Graduation Spiral 2018

Graduation Spiral 2018, Karrie Kirchner

We gathered in person.

You could do that back then.

We walked down in silence

Gathered.

Asked questions inside

Footsteps traced the lines of the labyrinth in

Paused in the center

Something inside shifted.

And the journey outward began.

We returned to our circle.

Our mentors and teachers asked us to make something.

Immediately - a symbol of a spiral swirled into my mind’s eye.  I chose a timelapse photo of the North Star, flowers and a pumpkin.  I started cutting the spiral.  To get the effect I wanted, I needed to cut out a negative space.  I clearly heard, “It is not wasted,” from deep within me.  

Intuitively, I glued the circular pathway down to form the two dimensional spiral maze.  The radiant orange pumpkin as a symbol of inner harvesting.  

The “negative” is not wasted.  The cut-off and cast away was demanding to be incorporated into the finished piece.  The “negative” became the three-dimensional path that intersects, tangles and wends its way through the initial path. 

(Reflection on Graduating the Spiritual Life Center’s Spiritual Direction Internship in 2018)