Meet me at the labyrinth: An invitational conversation with Tammy Minuti
Labyrinth built on the spot where 110-year-old Logan Square Church once stood in Logan Square in Chicago Illinois.
A new journey began more than a decade ago at a day horse camp near her home in Chicago, Illinois. While her daughter was busy being a camper and learning how to care for the horses, she had time to explore the property.
A nature preserve just outside of the city, the camp offered plenty of grounds for walking.
Tammy Minuti, a trained spiritual director and partner of Retreat House Spirituality Center, says she recalls being drawn to a hedge of roses. The closer she walked to this flower garden, she began to see it was actually a labyrinth.
“I was really drawn to it,” Minuti says. “It was so beautiful, and I remember I just started praying. I started walking in it. After this, I started to be drawn to finding labyrinths in different places throughout the city.”
Paying attention to the path
They exist in different shapes and sizes and patterns. Very much like the pilgrims who walk their paths. We find them on church properties of various denominations, outside in urban areas and even inside of church walls. And while there’s evidence of labyrinths dating back to more than 2,000 years, these invitational spaces seem to be getting more attention and interest lately.
Since her day of discovery at the horse camp in 2012, Minuti says she has been on a pilgrimage of sorts to find different labyrinths around her hometown. She encourages us to wonder is there a labyrinth nearby?
“There are so many and people who don’t even know where labyrinths are located. They could be right near their backyard. I just happened to stumble on one 15 minutes from my house.”
Wondering if an invitation to pause and smell the roses is possible? The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator serves as a resource for those desiring to identify these sacred places.
When engaging with a labyrinth, Minuti encourages individuals to maintain an open stance. She typically walks to the center of the labyrinth and gives God the concerns, joys an petitions of her heart. After reaching the center of the path, she spends time giving thanks, listening and meeting the Holy in stillness. After some time, she walks out of the labyrinth with an intention to receive.
She shares a quote from a labyrinth pin she received from her spiritual direction training program:
“All of life is a journey that comes from God and goes to God.”
This is so you
Sitting in the pew with tears streaming down her face, Minuti found herself in a season of desolation. Many of the theology and teachings didn’t reflect or embody the truth of the loving God she knew and loved. It broke her heart. A move to Texas in 2014 proved to be a challenging time. In search of a church home, the Minuti family visited around 20 churches.
Hearing consistent messaging that didn’t align with her true self or her experience of the Divine, she started to seek avenues for inner work.
It started with some books by Enneagram expert Christopher Heuertz. Then she found a spiritual director. After a year of meeting, her director asked have you ever thought about training to become a spiritual director?
She did a little research and showed her husband the description of spiritual direction. His response was affirming.
This is SO you! This has been you your whole life.
It makes sense to her now. She needed that desert time to go inward and get connected to God and herself in a new way. She calls her calling into spiritual direction and to contemplative life a “beautiful, long winding road.”
Ripples of peace
The Minuti family eventually moved back to the Midwest after some time in Texas.
Finding labyrinths in and around Chicago became and continues to be a spiritual practice for Minuti. In 2022, as she was completing her spiritual direction training, she became interested in inviting others to notice these places of respite within the city.
Every year on the first Saturday in May thousands of people around the globe participate in World Labyrinth Day as a moving meditation for world peace and celebration of the labyrinth experience. Knowing that this was approaching, Minuti was moved to connect to her community in a deeper way.
“I went to a pastor of a church near her home with a labyrinth - nobody in the church even knew it was there,” Minuti says. “I went to another local church where I worship on occasion and asked them what they thought about participating in the day. They said let’s do it!”
Through her invitation, a few groups at these two churches gathered and walked their labyrinths at 1 p.m. on the first of May. She describes the day as ripples of peace - a tangible, embodied feeling of being part of a much bigger whole. Whether 2 or ten people gather, it matters.
“It is a walk at 1 p.m. as one,” she shares. “It is kind of like a rolling vibration of peace around the world.”
Wordless space
For directees feeling overwhelmed with life, they might find themselves in a place where they’ve yet to find words to describe their experience. It can even take too much energy to talk, Minuti notices.
Walking a labyrinth can feel easier as the rhythm of the movement can bring clarity, calm and focus. It can be a beautiful tool that provides folks with time and space with God and themselves. As a spiritual director, Minuti invites directees to enjoy the labyrinth while she sits nearby praying for the participant. Once the directee feels ready and after spending time in the labyrinth, Minuti will spend time 1:1 with those she companions either in prayer or holding space for what was revealed in the labyrinth.
A fruitful tool indeed.
“I have begun inviting those I companion to walk the labyrinth. This is a wonderful option for those who aren’t comfortable with meditating or centering prayer. It allows their mind to slow - I love meeting people to meet me at the labyrinth.”
In addition to companioning with others on their spiritual journey, Minuti might have discovered a call within her call - locating timeless spaces for others. Most recently on a trip to Los Angelas to visit her sister who was recovering from an illness, Minuti visited a park where she and her sibling took some time to remove their shoes and ground on the earth. And not to dissimilarly to her experience at horse camp, she looked into the beyond, right there in Beverly Hills and saw a labyrinth - a place her sister now enjoys visiting often.
What would it be like for those living in cities to immerse themselves in these places of peace? She wonders. We wonder. Squeezed between buildings or perhaps unused and nestled behind a churchyard? The invitation for urban dwellers to journey to and in a labyrinth seems significant and rich. What might they find here?
As we pay attention to these pathways of old. Do they have the potential to heal and connect us? To restore our nervous systems as we leave our phones and worries at the opening?
Could they offer healing? Minuti continues to look for labyrinths.
May we have the eyes to see and hearts to open to more. Amen!
Tammy Minuti, trained spiritual director. Her favorite quote regarding the spiritual path is by St Hildegard: “There is the music of heaven in all things and we have forgotten how to hear it until we sing.”
Minuti describes herself as a compassionate listener and an encourager of souls. Her training includes the Spiritual Direction Program at SMU, Perkins School of Theology. She is currently enrolled in the Association of Nature and Forestry Therapy guides program, a program focusing on the scientific evidence and language around what Minuti says “I have known and loved my whole life. That God has given us everything we need and being in nature is healing.”
She is looking forward to offering labyrinth meditations for the Retreat House community via our Circle community in 2024. Learn more about Minuti and connect with her.
This article was written by Emily Turner Watson. Part of her ministry is to provide healing and wholeness through listening, presence and writing. She is also a trained spiritual director. Connect with her here.
As a reminder, Retreat House Spirituality Center has a labyrinth open 24/7. Come and see. Open to all pilgrims.