Have you ever come full circle? It’s a strange way to say that you have “come around”, usually to another point of view. But, I like full circle better because it feels like something you do without being coerced or convinced by someone else. If you just say, I knew you would come around, it feels like you were convinced to change your mind by someone else.
I think each of us would rather come full circle, then to just come around to how someone else thinks. I had a recent experience, where I think several people wanted me to just go along to get along, as they say. I can do that, have done it lots of times in life but I am doing that less and less these days. I think I am called to be authentic and I have learned from teaching in higher education that telling students (or faculty for that matter) what they want or expect to hear does not do anyone any favors. And it does me the least of all favors. No, I think being a contemplative means to be authentic and attentive to the moment.
I like coming full circle. It fits with life as I know it. Yes, I know, Lion King and the circle of life. But, just because its campy doesn’t mean it isn’t true. In our modern minds we see life as linear, one ongoing path that we trudge along till the end. And we do not like the end because it means we are done. But are we? I have read and believe that death is the ultimate act of life. We finish where we start, in the loving arms of the Eternal. The Black church calls it “a home goin'” and I like that. My Irish heritage demands a wake, a celebration of all that the deceased was, replete with bawdy stories and much whisky. Aye, a right fine wake will be special to all who loved (and hated) me.
But there is a more important full circle. Thomas Merton, and others talk about the spiritual life, about seeking salvation in this way: we seek everywhere for what our heart desires most, only to discover that what we have sought has been right here inside of us all along. I like that. I have lived that. The Eternal has loved me from the first moment and when I finally got tired of looking and just gave up, I realized that, had I listened; had I been quiet and still, the Eternal had been calling me from my own heart, all of my life.
I see my college students avoiding the look inward. I have seen so many clients in my practice look everywhere but inward. I learned a long time ago that everything a client needed to be well, to function, they already had inside of them and my job was simply to help them find it. In the words of a popular song from years ago, “Oz never did give nothin to the Tin Man, that he didn’t already have”. We have all been given the keys to the Kingdom, which is within. This day, let us strive to unlock the door, enter into ourselves and find the Pearl of Great Price, who is the Eternal.
TMM