Making Full Circles

It’s a children’s game, drawing circles, but it gives us an undeniable sense of completion when the two pencil marks join. We talk about tying up loose ends, wrapping something up, and a story has a beginning, middle, and end. What a tidy way to describe our life experiences.

Circles of fifths, circles of friends, circles of stones, circles round the moon, circling the sun, and the circle of life. How do circles play a role in your philosophical or your daily life?

I’m knitting a shawl. I purchased the wool from a friend in Missouri. After spinning it into yarn and plying it, I dyed the yarn using some dried bug bodies*. The shawl is a variegated Rasberry red color. It reminds me of being awed in a Santa Fe Museum, by seeing ancient cloth dyed this same way.

(*Wikipedia “Traditionally, cochineal was used for coloring fabrics. Cochineal dye was used by the Aztec and Maya peoples of North and Central America as early as the second century BC. inhabitants of Peru have been producing cochineal dyes for textiles since early in the Middle Horizon period (600–1000 CE)”.)

In completing the shawl I will have completed many circles: having made from scratch something to wrap around my shoulders, having processed fleece that once clothed a sheep, having used the old ways of spinning and dying fiber that touches my 2022 life back to those who lived in 600 CE.

If that seems obtuse to you, here’s another recent full circle. In 1968 my ex and I recorded our folk-rock music rehearsals. In 2022 we just put out a CD “Raw, Spiced, and Seasoned” made from unearthed cassette tapes. The full circle is that the project has both the Raw (original sounds) and the same songs Spiced and Seasoned in 2022 by Rush Beesley. https://crowjohnsonevans.com/store/

Then and now have touched each other. Full circle.

“Down Home Style” (aka Bag End) from this recording talks about life circles. Here’s the link.

Have you had these kinds of full-circle experiences? How have they made you feel?