November Labyrinth
Thanks to D. Rainbow for these photos taken on the Garden Path labyrinth in mid-November. And thanks to John Voth for the new markers. Carex ice dance is a perennial grass which stays green all year and is very hardy.
Category: Labyrinth
News about the two labyrinths on the church grounds. We do a 3x/year e-newsletter to labyrinth enthusiasts beyond UCV which draws on these articles. (subset of Earth Spirit)
Please pick the flowers and herbs in the labyrinth
Yes, that’s an unusual invitation, I know, but… I’d love people to take a bit of UCV abundance home with them. The rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan) makes a lovely bouquet to bring some sunshine indoors.
Here are some that I would really like to have picked. It saves me pruning and dead-heading:
Lavender (still quite nice but fading fast). It’s mainly on the outer ring on the east side.
Dandelions- of course – any time!
Mint – There are several kinds of mint – chocolate mint, pineapple mint, etc. Please do cut 6″ pieces or so to make tea or enjoy in salads etc.
Fennel – Nice for a bouquet and also nice with mint for tea, or infused water.
Any time —
Lambs ears – those lovely fuzzy leaves can be picked any time. Not edible (but not poisonous). Kids love to touch them.
Sage – on west side near a tree – pick a bit to take home – I love sage tea, or to flavour other foods.
Take up to 1/3 of…
The glorious rudbeckia/black-eyed Susan – Take the flowers that are in full bloom. I call this pre-emptive dead-heading. Cut the step right to the place where it connects with another stem, so it looks nice.
Please don’t pick without checking with me:
The echinacea was moved last year and just getting established, so I’d prefer it wasn’t picked yet. Leave it for the bees!!
Here are some excerpts and links about kids and flowers:
Some flowers, like the bright yellow dandelion, are very common and children should be encouraged to collect them by armfuls. Other flowers, like the yellow golden paintbrush, are endangered and should be left alone. Not all flowers are created equal but everyone (even kids!) can learn which flowers are good to pick, where to pick them and when to pick them. Learning about flowers and picking them is a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to connect with nature together.
Encourage your child to play with flowers by making:
Walk a sand labyrinth at Spanish Banks East and a picnic
If you’ve never walked a labyrinth in the sand, here’s your chance.
Weather permitting, I will be drawing a labyrinth August 31, 2019 and hosting a ‘walk’ from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Spanish Banks in Vancouver, British Columbia. from Les.
Please come if you can:
Cost: donation
For directions to the labyrinth, cut and paste the following link into your browser:
In the spirit of reciprocity and gratitude, please bring a gift to offer to the Sacred in Nature such as flowers, coffee beans, etc. These will be used to create a mandala in the centre of the labyrinth.
If you have any questions, please email Les at: walkingalabyrinth@gmail.com
Check his website any time for updates: http://walkingalabyrinth.blogspot.com/
I plan to be there and several of us are planning a picnic
Send me a note if you’re interested: earthspiritucv@gmail.com
Laurie, Mary are confirmed. We expect about 6-8 or so.(Best guess!)
A wish list for our labyrinths for 2039 or earlier
Here is Mary’s wish list for our labyrinths for 2039 (or sooner) from her homily presented July 7th.
I have a wish list for the future of our labyrinths.
I wish there was a big welcoming sign giving the basics of how and why to walk a labyrinth.
I wish more neighbours would regularly stop by to walk the labyrinth and that some of them would decide to check out what else happens here.
I wish there were benches for resting. And maybe a yellow Friendship bench indicating that someone sitting there would appreciate a conversation.
I wish that when you reach the centre of the courtyard labyrinth, you could actually able to walk into the centre area, not have your way blocked by a big tree root.
Some other wishes
- a late-night lantern walk on the labyrinth–perhaps for Hallowe’en/Samhain
- until or unless we can move the shrubs around, a bird bath at the end of the courtyard labyrinth walk would be lovely
- a labyrinth group who meet regularly for labyrinth walks, planning labyrinth walks and tending the labyrinth.
- more music on the labyrinth. Thank you to Tara for playing her harp on the labyrinth on May 4th – could we have more music? and poetry readings? or?
- picnics on the labyrinth
- a little free library – that includes books or handouts about the labyrinth.
- wooden markers for the plants
Maybe you have wishes? Let us know your ideas!
Labyrinth Rabbit Hole
Curious about labyrinths?
Here are some of the links that Mary Bennett referred to at the service on July 9th about labyrinths and related ideas like eco-philosophy (or ecosophy) and gardening to live to be 100. Come down the rabbit hole (Maze?) to learn more about labyrinths!
Some references
UCV labyrinth web page vancouverunitarians.ca/labyrinth
Lauren Artress https://www.laurenartress.com/
St. Paul’s Labyrinth https://stpaulsanglican.bc.ca/site1/outreach-2/labyrinth/
Matthew Fox http://www.matthewfox.org/
Stephan Harding on Becoming Indigenous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwG746L3dDg
Schumacher College https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/
James Lovelock http://www.jameslovelock.org/
350.org https://350.org/
Dan Buettner: TED talk on How to Live to be 100
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100?language=en
Small is Beautiful https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful
World wide labyrinth locator https://labyrinthlocator.com/
World Labyrinth Day (First Saturday in May) https://labyrinthsociety.org/world-labyrinth-day
Veriditas https://www.veriditas.org/
How to draw a labyrinth youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyEwgGuWzCI
Here are some links to other Canadian Unitarian congregations with labyrinths.
Ottawa First also have a labyrinth but no web page as yet.
If you know of others, please send an email to unitarianlabyrinth@gmail.com and we’ll update this page.
