First, a word from Jerry about the latest technicalities:

Have covered about two/thirds of area with “gopher wire.”  There is still a bunch of trimming of the edges and landscape stapling of the wire together to be done.  But, the process seems to be working.  Most of each roll of hardware cloth unrolls to a flat geometry.  The wire is sort of spring loaded in the roll, so that once you get it unbound, you can lay it on the ground and give it a couple of kicks and it self unrolls for about 75 feet.  Rather fun and very fast.

Jesus helped by using the lawn roller on some dog tracks.  They do not use water filled lawn rollers on the farms in El Salvador, so he was amused by the thing for a half an hour, then he had to get back to his real job.  Spread another 4 sacks of sand into low areas and drug them flat.  Then rolled the area again, with Jesus joining in again.  I cut the first two gopher wire strips at the wrong places.  We found that we could use the second one by turning it over.  Jesus told me that I did not need to measure  for each piece.  I did not believe him until he left and I went to lunch and thought about his solution.  It worked like a charm. Especially since the wire unrolls itself. Did not mess up the smooth sand at all. More Munson cookies helped the time flow by.

The lawn roller does not help to smooth down the gopher wire.  It just made the wire “bubbles” grow bigger.  I will return that thing first thing in the morning.  It looks to me that the “bubbles” in the wire will flatten out as soon as some of the bricks are in place.  They are only about the same size as the lack of smoothness in the surface.  Really can not expect to do better than that.

Jerry & I worked for most of the day today rolling out gopher wire and landscape fabric.  The area now looks like an ice skating pond on a grey day.

Discussion ranged from opera (I’m in the middle of playing a run of Carmen with Berkeley West Edge Opera) to churning butter to whether the ancient Assyrians drew labyrinths on their tablets as a reference to Venus moving through the heavens.

Next week will be the thrilling day for painting the guidelines and starting to lay brick!  Stop by for a look or join us if you can.

Whenever I go to a movie in the theatre, I always watch the full credits at the end.  One reason is that the musical score is often played as a whole symphonic piece (with no pesky dialogue covering it up.)  But I also enjoy contemplating all of the people who brought some of their energy, artistry, knowledge or hard work together to create the film.  The stars are the stars but the project needs everyone.

Jerry sent me a list of workers he wants to acknowledge for keeping the labyrinth project going:

The cookie bringers and makers.  The warm cookies were rather phenomenal.

The donut man.

The water cooler filler upper.

The grandm’as, moms, and primary aged kids.

The first aid providers.

At least one college student and friend.

The picker uppers of tools at the end of each session.

The young girls who were able to see where we had spread the rocks too thick and shoveled and hauled the excess to where more was needed. Males did not seem to relate to this job.

Everyone who spilled a wheel barrow load before they got it to where they wanted it.

Ian playing the piano through the open doors.

Mae keeping her eye on me whenever I work alone and keeping me company out her window.

The neighbors who walk by and wonder what is going on.

All of the folks with good ideas, that maybe we didn’t use.  Who knows why? Too busy working to think?

People being friendly and enjoying the project.

Kay starting on that huge pile of crushed rock, with a shake of her head, all by her self,  Then help arrived.

Jerry also gave this update on Saturday’s work:

Sat evening,

It was a beautiful day to work outside (a little cool early on.)

The new double board drag worked as well as I could have imagined.

Pulled all of the grade stakes. This was easy from the wet ground.  Sand looking rather smooth.  Will have to decide Monday if more sand is needed.

Cindy stopped by to snap a couple of pictures.  She was not too concerned about things being level.  She just did not want a lake in the middle of the path.  I think we pass that test.

Shirley raked up redwood sticks and cones.  A big help in keeping the drags from leaving groves. Also brought cookies, most of which she will keep for later.

The hardware cloth is quarter inch grid which is rather stiff.  It will take 2 to 4 folks to move this onto the sand without scratching up the surface.  Is anyone available for wire unrolling, wire flattening, wire cutting (skin damage expected),  wire transporting, and wire laying on next Saturday?

Wonderful messages have abounded about materials and work plans for the next stage of our labyrinth.  There is a great call out for people who can transport loads of bricks, using calculations of how many bricks weigh as much as 4 people (before a Thanksgiving meal, not after).  The final algebra shows 11 trips carrying 120 bricks, liberally distributed around the car will get what we need without destroying anyone’s car.

Saturday will be another great day of leveling.  Our homespun project director has created yet another device using rake and wood.   Sand and decomposed granite (how can granite actually still be granite if it is decomposed?) will be spread.  I will be at a Waldorf teachers’ conference about Balance in Teaching so will have to come late… but I will make up for it by being extra balanced!

The little U turns are called “labrys”, just like the ancient double-headed ax.   There is this notation about the Greek use of this word on Wikipedia:

Herakles, having slain Hippolyte and taken her axe away from her with the rest of her arms, gave it to Omphale. The kings of Lydia who succeeded her carried this as one of their sacred insignia of office, and passed it down from father to son until Candaules. Candaules, however, disdained it and gave it to one of his companions to carry. When Gyges rebelled and was making war upon Candaules, Arselis came with a force from Mylasa to the assistance of Gyges, slew Candaules and his companion, and took the axe to Caria with the other spoils of war. And having set up a statue of Zeus, he put the axe in his hand and called the god, “Labrandeus“, labrys being the Lydian word for ‘axe.

How are they connected?  Maybe it just looks like the double-headed ax because it is two back to back U turns.

Work days on Feb. 26 and March 5.

