Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2000)
b________ Feature Quiet the mind, open the heart, look within WEdNEsdAy, ApRil 19, 2000 MEGAN OLDENSTADT Managing Editor The ClAckAMAs P rint Class, people who had studied the labyrinth and who knew each other. Secondly, as open as I am to spiritual practices, I couldn’t see how walking around a giant circle could really do anything for me. The room is dimly lit. Music is softly playing in the background, but drowned out by my concentra tion. I am focusing on a white path outlined in royal purple. Trying It is amazing what a little re to put one foot in front of the other, flection can do. People were en to keep my legs moving although I couraged after the walk to write; feel wobbly. I am slightly uncom write about what they felt, what fortable, in a room full of people I they thought about and the whole have never met or barely know, i experience. It was peaceful and Try to be small, so as to not in relaxing. You are away from out trude into others' space. side distractions and are able to look inside your self and focus The labyrinth I walk on is 30’ in on you. diameter and a unicursal (one path) design. There are no tricks,' I soon figured out or decisions to make. I just follow why I had gotten so the path. I start to get dizzy as I go worried about around a turn. Did I just make a being on the wrong path, wrong turn? Oh no, am I still on about tak the right path? I keep walking, unsure if I took a wrong step. ing the I have to be careful when walk wrong ing by someone on a different part turn on of the pathway. We both slightly the laby rinth. In turn, politely avoiding each other, and carry on with our walking my life, I meditation. am at a It sterns like an eternity, but I cross- soon arrive in the center of the road of decisions- labyrinth. “The six, ” or.petal ro where I sette, is a place for quiet medita tion where you can sit, relax and want to go in my life, and if I meditate. I then return to the walk. There is only one pathway to am traveling in wards and away from the center, the right direc tion. The labyrinth so I have to step around people who are making their way the op allowed me to see this. posite direction. Once again I am I was able to escape from walking the winding path that is my everyday distractions in life often referred to as a mirror for the and focus on what has been look twists, turns and passages of life. ing me in the face for quite some Once out of the labyrinth, I put time. my shoes on and go sit for awhile, The Labyrinth, which was on observing others and reflecting on campus April 13-15, is an ancient my experience. spiritual tool that has been used I was a little apprehensive go in many cultures and faith tradi ing on the walk in the first place. tions around the world. First of all, I was joining Social Briare first brought the Laby Science Instructor Bill Briare’s rinth to campus last year as a way Honors Comparative Religion to allow students and community members to experience this nonde- nominational tools powers. Jan Jonnson, certified labyrinth facilitator and modem dance in structor at Clackamas, has been providing workshops, retreats and seminars and introducing people to this particular Veriditas laby rinth for more than three years. One of the 200 facilitators (world wide) trained under the guidance of Dr. Lauren Artress. Jonnson has stayed within Oregon with her "sanctuary for the arts" labyrinth. Some of the earliest forms of laby rinths are found in Greece, dating back to2500-2000B.C.E. TheChartes design, a classical, eleven-circuit labyrinth (eleven concentric circles), with the twelfth being the center, is the design brought to Clackamas. It originates from the thirteenth century where it was laid into the cathedral floor at Chartres in Paris, France. Around 500 years ago, it is speculated the scientific revolution of the time caused the labyrinth to fall out of use. The great Chartes floor was covered with chairs and pews, and the labyrinth was out of sight, and in a way out of mind. Around ten years ago, Reverend Doctor Lauren Artress brought it back to life. She is the creator of the Labyrinth Project and fa ounder of Veriditas, the World Wide Labyrinth Project. Labyrinths are now found in hos pitals, prisons, churches, air ports, parks, community spaces, retreats, and seminars; and in people's back yards around the world. Laby rinths and mazes have often been confused. When people hear the word “labyrinth, they often think of a maze. A laby rinth is not a maze. A maze is like a puzzle to be solved- it has twists, turns and dead ends; the purpose is to trick you. It is a left brain activity that requires logi cal, analytical, sequential activity to find the correct path. A laby rinth is a right brain task that has only one path. The way in is the way out. It involves