the soft mushy ground and mounds of mud. Once there, I started into the maze. It looked like a condensed running track from high school. But the more I walked, the more I started to panic.
My eyes raced to trace the path direction further ahead of where I was: WAS there an end to this? Or was it a trick? Were people looking from the windows, was there a hidden camera?
I thought about cheating—maybe I should step over the brick lining that traced the shape of the maze. But: maybe that was bad luck? I was even thinking about going back to the beginning to check the map on the plaque there. But that would also mean stepping over the brick lining.
As I kept walking the path, my mind went back to grade school. Those maze puzzles—I used to cheat and start at the END of the puzzle. That way I KNEW I would find the solution! Then I could start form the beginning and just re-trace my steps.
I had also cheated on the vocabulary games. I would go to that letter in the dictionary to get ready for the word we had to speed-find. I would go there while the other kids were just taking out their dictionaries. “Trina wait for everyone before we start,” the teacher would always catch me. But I would still always keep doing it, keep working ahead.
Maybe the circular nature of the maze made me circle back in time. And maybe it unraveled past guilts, brought out to be unraveled by the maze? But my pattern of crimes isn’t too unlike what we all do when confronted with a dilemma. Work ahead, make sure we’re out in front of the other people, make ourselves look good.
This maze, that game, all of life is no different. We have a labyrinth and we have panic.
I laughed at myself as I rounded the next turn in the path. I saw that I only ever had to be concerned about the next turn. Not the next 22 turns up ahead. Once I realized that there was a legitimate end to the labyrinth, I relaxed.
All we have to do is keep moving, and watch where we are going. Putting one foot after the other, right in front of you. As long as we don’t stop walking, we will get out of the maze.
But unfortunately, change stops us in our tracks. The rug has been pulled, the jig is up. Moving is exactly what we can’t do because sometimes we forget how.
There IS a solution out there. You can say it’s God or a higher source, or simply the end of the ego. Got has his pencil at the end of the maze. And God is allowed to “cheat” like this because, after all, he created the game.
The only time we need to panic, rush, and come up with a quick answer that’s correct is when we’re doing our taxes. Otherwise, we can afford to rest in the comfort of the chaos, trusting that there IS a way out. If we only relax.
How will YOU get out of your labyrinth? How funny is THAT?
