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When I walked, I went through many emotions. To be honest, I'd never heard of walking a labyrinth before and didn't know what to expect, but wanted to do anything which might help. It's very hard being so far away whilst she's going through this. I carried a photograph of Diana and felt joy at having her for a friend, for her progress from this awful incident, but also, I cried many tears. At the end of the walk, I felt calm. On that day Diana had a good day ...
-- Christine P, Hawaii (regarding walking a labyrinth for her friend Diana)
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I have been following the Diana Caring Bridge chronicle and found the labyrinth walk a wonderful idea to pray in tribute and support.
-- Ginny, Georgia
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I am the day program director of The Arc of Katy. It is a program set up for the mentally and physically limited population. We provide daily activities to keep our participants active, functional and productive members of society. The ages are 21 - 58 years of age.
Robin introduced to the labyrinths last summer. We had a few participants that needed to have a quiet and refocusing time of the day. Sometimes things would seem to challenging or overwhelming. She let us borrow hers and eventually was able to give us a set. They have been lifesavers to self esteem builders. Several of our participants have used them to calm down when getting upset, refocus when things became overly distracting and frustrating or just as a meditation activity. Some of our participants will even ask for them when the feel that they are in need of a calming down time. They have helped with those that were feeling defeated to feeling like it is ok to have these frustrated feelings and it is ok to put that energy into the labyrinth versus taking it out on someone else or themselves.
We have used different methods with them. We have used just running the finger through the labyrinth slowly to actually controlling a marble with the finger through it to the middle and sometimes reverse it from the middle to the beginning of the board. Each participant has their way of using it and getting their need of peace within. One of ours even sings softly while doing it for the full relaxation.
I also teach music lessons to children with ADHD. When they have not been able to focus, I have taken them out and used them and after completing the labyrinth, they were able to sit and complete the lesson. I have shared the information with the parents and they were very interested in them. They were trying hard to stay away from medicating their children and this was an alternative.
The labyrinths really have become part of our program and we feel very blessed to be able to have them.
-- Rosemary Petter, Day Program Director for The Arc of Katy (Texas)
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