JoAnne’s Introduction:
When I opened my email a few days ago, I was thrilled to see a message from my good friend Regina Ress, sharing a poem she wrote back in 2013 after we led a workshop for women inmates at the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility. It resonated with me for two reasons. First, the work I have done in prisons and jails since 2002 has been very meaningful, and sometimes Regina and I worked together in those settings. Secondly, I recently built a labyrinth on my property, and walking it is something I do daily as well as encouraging guests to enjoy it. Regina’s poem was written in a follow-up workshop with the women on writing about our experience together walking a labyrinth (which I helped create) in the barbed wire encircled yard of that county jail.
Thank you, Regina!
About Regina:
Regina Ress, award-winning storyteller, actor, writer and educator, has performed and taught for over fifty years from Broadway to Brazil in a wide variety of settings from grade schools to senior centers, from homeless shelters and prisons to Lincoln Center and the White House. To learn more about Regina visit her at: www.reginaress.com/about.html
Spiraling into the Center and Outward Bound:
A Reflection on Walking the Labyrinth with the Women
Santa Fe County Corrections Department Adult Correctional Facility
October 3, 2013
by Regina Ress
Being in the Center.
Being is the Center.
Walking slowly
Entering, Centering.
The Path winds and doubles back
In and out into the Wider Path
Which winds and definitely doubles
Back upon itself; upon myself.
I encounter myself
In all the others
On the Path.
I love these women who, willing to walk,
Stay with me, with each other, with themselves
In the Center of this labyrinth.
Knowing what?
That we share the space
That we share the grace
Of the Center.
What is the way in?
That first step supported by the breath,
Moved forward on the breath;
Forward, spiraling gently in,
And gently out again.
The Center awaits us all.
As does the sun glistening on barbed wire.
An oddly beautiful spiral of circles,
Of spiraling circles,
Endless circles reaching out
To the blue sky beyond.
An odd gift, this cage.
A glimpse of moving wire
Meant to keep us in
But when looked at from
A different perspective,
It is a Trail, a Path
Of outward bound.
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