The Calm in the Center

In the last few days, I've been making great progress. I'm getting my work done with great clarity. I'm bringing order back to my house. I'm taking the time to do the things for myself that I've neglected. It feels good.

Last night, I spent some time working on projects for my house. I live in the desert, in a place where grass lawns are infrequent and seem to me as an overly indulgent use of water. My home is surrounded by two types of crushed stone, a golden toned smaller size in the front, and a larger size in the back. There are five trees and three shrubs on the property. In the front is a Chinese elm, and a queen palm. In the back, I'm blessed with a lemon, orange, and palmelo (grapefruit). The shrubs are a Texas sage, an unknown tall grass, and papyrus. But mostly the yard is crushed stone.

The first project I worked on was really fun. I've got an idea to post some road signs in the yard, the kinds of signs that point in the direction of the destination and give the mileage. I spent some time thinking of my favorite places on Earth and some new places I want to see. I found a great site that gives the distance from one location to another, but found that it couldn't find some of the international locations I was giving it. When I realized that I could put in longitude and latitude instead of the place name, I spent about an hour looking up the remaining places. I now have a list of places to post on my road signs. I think I will put up several of them, each with a theme.

The first would be sacred places on Earth, and would include the following (all distances given from my home in the Phoenix metro area):

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA - 369 miles (E-NE)
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - 4162 miles (S)
Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee, USA - 1616 miles (E-NE)
Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA - 1606 miles (E-NE)
Port Orford, Oregon, USA - 949 miles (NW)
Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, France - 5348 miles (NE)
Galapagos, Equador - 2388 miles (S)
Hari Mandir, Amritsar, Punjab, India - 7941 miles (N)
Lhasa, Tibet - 7845 miles (N-NW)
Machu Picchu, Peru - 4112 miles (SE)
Babylon, Iraq - 7647 miles (N-NE)
Mt Shasta, California, USA - 773 miles (NW)
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia - 8997 miles (W-NW)
Taktsang, Bhutan - 9343 miles (N-NW)
Sedona, Arizona, USA - 64 miles (NW)

I believe that by placing a road sign for these places in my yard, it connects me to those places. Some of the names you may recognize, but others are sacred places that I've discovered in my own journeys.

The second road sign would contain these places that I've wanted to visit for some time, or places that I want to make a return visit.
Casablanca, Morocco - 5698 miles (NE)
Kathmandu, Nepal - 8078 miles (N-NW)
London, England - 5279 miles (NE)
Gibraltar - 5701 miles (NE)
Red Square, Moscow, Russia - 6037 miles (N-NW)
Sydney, Australia - 7802 miles (W-SW)
Venice, Italy - 5983 miles (NE)
Baltimore, Maryland, USA - 1991 miles (E-NE)
San Clemente, California, USA - 338 miles (W)
Pismo Beach, California, USA - 525 miles (W-NW)
Kingston, Tasmania, Australia - 8480 miles (W-SW)
Kingston, Norfolk Island, Australia - 6781 miles (W-SW)
Kingston-on-Thames, England - 5277 miles (NE)
Kingston, Ohio, USA - 1655 miles (E-NE)
Cape Town, South Africa - 9602 miles (E-SE)

But the second project was even more fun. Except for the three citrus trees, my back yard is a bare canvas, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do back there. When I'm done, it will be lush using xeriscape plants, a bit tropical, and with lots of places I can walk with bare feet. In the center, I'm going to install a labyrinth. I spent time revisiting some of the labyrinth sites, including the Labyrinth Society, reviewing tips for building them, and lists of labyrinths in famous sites. Then, I discovered a labyrinth locator and discovered some close to home that I can explore! I'm so excited about this idea, it has really invigorated my back yard planning. Most of the people I know won't get it, but I'm excited to discover which of my family and friends will get it and enjoy walking it as much as I will.

There is a theme in both of these projects. Walking a labyrinth is a physical expression of walking a spiritual path, and the intention for walking it is to reach your center where you can clearly hear the wisdom from your own heart. The road sign project also puts me into the center, like the hub of a wheel with spokes reaching outward to the energies of places I love or want to visit, some of them sacred sites, others just beautiful places, but all with a genus loci that I want to pull towards me.