The last time I was in Austin I walked through the Butler Park without ever finding the labyrinth, but this time I was ready. I had done my research (thanks to the World Wide Labyrinth Locator, the Well-Fed Spirit Labyrinth Map, and the Austin Labyrinth Project Map) and stuck the coordinates into google maps.
What a delight to find the Chartres-style labyrinth amidst a well-used public space full of playing children, exercising young adults, and afternoon bikers and strollers of all ages. Just as I had seen on google earth, it was right off Pedestrian Walkway 2 south of the playground.
It didn’t take long for my walk on this new labyrinth to connect me to other labyrinth walkers around the world. It was Friday after all, and Fridays are labyrinth walking days in the Chartres Cathedral (this will resume the first Friday in Lent: March 4, 2022) whose labyrinth pattern inspired this one.
Like so many, I am thinking of all those suffering around the globe, especially the citizens of Ukraine. In 2013 with the help of the theology students we were teaching, my husband and I built a temporary Chartres-style labyrinth in Kyiv where we all walked and prayed together. The faces and stories of those I met and built the labyrinth with flooded my memory as I prayed for them anew.
The center area of the Butler Park labyrinth encouraged me to follow my prayer to its depths, returning to the tumultuous feelings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is evoking, releasing them to God’s Loving Presence, and receiving strength for the journey onwards.
Although I do not know who built or financed this labyrinth in 2007, I would like to express my gratitude to them all for the vision, commitment, and wisdom of putting a labyrinth in such a well-used public space. I would also like to thank all who came before me and walked here. The invisible connections I felt with them and all those walking around the globe for greater justice and peace are deeply meaningful.
I look forward to the many other labyrinths I will be walking here in the Austin area this month. As we labyrinth walkers well know, they each have their own gifts to impart. I look forward to sharing their beauty with you.
Address: 1000 Barton Springs Rd. Austin, Texas 78704 30.260822° Lat.: -97.754858° Long.
Thanks to Anna Dominguez Pittala who on the Austin Labyrinth Project Facebook page situates it as just south of the Alliance Children’s Garden playscape at 1000 Barton Springs Road and adjacent to the Long Performing Arts Center. (Parking can be found nearby.)
For more information:
The Bulter Park labyrinth and other Austin labyrinths on the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator
The Well-Fed Spirit Map of Austin Area Labyrinths
One person’s experience of the Bulter Park Labyrinth
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Through Jill's Eyes 
Thank you Jill for sharing your inspiring journey and keeping us in Unity towards Peace, especially in Ukraine.
Blessings of love & light to you & yours Jill🙏🏼
Thanks to YOU both for your continued prayers of support for our country & our journey on the Labyrinth together🙏🏼💞☮️💪🇺🇸
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