Marking the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Murray Creek Labyrinth

Entry for 4 November 2018:

 

On this day in 1988, the Murray Creek Labyrinth was constructed by Bob & Ann Elliott and their friends.  Inspired by a visit to Glastonbury Tor, my parents and their friends built a seven-circuit Cretan labyrinth on their property in the Murray Creek Valley in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside San Andreas, California.

In 2002, Ann constructed a website about this labyrinth, which is still online (thanks to my sister anna), the home page for which can be accessed at:  

http://www.murraycreek.net/labyrinth/index.html

A pictorial account for the building of the labyrinth can be found on this website, at: http://www.murraycreek.net/labyrinth/labythree.htm

Our family has long been fascinated by labyrinths, and to this day, Diane and I regularly stop for any labyrinths we happen to encounter. Last April, walked a Chartres-design labyrinth in the pouring rain when I came upon it in a courtyard in a courtyard in the Munich Ratskeller or Town-Hall.  On another occasion, we found one near Dunure castle on the Scottish coast between Ayr and Culzean Castle; I wrote about this in an earlier entry on this blog: https://pe-eft.blogspot.com/2013/02/dunure-castle-labyrinth.html

Over the years, labyrinths have been a powerful personal symbol for me, and I’ve written a number of poems about them.  The most developed of these is “Labyrinth Poem”, written when I was 19; I’ve included it in an accompanying blog entry:  

https://pe-eft.blogspot.com/2018/11/labyrinth-poem.html

Returning to the Murray Creek Labyrinth, probably the most detailed account of the Murray Creek Labyrinth that I’ve written can be found in this blog in an entry I wrote in 2006, the year we moved to Scotland: https://pe-eft.blogspot.com/2006/12/winter-labyrinth.html

Over the years, the labyrinth has been a focus for and a symbol for the creative energy my parents gathered with the community of like-minded folks in the Murray Creek Valley.  Naturally, this energy has resonated deeply with me in ways that then emerged in poetry. Here is a link to the poem I wrote for my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary in 1997:  

http://www.murraycreek.net/par50poe.htm

Along the same line, here is a link to the poem I wrote in 2009 for Ann’s 80^th birthday.  It references the Murray Creek Labyrinth and has a couple of photos, including one of her walking it with the help of her hiking poles: https://pe-eft.blogspot.com/2009/04/science-indistinguishable-from-magic.html

And here’s a series of haiku and little poems I wrote to commemorate visits to the Murray Creek Labyrinth at different times of year:

December 2008:

Labyrinth waits, silent

Wet stones settling into earth,

Path littered with oak leaves.

August 2009: The one, from https://pe-eft.blogspot.com/2008/08/poem-picking-blackberries-in-murray.html, begins with a visit to the labyrinth:

Cool morning to a late summer day;

we put our pails down,

walk the labyrinth first.

This labyrinth has a bridge:

we return there, descending

from the rough planks to the dry creek bed.

 

August 2010:

Leave all that behind

Labyrinth knows what matters

Arrive at center.

July 2011, after the stones were re-set:

Labyrinth renewed:

buried stones dug up, re-placed,

gleaming in the sun.

2012, at the end of the year Ann died:

December labyrinth:

Winding path sprinkled

    with oak leaves;

We walk the circle again.

December 2013:

We light the fires, check the wireless network,

Walk your labyrinth in the fading light,

Raise and right the creek-misplaced bridge.

Although my parents have both now passed and the Murray Creek Valley seems empty without them, I try to visit as often as I can and to walk the labyrinth there.  Severe flooding two winters ago wiped out the main access to it across the Murray Creek, so we now need to walk down to the neighbors and cross there (with their permission).  Sadly, the stones are badly in need of re-setting, which needs to be done every 10 or so years. However, it’s still easy to make out and to walk, and doing so re-connects me to my parents, to the earth, and to the overall path of my life.

I the end, I think that the spirit of the Murray Creek Labyrinth is best captured by the words of the famous Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts,” written by Joseph Brackett:

Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free

'Tis a gift to come down where I ought to be

And when I am in the place just right

I will be in the valley of love and delight

When true simplicity is gained

To bow and to bend I will not be ashamed

To turn, to turn will be my delight

'Til by turning, turning, I come 'round right.