Riverwalk Labyrinth: A patterned path with a purpose
Although not always quiet, the newest feature to the Jasper Riverwalk can be contemplative.
The Jasper Riverwalk Labyrinth is, in the words of Mayor Terry Seitz, a symbol of unity, wholeness and transformation for heart, mind, body and spirit.
Easily accessible from 4th Street, the beautiful winding path created by individual stones is accented with a slight hill shepherding visitors to a single entrance and the beginning of their contemplative walk.
Sister Rose Mary Rexing, OSB, was on hand to explain the purpose of the unique features of the path during a special dedication ceremony held Wednesday. Rexing maintains the labyrinth at the Ferdinand monastery.
“You see this labyrinth, it is a patterned path with a purpose,” she explained. “It is a tool to help us take time out from our busy lives; to slow down and relax. You might think of it as an adult time out space.”
She said there is no ceremony to walking a labyrinth but that the 3,500-year-old practice was simply a way to engage a person’s body, mind and spirit at one time.
“Thinking is not required to walk a labyrinth, but attention is needed to stay on the path,” she said.
The process is about releasing, receiving and returning. There is no specific speed or way to walk the path but through traveling from the entrance to the center, the walker is attempting to let go of anxieties and resentments.
Along the way, the curves in the path are thought to help balance the left and right sides of the brain. “It results in physical and emotional healing,” Rexing said.
The center of the labyrinth represents a person’s inner, sacred space. “Here you can just stand open to receive what you need at this time,” Rexing said. “Is it peace? Is it happiness? Is it just the time to see and receive God’s grace and love? Whatever that is, just take a moment to stand in the center and be open to receive.”
The journey back out is about taking that renewal back out to the community. “That is what the labyrinth is about. Three stages; releasing, receiving, returning,” Rexing said. “Very simple. Very beautiful.”
The new feature allows visitors to find their own inner path to some moments of peace.
“Our lives are so often programmed, when do we take that opportunity to meander, to let go,” Seitz said during his remarks.
After several years of ideation and planning, the labyrinth opened last December.
According to Phil Gramelspacher, the idea for the labyrinth first came up when the Central Green was being planned. Later, after Jasper Desk became part of Jasper Group, the Jasper Desk Company Foundation approached the city about creating the labyrinth in the grassy field that is close to the company’s headquarters.
Working with the Redevelop Old Jasper Action Coalition, the Jasper Desk Company Foundation donated $27,000 to the project. The project then received an $8,000 contribution through the Dubois County Community Foundation and the Randy Norris Mind, Body and Spirit Fund to accumulate $35,000 in local funding. A matching grant of $35,000 from the Place Based Investment Fund through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Development and the Indiana Office of Tourism Development was enough to move the project forward with the help of several local business providing services and materials at cost or for free.
“I have always been proud of the heritage Jasper Desk has had and my families involvement in it,” Gramelspacher said. “It is neat to take that heritage and the company name and tie it to something like this labyrinth.”
I question the sense of proposing a 5 or 6 million dollar investment in laying bricks around the courthouse square, reducing the parking spaces, and redoing other related items in Jasper, and at the same having the bright star of restaurants, 514, close because the local people won’t support it to the level required to keep them in business. I hold the local middle and upper class residents responsible for their lack of concern and patronage of the ONLY decent restaurant in the downtown area.
You want people to park away from the Square, walk the Brick Road, Shop, and then what?? Are you seriously naive enough to think the local people will rush to the downtown to see the revitalized Astra Theater, walk on the bricks, then eat some fancy ice cream and then disappear on cue!
Please give them an opportunity to walk one block off the Square to have a very good lunch or dinner.
Wake Up Jasper Leaders and Upper Class Citizens. Go out to dinner. Support 514 and convince the owners you Care for them and their business. A large matching financial gift from a local couple is worth very little if you don’t have an attraction like that excellent restaurant on Jackson St.
Jasper residents have a reputation for failing to support a restaurant that serves gourmet level food and charges more than $15.00 for an entree. Folks, that’s not fast food. Don’t treat an upscale restaurant like you do a drive through window eatery.
When you Dine at an upscale restaurant, don’t expect to spend less than $40 a person, including drinks and dessert.
If you are content with the food fare in Jasper, good luck. Don’t expect Jasper to become a dinner destination area with the current eateries when 514 folds their tent, locks their doors, bids you adieu, and moves their culinary delights from your community.
Enjoy Life. Eat Well. Support the best Restaurant Jasper has ever had.
I think the Labyrinth spot would b an excellent spot for a big ..fountain…That would n BEAUTIFUL!..N SO.
RELAXING!..:)..
That WOULD .
B ..BEAUTIFUL….(meant)..!..
They need more splash parks for the less fortunate kids in Jasper who’s parents don’t have the money to take their children to the swimming pool.