"And the seasons they go round and round..."

"And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return
we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game..."

As the seasons change and patterns seem to emerge, both good and…well, not so good, I find myself humming this song almost unconsciously.  I love Joni Mitchell, and I love this song. There is a magic to it that is all wrapped up in being a young woman with dreams of staving off the slow slide into a life of consumerism and conformity, and living a purpose driven existence full of social activism and global responsibility.  Just hearing Joni's voice is like a clarion call to something noble and selfless. 

But as much as I love this song…any Joni song…Circle Game does seem to be an anthem for the kind of carousel riding – round and round, up and down and you can't get off –thinking that leave you feeling a bit unsettled and dizzy with blurred vision.

One symptom of this kind of thinking…thinking that seemed to surface every year for me as winter approached, was influenza…or the flu.  That unwelcome cycle of colds and coughs which tried to get my attention by screaming "my turn, my turn…let me jump on the carousel with you and sit on the next horse chattering all the way…round and round, up and down…can I, can I, can I?".  And before I knew it I would find myself running in place at a full gallop, with a running nose, but getting nowhere …before I realized it.

For a long time I would just battle with the whole suggestion that there could even be cycles.  I would avoid carousels at all cost.  I would absolutely deny the premise that anything could return, repeat, persist, or persevere.  But one day I came across this statement from one of my favorite passages (passage below with this particular statement in bold) from Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,

"The physical healing of Christian Science results now,
as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle,
before which sin and disease lose their reality in human
consciousness and disappear as naturally and as
necessarily as darkness gives place to light
and sin to reformation.
Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural,
but supremely natural. 
They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us,"
--a divine influence ever present in human
consciousness and repeating itself,
coming now as was promised aforetime,

To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised.

This was a powerful realization for me.  I wasn't in the business of destroying the "repetitive", but of claiming it for God.  The only influenza, or influence that was repeating itself in my life, or in the life of my children or neighbors…local and global…was that divine influence.  And this divine influence had as its source God as Mind…the only Mind that even had the intelligence to remember, to recall, to repeat…and the divine could only repeat the truth…that which was good, perfect, enduringly present in human consciousness.

All that can go "round and round and round" within our schools, our neighborhoods, our villages, and outposts is this divine influence.  It spreads quickly through our system warming us with its promise of love, grace, joy.  It's radiant love shows itself in selfless behavior, it's flush of joy is evidenced in bright smiles, it's persistent song is "peace, be still" echoing through the chambers of thought and it circulates a message of "God is All-in-all" through every heart…it is the music on my carousel.

Truth is repeating itself.  Truth is insistent, health is imperative, purity is assertive, and God is All-in-all.

This is what goes "round and round and round" in my heart today…
Kate