As a new state of consciousness fills us with the need to find inner peace and love to combat our hectic modern way of life, we are realising that our ancestors’ lives were enhanced by their co-existence with nature.

We can use the ancient symbol of the labyrinth to harmonise with Mother Earth. The benefits are endless: from restoring the planet to resolving personal issues.

In December 2006 Karen walked a finger labyrinth on a piece of paper asking how she was going to look after her land; And again in February and May with seemingly unrelated questions: The answer was to build a chakra labyrinth.

With the enthusiasm of Val on board we decided that, if nothing else, at least we would attain that elusive “grounding” we both needed.

A date was set for the Opening Ceremony Under The Blue Moon In June - just seven weeks away.

Once we chose the site and offered a bowl of our best home-grown mandarines to the Grand Duke for feng shui it seemed as though the Universe took control and we couldn’t stop.

Having pulled out a great deal of lantana and blackberry we set to marking out the coils with wool. We raked out a track and our meditation pathway started to take shape.

The natural disaster which devastated the Hunter Valley certainly gave us a very good cleansing as well. Our storage shed blew down along with some major trees we were using for markers. The creek swelled to what is now the top of the green coil bringing all manner of weed and rubbish with it.

With less than two weeks to go divine intervention had us relentlessly reshaping, resizing, redigging and restringing.

On opening day the sow and her piglet decided it was too wet in the pen and sought higher ground in the labyrinth. Val’s car bogged at soccer practice and our supportive and punctual guests were arriving.

We meditated in the mud, blessed the labyrinth with sand from the Monk’s mandala, pondered the colour of the moon and had a wonderful night.