Athena's Labrinth

Our spiritual teachers come in all forms if were open to it--sometimes they are 3 year olds. This last Sunday I was out with a sub set of my children; My 8 year old son Alex and my 3 year old daughter Athena. We were walking a stone Labyrinth after church. Although the idea of the labyrinth traditionally comes from Greek mythology, this modern adaptation was meant to inspire thought or spiritual reflection. The idea was that you wanted to take a stone into the labyrinth (along with a personal intention) and place it on one of the stick drawn lines in the labyrinth thus adding to its creation. Anyone was free to walk the labyrinth anyway that appealed them. There was no wrong way just as there is no wrong way to go through life. Ultimately, the goal was to get to the center of the labyrinth and back and hopefully gain some sort of understanding along the way. I searched through the rock pile finding the perfect rock and picked up (holding it like a prized possession). Then I took off my shoes to signify holy ground and started to make the pilgrimage to the center of the labyrinth. I was so careful not to step on any of the lines and to follow the path previously created with stones. It was intense. Carefully and methodically I weaved through the labyrinth sometimes readjusting my course as I ran into a dead end. I was entrenched in thought and being very sacred about the whole practice when my daughter Athena (who has always been in touch with her spiritual side) came whizzing by me at a good clip. She was not walking the path but deliberately stepping over the stones to get to the center. Lines did not mean anything to her. She, after all, was three and children have no need of such restrictions. Children are so carefree! It occurred to me as I watched Athena reach the center of the circle (and exclaim that she did it) that the lines or restrictions that hold us back in life are often times self-created. In fact, there are no barriers in life at all other then the ones we create. Athena had taught me a wonderful lesson that all children know intuitively and adults have forgotten.