Paul Meier, pastor of East Hill Friends Church in Kent, stands on the woodland trail his church has created. The trail, constructed for meditation, is open to all.<\/b><\/p>\n
Meditation is good for the soul. It can also be good for the bank account, as one Kent church recently discovered.<\/p>\n
The East Hill Friends Church decided last summer to create a meditation trail on three acres of wooded land behind the church building, at 22600 116th Ave. S.E.<\/p>\n
Thanks to that trail, the church received a property-tax exemption of more than $2,000 from the county this year for that 3-acre lot, according to church treasurer Yvonne Kirkland.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we get to pay $13 \u2013 if you round up \u2013 for the whole year,\u201d Kirkland said.<\/p>\n
The $13 is for a 3-foot strip of land that sticks out from the woodland into the church parking lot, which doubles as a park-and-ride lot. The church earns a small fee for use of the lot, so that area doesn\u2019t count as tax exempt. Not that anyone at the church is complaining.<\/p>\n
Church member Jim Teeters came up with the idea of a meditation trail. He said he was inspired by a visit last year to a Japanese garden in Olympia, which featured a similar sort of pathway.<\/p>\n
The meditation trail is short – only 900 feet for the U-shaped main trail – but feels longer due to nine little paths branching off from the main one. Each side trail leads to a tiny clearing with a bench, where walkers can stop for rest, prayer and contemplation.<\/p>\n
The offshoot trails each feature a wooden marker engraved with a different \u201cfruit of the Spirit\u201d from Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.<\/p>\n
Since a different church member or family worked on each station, no two are quite alike, as witnessed by the eclectic assortment of benches \u2014 one a store-bought iron-frame park bench, another hand-made wood, another gray plastic – and in one clearing no bench at all, but instead a ring of tree stumps.<\/p>\n
So far, the trail has taken about six months to create, Teeters estimated.<\/p>\n
A tri-corner kiosk, built by Auburn resident Rich Frishholz, was installed April 7 at the entrance to the trail.<\/p>\n
The kiosk holds pamphlets explaining the trail\u2019s purpose and giving brief descriptions of each of the nine virtues. The pamphlets also bear the trail\u2019s name: the Dave Kirkland Memorial Meditation Trail, named in memory of Yvonne Kirkland\u2019s late husband.<\/p>\n
With the installation of the kiosk, the main phase of trail work is complete, although Teeters was quick to say that \u201cthere\u2019s still a lot of work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to slowly try to get rid of invasive plants,\u201d Teeters said, mentioning as an example the climbing ivy that had overrun the \u201cPatience\u201d station area.<\/p>\n
Come summertime, Teeters said that the church will use some of its tax-exemption savings to hire a teenager to maintain and supervise the trail.<\/p>\n
It takes only 10 minutes or so to walk the whole trail, including the offshoots. Someone who stops to sit for a few minutes at each station will complete the walk in closer to a half hour, Teeters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA meditation walk is just a slow walk where, in a Christian sense, you open your heart to God,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIf you go really slow and sit down (at each station) … by the end of the trail you\u2019re feeling really peaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the trail likely will be used primarily by the church\u2019s members, Teeters emphasized that it\u2019s open to everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the whole idea,\u201d he said. \u201cAnyone from the community who would like to take a walk can come.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information about the meditation trail or the East Hill Friends Church, call the church office at 253-859-5060.<\/p>\n
Contact Christine Shultz at 253-872-6600, ext. 5056, or e-mail cshultz@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meditation is good for the soul. It can also be good for the bank account, as one Kent church recently discovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10385"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}