Walking a sand labyrinth at Spanish Banks East
If you’ve never walked a labyrinth in the sand, here’s your chance. For summer solstice, Les will draw a Chartres-style labyrinth in the sand at Spanish Banks East on June 22. Come and walk any time between 3:30-5:30 pm.
Click here for the meetup event.
If you have any questions, please email Les at: walkingalabyrinth@gmail.com
Check his website any time for updates: http://walkingalabyrinth.blogspot.com/
I plan to be there and several of us are planning a picnic dinner at 5:30pm.
Send me a note if you’re interested: earthspiritucv@gmail.com
Come and enjoy a picnic with some of us who are going to walk the solstice labyrinth at Spanish Banks.
Eva, Mary and Angela are confirmed. We expect about a dozen or so.(Best guess!)
RSVP here very helpful:
https://spanish-banks-picnic.eventbrite.ca
May Days – Take a staycation this weekend at UCV
Celebrate May Days – Keep this list!
UCV has many celebrations lined up to celebrate the coming of the May! You can plan a staycation and hang out at our campus for most of the weekend! And the weather report has changed from 60% chance of rain to “sunny”. (May the 4th be with us indeed!)
- Fri. May 3 – 6:30 pm – Potluck and Film Screening “She’s a Boy I Knew” – all welcome. (sponsor: UCV Genders & Sexualities Alliance)
- Sat. May 4 – 1-5 pm World Labyrinth Day & Jane’s Walk Vancouver – Walk as One at One – painting/colouring the plants on the labyrinth (pastels, crayons and paper provided).
- Tara Bonham plays her harp on the labyrinth at 2:30 pm
- Wish Tree and Flower Crowns 4 – 5:30 pm
- Sat. May 4 – 5 – 8 pm Messy Church potluck dinner
- Sun. May 5 – 10:30-11 and 12-12:30 pm Maypole dancing before and after the service in the courtyard
- Sun. May 5 – 12 – 1:30 pm Mexican Taco lunch by Environment and Refugee committees
- Sun. May 5 – 2 – 3:30 pm Maypole dancing with instruction
- Sun. May 5 7:30 pm – Donna’s Favorites Choir Concert $20 or pwyc
- Tues. May 7 – 6 pm Beltane/May Day Earth Spirit Circle – Make flower garlands with Mairy Beam
- Tues. May 7 – 7-9 pm Maypole Dancing with the Circle Dance group, coordinated by Mary Bennett
All events are on the web with additional details. http://vancouverunitarians.ca/eventlist
Painting with Pat on the Labyrinth
Pat MacBain will be painting on the labyrinth again this year. And available to coach kids at 3pm.
We’ll have crayons and pastels for kids and others to use to create labyrinth art. You can create an art piece of the scene, a flower or learn to draw the labyrinth pattern.
Here are some photos from 2018 World Labyrinth Day.
A painting begins. And then the light shifted….
Make a Flower Crown for May Day/Beltane
Flower Crowns
Our plans for the flower crown activity on Sat. May 4 (4-5:30pm) and then at the Earth Spirit circle on Tuesday, May 7th are evolving.
Sandy brought in some ivy that had been twisted to form a base.
Mary was given some white wool. We did a walk around the gardens to see which flowering shrubs could benefit from a bit of judicious pruning and which flowers will be so plentiful they could be given over to this project. The cranesbill geraniums are just coming into bloom and will be plentiful.Here’s a good link if you want to make these at home.
We’ll have (but you could also bring) ivy, laurel, rosemary and lavender for a good base.We’ll also bring wire, twist ties, ribbon and yarn for fastening things on.
And here’s a very easy approach to do with kids. Paper bags and duct tape are involved.
Wish Tree for July 10 2022
The Wish Tree is back. After the service by Karl Perrin and Cynthia Lam on July 10, come to the East/Fremlin side and write a wish to tie on one of the hawthorn trees on the labyrinth. There will be a basket at each entrance to provide materials for you.
A display table will be there as well.
Coordinated by Mary Bennett.
More about our labyrinths here.
http://vancouverunitarians.ca/labyrinth
From May 2019
Jodie Miller will be on site for World Labyrinth Day and encouraging you to write a wish and hang from our trees.
We’ve decided on the vine maples in the courtyard. We considered the tree/s in the centre of the garden path labyrinth, or the two at either entrance, the cherry blossom at south entrance or the vine maples in the courtyard or our orchard of 14 apple trees. We especially liked that it’s easy to get to and visible to all.We will let the wishes fly for a while and then collect and bury them (as Yoko Ono does). (This is our first year doing this, but we already expect it will be the first annual).
Suggested colours are:
- gold to symbolize prosperity
- blue for courage
- white for fidelity
- pink for tenderness
- green for good health.
Here’s a description of Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree Ongoing Installation.
And the instructions:
Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper. Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree. Ask your friends to do the same. Keep wishing. Until the branches are covered with wishes.[2]
Yoko Ono’s comment:
- As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people’s wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar.[1]
Here’s a good news story about making a public wishing tree. Traci Bunkers is the artist involved with a kids art camp and guerrilla art group.
Herbal teas
If you’re not into decorating a tree at all, don’t worry. Just add some herbs to your tea. They say all herbs are healing on Beltane and will surely fix you up.
The point is, Beltane is a holiday for our renewal, time for new hopes and beginnings. Anything you decide or wish or manifest over a cup of tea on Beltane could actually work this time. There’s lavender, rosemary, thyme and sage around the grounds. Please pick a sacred bundle for using fresh or dried. Just add hot water.
Flower Crowns
We’ll have (but you could also bring) ivy, rosemary and lavender for a good base.
We’ll also bring wire, twist ties, ribbon and yarn for fastening things on. If you have “floral tape” or “floral wire” and can bring along, please do.
And here’s a very easy approach to do with kids. Paper bags and duct tape are involved.
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