The Circle Game

I am reminded today of a Joni Mitchell song that talks about "seasons going round and round" and "painted ponies going up and down," and most of all, us going "round and round and round" in what she calls "the circle game." There are days that feel just like that--as if we are on a carousel that won't stop, in a life that won't slow down, with days that send us around and around in order for us just to make it through.

We like to think our paths are linear. We like to think that if we want it, and we work for it, our next step will be getting it, whatever "it" is. But more often than not, life is not so linear. We work toward, and then find ourselves falling off the carousel and having to find our way back to it. We let ourselves be spun around and around until we are so dizzy, we can't even remember where it was we intended to go. And we somehow manage the passage of time, even when most of it seems to happen when we have our backs turned.

Today, I am reminded of how much of a "circle game" this life really is. And I am reminding myself to remember that the song is about accepting the game and moving with it. It may be dizzying. But if we can manage the "round and round and round," perhaps we can come out winners, at least sometimes, in "the circle game."