Walking with Womenfolk
December 2020
The leap in our sense of being part of the valley community comes from our kids joining the Gold Bridge Community School. Of course we will always be city interlopers to a degree and will return to our part-time recreational cabin usage soon enough, but for now our visibility as a new school family makes a difference to feeling we are more than ‘playing’ at living here.
Sometimes through the librarian who likes to connect people and sometimes through my own social impulses, I have had the pleasure of getting to know several very interesting women who know this place and its history well. And coming to know peoples’ stories has mostly begun from that simple invitation: Would you like to go for a walk sometime?
Well, I had a walking idea, a Big Walking Idea ….while out walking.
The Bralorne Labyrinth is a place I am drawn to. I always feel a little more settled after walking that walk, slowly, intentionally, internally. Walking it in the snow recently moved me to ask a few of these women if anyone ever walks the Labyrinth candle-lit for solstice or Christmas or some such winter event? The resounding answer: “No we’ve never….And, Yes we must!”
There is a strong feeling among us that any community offering of ritual and togetherness would be a conspicuous and supportive act needed around these parts and very much during these discombobulating pandemic times.
So the women have spoken. And I decide to venture forth and get organized. On the days leading up to Solstice, I busily prepped candles and made ice lanterns. I drove the 30 minute drive to walk it and stomp on the snow to make the path more well-tread. Morgan created a fire pot set up so we could have a big light at its centre. It seemed the right thing to do.
The uplifting day came and, at dusk, a small and merry band of mostly kids and supportive adults made the labyrinth breathtakingly beautiful with candles and greenery. Then when the darkness arrived, one by one, we travelled its length to the brightly lit centre, lit our candle from that big light and walked back out the path.
Within our darkest night, kindle a fire.
(Taize)