It is one of those ” soul wondering” Sundays.My body is clearly telling me to slow down and take it easy but my brain needs activity.I know I should be working on my story but first I need to take out of my mind these variegation of thoughts that are crowding my head.I was zapping looking for the news channel when I saw Patty Smith talking about labyrinths and mythology.At first I thought it was an interview for one of those programs they show in sky arts and similar so I stopped there.I like Patty Smith.I find her music and poetry powerful and her persona fascinating .Her way to be annoyed by her hair and hating taking care of it;her way to be so masculine in the way she present herself. She is the opposite of what I could be but at the same time I can get it and what it counts, it is that every time I hear her saying something I find myself agreeing with her.Now,closed this little parenthesis about me and Patty,let’s go back to this morning.After few second I was watching,I realised it was not an interview or a documentary but she simply was playing a cameo part in episode of “Law and Order”.I kept zapping but the concept of labyrinth stayed in my mind.You know that game when you are asked to say the first word crossing your mind and then start making connection with other words?I suppose that is what happened to me.For some unknown reason the word “labyrinth ” grew inside me and I couldn’t stop making connection with whatever else.Good old Patty Smith,while reciting in a flipping episode of “Law and Order”,opened the Pandora ‘s box I have in my head.To be honest ,since I was a child,I never particulate liked labyrinths.With age I grew even more uncomfortable and kept to stay away from them.If you think about the very same Daedalus couldn’t escape his own creation.I never liked them,they make me claustrophobic (despite the fact they are open air).If the ancient considered the labyrinths a trap for evil souls,I always considered them more a rat trap.As far as my adversity for labyrinths goes they were never a phobia;cons fields were.They always terrified me.Every time I used to see a cobs field I replayed in my mind an horror movie that I saw when I was a kid…….that was when me and my friends realised there is a reason why movies are age rated……..it was too late!Very much surprisingly,to me and to those who knows well me and my phobias,a couple of summers ago,while on holidays,I went to an event in a cobs field labyrinth.The theme of the night was Star Wars.The travelling husband haven’t joined us on holidays yet and so it was just me and the girls to go,along with a couple of friends and their son.Pitch dark it was,only way to see through was our phone torches.There was a lot of people so really no fear to get lost or trapped in there all night.Stars Wars characters wondering around everywhere and engaging themselves in fights .It was a lovely experience.Great fun and neither my fear of cobs fields nor my adversity for labyrinths crossed my mind for the entire night.Probably I was too busy giggling and fighting giant mosquitoes thirsty for fresh blood.More probably,that night came at the right time.That was in fact the summer I eventually closed behind me few doors and opening a big hallway door leading to a much mentally healthier place.Walking in that labyrinth and making my way through those cobs it was natural,not a second thought about it. As much as the cobs fields are concerned I can’t link the vanishing of my fear to anything else then being too old to still think that someone armed with an electric saw can jump out and attack me.The overcome aversion for labyrinths is an other story.It is not totally overcome, but my way to look at them changed.I suppose that the fact that they always made me feel claustrophobic and afraid of getting lost had more to do with the association between labyrinth and life.I used to see life like a labyrinth you have to navigate to get to your destination.This was trapping me in a unicursal reality with one way in,one way out and a single through-route with twist and turns but no branches.I was walking through a complex path that,at the same time,it was also not difficult at all as it was only offering a single extremely unambiguous route.Fortunately or unfortunately life is multicursal.Life is not a labyrinth ,it is a maze: a complex,branching puzzle that includes choices of path and direction.Once we ascend and descend the centre of the labyrinth or the maze the result is the same:we reborn,we meet our feminine or masculine side,we kill our demons and free our souls from the mean side.It is the journey that is different.The maze that is in my head,the maze I am living in,has various level of difficulty and complexity.There are multiple points of entrance and exit or just one entrance and one exit but definitely with a complex of paths between them.