Coming Full Circle

Circles are an interesting thing.  As I look back the last couple of days, I notice that circles were all around us, both literally and figuratively.  We untangled circles of Christmas lights from the dead tree in our family room.  We skated in circles as a family at the public skate session.  We sat around a table and ate really good pizzas (which happened to be round) at Dewey’s Pizza.  And we told funny stories in between delicious bites at that restaurant… in a circle. 

The figurative circles are harder to explain.  I think this year will be the year of coming full circle and seeing the other side.  It’s very much like “going around the mountain.”  When you make the trip and see the other side, you end up a changed person.  I see things coming full circle in my job, my extended family, my son, my struggles, and my hopes.  In a lot of ways, those things that have been difficult or confusing have come full circle and though still difficult, seem less painful.  Though the journey might not always be easy or clear, when you get to the other side, you find out it was worth the trip. 

I think I will make this my New Year’s Resolution – to make more circles in life.  In circles, the focus is not on one person.  It is about the group and sharing life together.  In circles, the bond is stronger, the possibilities are endless. 

This year, I also resolve to tread forward in life until I “come full circle.”  In every journey and lesson in life, we don’t know we’ve made it to the end until we see the beginning.  In other words, just by making the journey, we learn what the journey is for and what we are supposed to learn from it.  No matter how difficult the trip or dark the tunnel, we can’t stop treading forward in life until we’ve “come full circle.”  We learn so much about life, ourselves, and the people that we love through circles.   

As I watch my son zip across the ice, I notice that he has come full circle in skating.  He used to stumble and fall a lot more than he does now.  He would get upset and sit on the bench and think it wasn’t possible.  But when he fell, he had to get up again. 

We are the same way.  We will stumble on the journey, fall even, and pout, maybe.  But, we have to get up again. 

Now he flies by us, weaves in and out of groups of people, and doesn’t look back.  He is resolving to get faster and better and he is succeeding. 

Circles are important.  They shed light on the truth.  They are the best cure for loneliness, recipe for success and path of most value. 

I go on many trips.  A trip is from point A to point B.  But, it’s not a journey.  A journey is a circle.  It helps us find the truth and come full circle.  This year, I resolve to do that.