I have good news! When Claremont Presbyterian built the labyrinth and added the meditation garden, we hoped it would be used and would draw in people from the community that were not yet members of the church.

The good news is that people are visiting the site. Doing a little instant archeology recently I found evidence of intensive use. Scratchings in the decomposed granite by children, a left behind doll, discarded masks, and a pile of rocks resembling a Native American altar.

We also discovered that the fountain is a kid magnet. Who would have thought that children would be attracted to water flowing over a rock? I watched a group of preschoolers out for a walk come rushing to hug the wet rock, much to the horror of their teacher.

And the ingenious kids also figured out how to drop small rocks down the fountain, eventually clogging it.

Efforts at rock removal stalled until Dick Johnson discovered a device with a little retractable grabber. His wasn't long enough to reach all the rocks, so I went to Lowes and not knowing what to call the device fumbled for words. "Oh," said the clerk, "you need the CLAW." He proceeded to show me one with a two foot cable and a big grabber.

Success, I was able to extract 17 more rocks. All-in-all we removed about 30, and the fountain is now flowing well. A grid has been placed over the fountain.

The moral of this story is not that children disrupt things; it is that children love the site. They bring their friends and parents.

Even if they don't meditate, we can pause during our day and take our joy from theirs.

Meditate on that.

And join us on line on Friday morning for Centering Prayer at 8 am. Write me and I will send you a link. charlestaylorkerchner@gmail.com