The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell)

Can you believe that I bought this Wiggle Worm for Sarah (who recently turned 42) then Rob (now 38) played with it... here's Eric (who turned 35 this past July) holding it... somehow I saved the d*mn thing, and now it's in five-year-old Colin's toy-and-book basket in my car, next to his carseat?!?  Everything old truly *is* new again... 💖

Today was a hard day, and then a lovely day, then boomeranging back to difficult (I mean, hello?  What do I expect?  This is my life right now.  This will continue to be my life... 💔).  Sarah had the fabulous idea for us to attend the River of Grass UU service this morning, not only for spiritual sustenance (which we received times a bazillion), but also to get an idea of the logistics for Saturday's Celebration of Life.  Rev. Amy is the total package:  enthusiastic, calming, thought-provoking, inclusive.  

No surprise (but it was!) that the opening music was Joni's The Circle Game, which has been one of our family's songs for decades, as I always played it for each child's birthday dinner.  I am keeping track of the synchronicities since Eric passed and there *will* be such a blog post soon.  I also "borrowed" the poem and book Amy used in the service for this blog post.  The theme was Indigenous Peoples Day, and she spoke of Circling Spiraling Sacred.  Exactly where I needed to be.

Afterward... Chico, Sarah, and I went to Brandon's (just a few blocks down the road) where I had veggie pho (not all pho restaurants have a veggie broth option, you know).  I ate two small spring rolls, and then asked for a To Go container, but not before breathing in the lovely aroma, like a hug in a bowl.  Had half for dinner tonight, and will save the remainder for tomorrow.

Then home to translate all my notes into Action Items... then a most lovely two-hour phone call with dear friend/college roomie Linda (who knew Eric from infancy).  I cried a lot, but I laughed too.  She, her husband Craig, and their daughter Rachel will be here next weekend.  Speaking of circling... my wagons are beginning to... ↻

After I upload these musings, I am going to curl up with one of Eric's Spotify playlists, which I wasn't able to handle until now (well, I think I can handle it)... 🤞

SONG:  The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

[In a concert at the Albert Hall in London on October 29, 1970, Joni Mitchell, who was already friends with Young by the time he wrote this song, opened her song "Circle Game" with this speech:

Mitchell: "In 1965 I was up in Canada, and there was a friend of mine up there who had just left a rock'n'roll band  - he had just newly turned 21, and that meant he was no longer allowed into his favourite haunt, which was kind of a teeny-bopper club and once you're over 21 you couldn't get back in there anymore; so he was really feeling terrible because his girlfriends and everybody that he wanted to hang out with, his band could still go there, you know, but it's one of the things that drove him to become a folk singer was that he couldn't play in this club anymore. 'Cause he was over the hill... So he wrote this song that was called "Oh to live on sugar mountain" which was a lament for his lost youth. And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called The Circle Game."]

BOOK:  She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader by J.G. Annino

POEM:  Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo

To pray you open your whole self

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon

To one whole voice that is you.

And know there is more

That you can’t see, can’t hear;

Can’t know except in moments

Steadily growing, and in languages

That aren’t always sound but other

Circles of motion.

Like eagle that Sunday morning

Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky

In wind, swept our hearts clean

With sacred wings.

We see you, see ourselves and know

That we must take the utmost care

And kindness in all things.

Breathe in, knowing we are made of

All this, and breathe, knowing

We are truly blessed because we

Were born, and die soon within a

True circle of motion,

Like eagle rounding out the morning

Inside us.

We pray that it will be done

In beauty.

In beauty.

QUOTE:  "For in grief nothing 'stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round.  Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?" ~ C. S. Lewis