The Path to Peace as a Labyrinth
This was originally posted as a shorter version on Linkedin on October 15, 2023 a week after the October 7 Israel-Hamas war started. To cope with my grief with the ongoing war and genocide, I continue to find time to write my thoughts and reflections as an artist and as a peacebuilder.
I remember when I first received my mother’s cancer diagnosis, I went to the nearest spiritual retreat center and immediately walked the labyrinth. Even if I couldn’t see where I was going from all the tears flowing, I knew the pattern of getting lost in circles would eventually lead me to the the center. I continued to walk it on my darkest days and even on her last day on earth, knowing the time of her passing will soon come. In all the chaos I had to go through, having a center to walk toward and guide me as I leave the maze of uncertainty, was my form of refuge until the end.
I think about my grief as I attempt to write, unable to sleep trying to imagine the kind of grief peacebuilders and regenerative practitioners from Palestine and Israel I know are going through right now as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. Worlds apart from my story, I can only assume the critical life-saving actions on the ground, plus support they need for in the last week and the days, weeks, months, and even years to come from their posts and from the news. I am helping compile them and hope to share when they’re safe to be circulated.
Thinking of them brought me back to this labyrinth for inner peace we put together with Muslim, Christian, and indigenous peacebuilders in the Philippines years ago as part of a training on interfaith peacebuilding and leadership organized by the Peacemakers Circle Foundation in partnership with the United Religions Initiative. This was a closing ritual we did for a leadership retreat to address their trauma and re-commitment for their work after another war erupted when a legal agreement that would lead to a peace accord was held off. Villages were set on fire in retaliation, people were hostaged and killed, and years of hard work to sustain peace after decades of war, were all gone… all over again.
I am also reminded of how the children of Gaza who flew kites in 2011 for the Guinness world record, inspired me to engage children in different parts of the world to fly kites for them as many were dying in the same war from 2014. Even with the Dalai Lama’s support, I eventually shifted from kites to focus on permaculture gardens and ecosystem restoration in climate and conflict areas as a form of refuge to address food, livelihood, and well-being through my work with Green Releaf Initiative and Permaculture for Refugees.
I think of Israel and Gaza’s children now, and if Gaza’s survived 2014, they would already be teenagers if not young adults. I recall how most peace-builders I know in all countries with armed conflict, have shared the same narrative of being children once, dragged out of their beds as bombs start falling, and how they have chosen their path because they don’t want their children to experience the horror they went through… and now they have to, all over again.
While they are universal across cultures and beliefs, labyrinths were also created in cathedrals as an alternative to going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the Crusades. Going beyond this violent context in history and that labyrinths of tunnels under Gaza are being bombed right now, labyrinths can serve as a reminder that the path to peace is not easy as it can go around in a maze of repetitive cycles as you walk. It symbolises how an issue is systemic and complex.
Even if there is no simple solution, may it be an invitation for an inner pilgrimage to the heart, the centre of all things, a journey of restoring ourselves what is whole and holy. If you’ve ever walked one, you would know that it is when we reach the centre of a labyrinth, that the path outward becomes illuminated. I honor those who hold space for this journey to the center at the frontlines on both sides. May they and those they protect be safe as we re-story the journey from collective trauma to collective healing together.