intuition, cre ativity and imagery. I am glad I walked the labyrinth. It is an experience that I never ex pected, that I am grateful for, and that I hope others get to experi ence as well. LOCAL PUBLIC LABYRINTHS MARYLHURST COLLEGE Liturgical Sacred Art Center 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43) Marylhurst, OR 800.634.9982 ext. 6259 contact: Melissa Coe call for availability type. Canvas, indoor, portable SOPHIA CENTER 7732 SE 13th Ave. Portland, OR 503.231.8123 contact: Gloria Chaney open for scheduled events type. Canvas, indoor, portable TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH 147 NW 19th Ave. Portland, OR 503.222.9811 contact: Sally Newlands call for availability type. Canvas, indoor, portable To find a labyrinth close to you go to Grace Cathedral's laby rinth locator: www. grace cathedral.org/labyrinth/loca- tor/index.shtml OTHER RESOURCES ♦ Jan Jonnson inpower@teleport.com 503.635.6402 ♦ www.gracecathedral.org ♦ www.lessons41iving.com/ labyrinth.htm ♦ Walking a Sacred Path by: Lauren Artress ♦ Labyrinth in Culture and Society by: Jacques Attali ♦ Exploring the Labyrinth by: Mellissa Gayle West ♦ Step by Step, How to Introduce the Labyrinth by: Georgiana Lofty ) Anne Pardington: making life transitions easier _______ TAM OLIVER________ Staff Writer Most Clackamas students don’t know that there’s a class you can take for credit, that comes with a tuition waiver, and that has been considered so valuable by some that they have repeated it a few years down the road. “I don’t think there’s anyplace else where you can take a look at your whole life, your personal his tory, your interests and values in the same way as you do in this class,” said Instructor and Coun selor Anne Pardington about the Life and Career Options Program. Pardington knows what she’s talking about. As the co-developer of LCOP, as it’s fondly called by students and graduates, she knows you can have a job that fits who you are. After all, that is how LCOP was bom. Seventeen years ago, Pardington and another counselor, Carol Strazer, were looking for a job that would enable them to job share because both still had children at home. As this wasn’t the type of arrangement you could find then (or even now) in the help-wanted section of the local newspaper, the two of them started going out to talk to people, looking for ideas. When they arrived at Clackamas County Women’s Center, they were told of federal money available through the Jobs Appropriations Act. They needed to come up with a plan and write a grant. If the grant came through, they would be al lowed to run their program out of the Women’s Center. In the early 1970’s, there were many women who, through divorce or other circumstances, suddenly found themselves thrust into the job market without any current job skills. They needed a way to be come employable. Pardington and Strazer focused on their needs. When the two women submit ted their plan, the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners awarded them the money with which to begin the Displaced Homemakers’ Program. “It’s one of those wonderful ex amples of what networking can do for you,” Pardington stated with a twinkle in her eye. Between 1983 and 1985, the Dis placed Homemakers’ Program was the only program available in the state of Oregon for displaced homemakers. Then in 1985, money became available through the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act. Ultimately, this led to the develop ment of 17 programs throughout Oregon. “People starting up new pro grams would come to us and ask, ‘How are you doing this? We need to do it too,”’ recalled Pardington. Today, 15 years after the pro gram moved to Clackamas Com munity College, networking, or talking to people, is just one of the many techniques taught in what is now the Life and Career Op tions Program. It has grown from a program designed for displaced homemakers into a program for anyone in a life or career transition. This includes people displaced from their jobs or desiring differ ent careers, students on the verge MIKE POLLOCK / Clackamas Print Anne Pardington founded the Life and Career Options program, which has grown from a program for displaced homemakers into a program for anyone in a life or career transition. of college graduation who want the best shot at the job market, and men as well as women. Pardington is visibly proud of LCOP and her students, many of whom have turned their lives around after graduating from the program. “Now we are beginning to see children of people that took the class in the 80’s,” she said, laugh ing. Life and Career Options is a six or seven-credit class depending on whether you take it during the day or at evening. It is taught on cam pus at the Family Resource Center (FRC);for more information about this life-changing program, call 657- 6958 ext. 2526.
