Going Round In Circles

When I was a maths teacher I enjoyed practical geometry lessons… teaching children to use compasses safely, without injuring themselves or each other… drawing accurate circles…

Yesterday at Men’s Shed I learnt a new skill. Martin and I are making wheelbarrow planters… Michael Jackson (real name!) showed us how to use a band saw to cut circles of wood for the wheels.

Musing… Sometimes I go round in circles…

…Circles of Captivity. My thoughts, words and actions go round in circles that I can’t escape from… bad habits…

Thinking of friends who suffer with addictions… repeated thoughts and behaviours that imprison them. Friends with dementia… repeated, limited patterns of speech.

Chatting to Paul yesterday. He had a disagreement with his friend Alex. Paul apologised for any hurt caused and thought all was sorted out. Alex returns to the matter frequently…

Addictions, dementia, Alex, my bad habits… going round in a circles of captivity.

…Circles of Confusion. I’m facing a difficulty or a problem. There’s no apparent solution… I think more, become anxious… still no solution…

Remembering the old song ‘Windmills of your Mind’:

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel…

…As the images unwind, like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!

…There’s a restless uneasiness, uncertainty… thinking of friends suffering with mental ill-health – depression, anxiety…

Friends’ mental ill-health… My unsettled, frustrated windmills… going round in circles of confusion…

…Circles of Construction. Some patterns of thought, word and deed are positive… good habits to be encouraged…

Acts of kindness and generosity; words of encouragement or compassion… remembering a birthday or anniversary… for Christian friends, the repeated sacrament of bread and wine…

Later this week will be my brother Chris’s funeral. We shall remember… These memories will continue in the future – positive, deliberate, repeated, intentional memories.

Good habits, memories to be celebrated and cultivated… going round in circles of construction.