This is the 20th in a series of articles about labyrinths.
For more information, please see the other articles in the series, listed at the end.
Since 2009, enthusiasts around the globe have been invited to Walk as One at 1 by walking a labyrinth at 1:00 pm in local time zones on World Labyrinth Day, participating in an unbroken wave of wellbeing flowing around the globe. World Labyrinth Day is celebrated on the first Saturday in May.
Walking a labyrinth has been shown to reduce stress and enhance wellbeing.
Although the terms "labyrinth" and maze" are sometimes used interchangeably (and some languages only have one word that is used for both) the definitions have been evolving toward distinct and separate meanings.
While they have common characteristics: twists and turns and what looks like many paths, a closer look reveals that mazes have many paths to choose from, including some with dead ends. A labyrinth offers only one path, and requires no decision-making, allowing the walker to enter a state of meditation, relaxation or reverie as they make their journey to the center and back out again.
Making one's way through a maze is generally a competitive game of skill, engaging logic and analytical processes, and is focused on achieving a particular outcome. Therefore, it usually has walls designed to obscure the view of the correct path.
A maze is meant to make you lose your way and a labyrinth is meant to help you find your way.
--Kathryn McLean, the research chair of the nonprofit Labyrinth Society.
Jerry and Janett Etzkorn recreated this temporary heart labyrinth every summer on a beach just below the Carmanah Point Lightstation on Vancouver Island where the pair were lighthouse keepers for 36 years.
Janett and her sister built this 50-ft diameter Chartres labyrinth in 1997, it is cared for by the current lighthouse keeper, Jerry and Janett's daughter, Justine.
50-ft diameter Chartres style labyrinth at Carmanah Point Lightstation
(Image by Jerry Etzkorn) Details DMCA
You never know where you might unexpectedly find a labyrinth: on a Caribbean cruise last March, while other travelers were eager to snorkel or swim with the stingrays, I decided to check out the art at The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands on Grand Cayman.
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