Winding Path

Walking stress away

Fresh vegetables and fruits from the local farmers markets help us to stay physically healthy. Now, the purchases made from the Carolina Beach market also are making possible a boost to mental health with creation of a LABYRINTH in the town.

Farmers market manager JANET KNOTT proposed the idea. 

“I had made plans more than once to go to the labyrinth at Church of the Servant on New Year’s Eve, and I never could make it,” she says about the Wilmington church’s large, indoor pathway. “I kept thinking it would be nice to have one closer and more accessible. It’s such a mind-clearing process.”

Labyrinth walkers step deliberately, shedding stress as they go. While the path may seem meandering, it is purposeful.

“The idea is that as you are walking, you are putting down all the things that you carry around with you that drain you,” Knott says. “When you get to the center, you take whatever time you need to receive what you need. Some people look at it as being from God, some from nature. It’s spiritual, not necessarily religious.

Labyrinths appear on Crete coins as early as 430 BC. They appear, in simplistic and complex forms, on pottery, on walls of caves, on floors of churches, and many other places.

The healing power of labyrinths is evident at hospitals and hospice centers, both locally and around the country.

Lower Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter has had one at its Wilmington facility for several years. It’s heavily used by community members benefiting from the bereavement services provided by the center, says Lorraine Perry, healing arts and bereavement counselor.

The Carolina Beach Labyrinth is located at Third Street and Lumberton Avenue, on the property of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

Constructed of irregularly shaped rock, it features grass plantings along the path’s borders. Church members are planting herbs such as sage and lemongrass to make the path a fragrant walk as well.

About $1,500 in materials to build the labyrinth came from profits of the Carolina Beach  Farmers Market. More than 35 community members who volunteered on May 4, World Labyrinth Day, provided the labor. 

To view more of photographer Megan Deitz’s work, go to www.megandeitz.com.

Finding a path

Here are some of the region’s labyrinths that are open to the public:

Carolina Beach Labyrinth
Grounds of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
300 North Third Street, Carolina Beach
Open all times
458-5310
www.stpaulscb.org

Church of the Servant
4925 Oriole Drive, Wilmington
Open third weekend of each month, 7-10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-noon Saturday or by special arrangement
395-0616
www.cosepiscopal.ecdio.org

Hampstead United Methodist Church
15395 Highway 17, Hampstead
Open during daylight hours
270-4648
www.HampsteadUMC.org

Brookgreen Gardens
1931 Brookgreen Drive, Murrells Inlet, S.C.
(843) 235-6000
www.brookgreen.org
9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily
$14 gardens adult admission