While I was singing in a choir all weekend, our workers moved 2 piles of sand and something else into the labyrinth circle.  This morning, I walked around it in the mist and rain, especially enjoying the presence of the redwood tree within the circle.  With the sand layer in place, I can feel the form of the labyrinth strengthening.

This labyrinth is holding the work and vision of many.  It also holds the sadness and grief of our community as a young church member died at the end of January.  At his memorial friends and family spoke of his open ear and heart, his kindness and quirky humor.  When I am by the labyrinth and the redwood tree, I can feel these words and feelings working into the burls and earth.

It rained.  Puddles have formed in low spots. Not too many so it must be pretty level.

On the last work day, some of us were talking about CPC’s youth group and other local youth groups.  Do they need to talk?  Do service work? Go on trips?  Do physical labor?  It would be great to have some aspect of the labyrinth be created or put in by the middle and high school students.  Time to crawl into the labyrinth of their cranial curls and see what creativity lurks there.

Today’s work crew leveled.  A board device with a level on top had people on their knees shoving dirt back and forth while others hauled dirt from last week’s pile into the low spots. I kept thinking of the Ancient Egyptians trying to get the ground perfectly flat and level so that the top brick of the pyramid wouldn’t slide off.  This week in the 5th grade we have been singing “Homage to Thee O Ra” preparing for their class play about Isis and Osiris.  Bars of this song rang in my head as I gazed at all the kneeling levelers.

How do you tell if you have a high spot or a low spot?  Is it high because the area beside it is low or is the area beside low because high is next to it?  Don’t we go through this all the time?  Something great happens and we’re delighted, then something awful looms up and overshadows it.  Just when disappointment and despair are settled in like all-day winter fog, an inward movement of our thinking lets us just notice what is happening without forming opinions.    Is it a high or a low?  It doesn’t matter anymore

Our boy scout helpers were on a trip but we had the one boy-who-didn’t-go working with us.  He shoveled, he hauled, he talked about a school experience where the students tried to determine if words or images (in an advertisement) had a stronger effect on them.   He indicated that the experience was somewhat disconcerting.  It seemed the young teens in his class didn’t like the idea that advertising has research behind it and that they are targeted.

We are getting close to the next step, which probably involves gopher barrier wire.

NEXT WORK DAY:  SAT., FEB. 5 at 9:00.  There might be cookies (especially if you bring them!)

Some of the die-hard dirt moving labyrinthians couldn’t resist the call of the shovel this afternoon.  About 25 wheelbarrow loads moved from the high side to the low side.  We came in for the last 8 loads and enjoyed the satisfaction of shoveling.

Why is digging such a human urge?  At my school, not just the kindergarteners dig, but the 2nd and 3rd graders dig and shape and enjoy having their hands in dirt.

Work will continue next Saturday, Jan. 29 at 9am.  Anyone is welcome to join even if you can just bring water or a snack to the workers or only do 10-15 minutes.  It’s great to be together in dirtliness!

January 22, 2011  We’re building a labyrinth at Christ Presbyterian Church (620 Del Ganado Rd., San Rafael, CA)!

At 9am this morning, a small group gathered in the glittering sunshine in our muddy, weedy patch next to the redwood tree.  A masterful rototiller had churned the earth into a fluffy collage of green and brown.

Cindy (www.sacred-land-photography.com) and her blogging dog Merlin were there to welcome us, sound the singing bowl and offer blessings for the project: safety, joy and community with our neighbors and each other.

Our first task was to get all the grass and weeds out of the dirt and into a huge pile.  Most of us applied the shovel or rake to this task but the Boy Scouts (troup 76 Terra Linda) hefted pickaxes with the fervor of the uninitiated.  As the sweat dripped down my brow, I considered how much I love to work: to just dig and dredge and heft and haul.

The mound grew and the circle got less green and more brown.  More boy scouts arrived and found more pickaxes.  A few gave in to the shovel and rake approach.  Leveling stakes were brutalized by a motley collection of ancient wheelbarrows dragged by ever-willing scouts.

Scoutmaster arrived with donuts.  Devouring replaced pickaxes (temporarily!)

The master planners have worked out spacing and materials, gopher barriers and how to work in the redwood tree.

I have been singing Gregorian chant with my Waldorf students for the last few weeks.  Yesterday, they learned how to read the ancient notation called neumes and made an illuminated manuscript of the Ut Queant Laxis chant.  Last night, I went to see the film Vision: Hildegard von Bingen (about an 12th c. nun who was a composer, healer, mystic and inspiring leader.)  So I have been swirling in a medieval milieu leading up to today’s groundbreaking.

More boy scouts, more ax wielding.  I sidled a bit closer to listen in on their conversations.  One boy has created a very special anchor for his ship so that it can’t be sunk while he goes underwater to fight zombies.  Another built a castle in the clouds and hadn’t visited it for a year.  They debated whether a pickax would be useful in their zombie battles and decided it was too heavy to be practical.  I had to ask them how this game works and what  it took to kill something semi-dead already.  An elaborate dissertation clarified the different rules for zombie elimination.  The one question they couldn’t answer was: What is the point of your life if all you get to do is battle zombies?  Too labyrinthine.

As the final loads of dirt were being shifted from high spots to low, a rotting yet extremely sturdy tree root was unearthed.  Three of us tried to shovel around it and lever it out to no avail.  Brilliant Michelle called over an ax wielder who went at it with all the fervor of a real-life zombie battler.  I hope his victory was sweeter than anything virtual.