Finding answers to life‘s problems

MENTION the word labyrinth to anybody and they‘re likely to think you‘re talking about the maze of dark corridors that supposedly lead to the hell fires of Hades. But in the Baviaanskloof in the Eastern Cape, there‘s another kind of labyrinth – and as Nicholas Yell discovered, it‘s far more likely to lead you to heaven than hell.

I ARRIVED at the Cedars Guesthouse and Retreat centre in the Baviaanskloof with a fair amount of baggage – and I was carrying most of it in my mind. It had been the week from hell: pressing deadlines, family challenges and lightning struck my computer‘s printer and fax machine the day before, making them both as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

But once I stepped out the car and paused under the gently swaying trees outside the tastefully renovated old farmhouse, a calm energy started to settle on my shoulders from above. I was savouring the quiet moment when the guesthouse‘s manager Willem Maganie introduced himself and offered to take my bags to the room. It‘s immediately apparent when you enter this sanctuary that it is designed to give guests an old farmhouse experience. The décor and furnishings are uncomplicated with accents of earthy- bohemian style and an old wood-burning stove suggests cosy winter evenings playing games around the kitchen table.

I had come here not only to try and purge my mind of the week‘s many little disasters, but also to wrestle with the career change I was about to make. A few years back, at a similar juncture in my life, I had discovered the healing and decision making powers of labyrinths after happening across one between Barrydale and the Warmwaterberg Spa in the Little Karoo. At the time I hadn‘t expected much to happen, but after being guided through the process I came out of the experience convinced of the direction I wanted my life to take. I was hoping that would happen again.

I decided to wash off the road dust in the small plunge pool in the landscaped gardens. Like many things on this eco-sensitive farm, the pool relies on natural forces to sustain it: there are no chemicals used to treat the water which is changed every couple of days from gravity-fed river water, the old water being reused to irrigate the garden. So as I lay on my back in the naturally clear water with a rockery and mountain foliage in front of me, it felt like I was bathing in a private rock pool I‘d come across after a hike in the hills. Sublime.

With the ebbing sunlight spreading over the ridge of fold mountains on the eastern side of the valley, I made my way through a gauntlet of horses craning their necks over the paddock fence and entered Martha‘s restaurant for dinner. The restaurant is one of many successful empowerment ventures that are facilitated and guided by the farm‘s owners, the visionary trustees of the ‘Another Way Trust‘. When I‘d visited the Cedar Guesthouse and Retreat centre‘s website earlier in the week, I‘d read of the trustees‘ efforts to uplift the local community with the cynicism that comes from being exposed to too many of these stories which turn out to be mere window dressing in the end. But talking to Martha and her husband, Willem, I was impressed with the sincerity with which the trust projects were being handled, as well as the dividends they‘d already paid.

At the guesthouse, a clatter of large wings exposed an owl preying on a rodent in the cast of the waning moon. I was lying on an eastern- styled day bed on the stoep determined to wring the last sighs of pleasure out of the day before surrendering to the night. Yet when I awoke on the stoep at 2am, I realised my plan to mentally prepare for my labyrinth walk in the morning was in tatters, and tottered off to bed.

Another walker had arrived ahead of me. I decided to let her finish and started my labyrinth journey with some meditation halfway up one of the surrounding mountains. Looking down on the pattern of stones partly consumed by the green bushes growing in-between them, I was hypnotised by the ebb and flow of the walker as her trajectory guided her towards the centre.

By the time I got down the mountain I felt I already had a handle on most of the answers I was seeking and I wasn‘t sure I still needed to walk the labyrinth. But then I picked up a red scrap of cardboard near the entrance and when I turned it over the word “Willingness” leapt out at me; I took it as my signal to continue. Moving slowly towards the centre, I focussed on letting any remaining negative thoughts rise to the surface and drain into the vegetation surrounding the path. About halfway in, I had the distinct impression that each stone along the path represented a human ancestor and it was immediately followed by the thought: “Each stone is entirely different from the next, yet they are all of the same kind.”

I sat on a rock in the centre and thought about the relevance of my earlier realisation. I came to the conclusion that the universe was trying to tell me to accept that all people are very different yet they all come from and go back to the one source. Why the sentiment came to me at that moment I didn‘t know, yet I was sure it would have some relevance to the life changes I was soon to make; I would just have to be patient and trust that the mystery would unfold in time.

On my way out of the labyrinth I sensed the pattern was awash with a dazzling white-yellow light and that my presence was a mysterious orb wandering through it. As I got nearer the end, my legs got stronger and I walked out with a smile, convinced that I may have just had a rare glimpse of heaven.

Contact details: 044 923 1751, email: cedartourism@baviaan.">cedartourism@baviaan. co.za or visit them on www.baviaan.co.za

Life