Plans are underway for the funding support of what is being billed as the largest permanent labyrinth in the country in Alamogordo.
The project belongs to a non-profit group called Cancer Awareness, Prevalence, Protection and Early Detection, which in turn has created the Trinity Turtle Healing Labyrinth project.
The project is centered on a 40,000-square-foot labyrinth, designed to serve as both a learning center and open-air theater.
Some $99,999 in funds have now been secured for the project through the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Outdoor Recreation Division.
The labyrinth project is one of 17 projects receiving a total of around $3.2 million in funding from the Outdoor Recreation Division’s Trails & Grant program.
The Alamogordo effort includes construction of a village-like setting of some 80 tiny houses to be used as retreat space for visitors enduring cancer and other chronic diseases.
Labyrinths date to the Hellenistic era, or around 300 BC, and have traditionally been used for both private meditation as well as group rituals. Such structures have also come to be valued for their therapeutic potential and have increasingly been seen in healthcare settings like elder care facilities, hospitals, and hospices.
According to the Hilton, New York-based Labyrinth Society, a patient’s well-being is enhanced through the simple practice of walking in a labyrinth, a process that helps clear the mind and create an inner sense of peace.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay