Labyrinth

On Thursday, December 4, 2003, NATHAN DINKIN; loving husband of Bertha "Bert" Dinkin (nee Grossman); beloved father of Eileen Feldman, of Bethesda, MD and Dr. Alan Dinkin, of Potomac, MD; devoted father-in-law of Richard A. Feldman and Rhonda Dinkin; beloved brother of Shirley Wolff, Norma Fineblum, Sylvia Aiken, all of Baltimore, MD and the late Sidney Dinkin; devoted brother-in-law of Albert Wolff, Harry Fineblum, Shirlee Dinkin, Esther Burday and...

A little way down a wooded trail on the grounds of the Phillips School in North Laurel, a plain, white clay face stands out starkly against the trunk of a tree. Farther along, there is another face, and then another, leading visitors to a clearing where thousands of the white masks hang from tree trunks and lie on the dark earth. The small sculptures form the borders of a spiral labyrinth about 60 feet across and outline a second, smaller path nearby. The project, which will be officially dedicated by students and staff today, incorporates 3,000 face masks and is an artistic remembrance of the 9/11 terror attacks two years ago. It is also a peaceful place for staff and students to walk and think.

An outdoor labyrinth surrounded by gardens and an interfaith pavilion will greet visitors and residents at Stadium Place, the senior housing and recreation project just getting under way on the 30 acres where Memorial Stadium once stood on East 33rd Street. "It will be a peaceful kind of entrance," said the Rev. John R. Sharp, president of Govans Ecumenical Development Corp., a church-based nonprofit redeveloping the site. "It makes a statement about Stadium Place growing out of the faith community.

JUST WHEN holiday demands have us feeling as if we're going round in circles, Trinitas, an a cappella trio with Kate Caldwell of Severna Park and Jane Elkin and Carolyn Sonnen of Broadneck, offers a soothing solution. The trio's new compact disc, Songs of the Labyrinth, is filled with the peaceful sounds of sacred music and chant. The melodies, dating from the ninth century to the present, are arranged to accompany meditation, quiet prayer or a labyrinth walk. A religious labyrinth, Caldwell says, is described as "an ancient sacred symbol of a pilgrimage to the divine."

Noting "serious, serious concerns," a federal immigration court judge ordered yesterday three men who were arrested in a Northwest Baltimore apartment Sept. 10 held without bond for an additional two weeks to give the FBI time to complete an investigation of possible terrorist activity. Judge Lisa Dornell ordered the men - two from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan - to remain in Immigration and Naturalization Service custody until an Oct. 7 bond hearing. In making her decision, the judge noted an FBI probe into the detainees posing a possible threat to national security.

By now, the cornstalks in Patrick Rodgers' Green Spring Valley field have grown yellow and brittle from a summer of too much sun, too little rain. The 250,000 stalks stand by the side of a busy, two-lane suburban road looking a little forlorn, as if they know they are past their prime. But inside the 5-acre cornfield lies the secret to how Rodgers, who is 24 and fresh out of the University of Maryland, College Park, with a degree in agriculture, plans to survive as a family farmer. Early this summer, he cut a maze in the shape of a 264-foot-wide Maryland blue crab into the field.

In the middle of an East Baltimore neighborhood torn by drugs and violence and persistent poverty, there stood yesterday an unlikely new center of peace. A garden labyrinth, with its curving prayer path echoing those found in French cathedrals, stretched across a city lot once pocked by abandoned rowhouses and trash-filled alleys. Begonias spilled out of nearby flower beds and from a newly built community nursery. At a dedication ceremony, area leaders called the quiet oasis a hopeful sign of revival.

Some start the New Year with a resolution to lose 10 pounds or make a career change. But about 90 retreat participants at Bon Secours Spiritual Center spent New Year's Eve giving a jumpstart to the enrichment of their spiritual lives or improvement of their relationship with God. Larry Saunders of Columbia said he was "recapping this year [2001] and thinking about the next year" 2002. His wife, Susan, agreed, saying that if she were at home, she would be rushing around rather than "doing something contemplative."

In the labyrinth at Bon Secours Spiritual Center, life slows and becomes still. One is on the ultimate journey - a journey of healing, a journey of prayer and meditation, a journey to meet God. Since its opening in 1999, the labyrinth at the Marriottsville center has remained a popular destination for people of all faiths in Howard County and beyond. "That labyrinth has had someone on it since a half-hour after it was finished," says Sister Carol Marozzi, director of the spiritual center.