🪶 The Circle Returns II
🪶 The Circle Returns II
"Grandmother smiled into the fire, and the stars filled up the sky..."
Some truths are too deep to explain with a sermon.
They must be lived.
They must be watched.
They must be felt.
One of those truths is the sacred circle.
The Nemenhah people have long taught that life moves in circles rather than straight lines. The sun rises in the east and returns again. The seasons continually turn. A seed falls into the earth, dies, and returns as a harvest. Water rises into the clouds only to fall again as rain.
Nothing in the Creator's world is wasted.
Everything returns.
That same pattern is found in our own lives.
Every act of kindness begins a circle.
Every harsh word begins a circle.
Every forgiveness...
Every mercy...
Every sacrifice...
Every selfish act...
Like ripples upon still water, they travel far beyond what we can see.
Eventually, they return.
This is not merely a law of nature.
It is a law of the heart.
The Book of Mormon teaches that "wickedness never was happiness." That is not simply because God declares it so, but because every choice eventually bears fruit after its own kind. Likewise, love, mercy, patience, and charity produce a harvest that blesses both the giver and the receiver.
Grandmother understood something our hurried world often forgets.
The goal is not to control what comes back.
The goal is to become the kind of person who naturally sends goodness into the world.
That is why the chorus says:
What you send out returns again...
Not as a threat.
Not as a promise of reward.
But as an invitation to live in harmony with the Creator's design.
The Medicine Wheel teaches that every direction has something to offer us. The East reminds us to hope. The South teaches endurance. The West refines us through trial. The North grants wisdom born of experience.
Life is not a straight climb.
It is a sacred journey around the circle.
Perhaps that is why the Savior never conquered by force.
He healed.
He forgave.
He lifted.
He served.
He sent compassion into the world, trusting His Father with the harvest.
That is the Peacemaker's path.
Zion itself is a circle.
No one is left outside.
No poor among them.
No forgotten widow.
No lonely child.
No empty chair.
Everyone belongs.
As I imagine Grandmother sitting beside the evening fire, I can almost hear her final words echoing through the generations:
"The sacred hoop is still turning."
The question is not whether the circle continues.
It always will.
The question is...
What are we sending into it today?
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