Following the Path!

This trip to "Ketelsen East" is winding down. Last night Melinda's niece and her boyfriend stopped by for a barbeque dinner. They evidently "collect" labyrinths, which I did not know was a thing! They search out, visit and walk these patterned paths. They had found one near me in St Charles, so went there to visit before our dinner.

They labyrinth at the St Charles Episcopal Church is of the Chartres Cathedral design, shown at right. It has a single path that meanders to the center and the same path is followed to exit. Those who walk it use it for spiritual centering, meditation or prayer. It is in a nice quiet location adjacent to the parking lot of the church, surrounded on 3 sides by nature. The 22-year old labyrinth has a nice dedication stone as shown at left.



Given the complexity of the design, the paths are narrow and don't allow side-by-side walking or even passing each other without stepping off the path, but it was an interesting amble around the path. I've never meditated, nor am particularly spiritual, but can see the parallel to life as a spiritual journey, and also the parallels to the Tohono O'odham "Man in the Maze" journey through life (shown at left) in the American Southwest.



It was a pleasant enough excursion - nice temps in an early-evening outing, investigating something new. The entire labyrinth is shown in the panorama at left, with Kathy and Jonathan at far right.  In the right hand image, you can see the brickwork in its construction as well as the near exact copy of the Chartres Labyrinth above.





On our way out, we noticed the pine tree adjacent to the labyrinth - I've never seen pine cones oozing sap as prolifically as this one was. Seemed each cone had "icicles" of sap oozing out of it! Interesting...

We returned to the country estate of "Ketelsen East" and finished prepping for dinner and started the grill and cooking. The menu has become a staple of mine - a protein of choice, more and more pork chops, or more likely, pork loin on the grill. Accompanying that dish, are bacon-wrapped, cream-cheese filled jalapenos, and a mix of assorted vegetables, here green beans, finger potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, with shredded cheese atop.  And to wrap it up, while not really lo-carb, are barbequed beans... My guests enjoyed BBQ sauce and a beer, though wasn't on my allowed list!

We finished late into the sunset and decided to risk biting insects in going out to the Fox River to enjoy the "big picture"! From the nearby boat dock (about 100 yards from my door) we took in the late sunset colors and a nice panorama of the water, last light of the day and the far shore.

Always nice to enjoy the evening with family, cooking outdoors and taking in an exploration of some sort while the weather is nice. I'm glad we could all get together in this little part of our lifetime journey...