The Circle

What is a circle?  Have you ever really stopped to think of the definition of a circle?  Such a common symbol in our culture and yet what does it really mean? 

The dictionary defines it as:

1. a round plane figure whose boundary (the circumference) consists of points equidistant from a fixed point (the center).

 2. a group of people with shared professions, interests, or acquaintances.

 

I have been thinking about this more recently given the state of things in our world and what we as Humanity have been going through and are in the midst of now with so many things happening globally. We have been through so much division in this country and globally. So much is happening everywhere on our planet. It seems so appropriate to apply the principle of the circle to all of this as Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha has taught me over the years that I have known her.

She has always spoken of how we have to come together as a species around the circle. "There are no sides she says." In the years that I have known Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, I would love to hear her stories of her childhood and how she was raised. I was always enthralled to listen to how they would get together in the council house in a circle and make decision and resolve conflicts. I Always remember thinking what an amazing way to resolve things. There are no sides. There is no right or wrong. Whatever the difference is just means you sit on the opposite side of the circle. 

The first definition describes the circle as “equidistant points from a fixed point, the center." Think about this for a moment. What is the common denominator? The Center.  What comes to my mind as I think about this is that at the center is the "The Source", whatever and however you define that source, God, Allah, Buddha, etc.  It is the One that is in all things. Therefore, we all emanate from the same "source." 

Imagine what world we could all create if we all believed in this as a human species. There are no differences between us there is no color of skin, there is no religion, there is no separation of countries and governments. We are all the same. This is what Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha has taught me. 

Imagine a world like this. This is my choice at this time, I choose to see a world where we can do this; where people live in peace and harmony with each other; where when we have differences we can come to the circle and discuss them just as in the Council house as Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha shared. In the circle we recognize the opposites. We can't have love if we don't have hate, we can't have white if we don't have black, we can't have light if we don't have dark. We live in a world of duality. We must have opposites. It is how we observe these opposites that becomes the key.  But one thing that I have learned and really understood more deeply lately in all my time with Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha is that I cannot make a judgment or choose a side. I need to be the observer.  In judging it I only fuel it.  I don't stand against something. I stand FOR something.  I really understand this now. 

With so much happening in our world and seeing how information is manipulated and distorted has really put me in that place of " observer."  And I thank God every day for the gift of Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha in my life because she has been that beacon of light shining the way and I am eternally grateful for that. 

The second definition is about a group of people with shared interest and professions.  What comes to my mind as I write this is about the concept of community? Community is about being part of a circle of people. In Scott Beck’s book The Different Drum he states, " In and through community lies the salvation of the world. For the human race today stands at the brink of self annihilation." When I read this statement, it hit me hard.

We have lost our sense of community. We are definitely far from the early settlers of New England where in a sermon preached by John Winthrop, the fist governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1650, speaking to his fellow colonists shortly before they set foot on land, he urged them.  " We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body. "

We definitely have strayed far from this. I have seen how things have changed so drastically especially with technology from not only when was I was a kid (it didn't exist) but just in having my own kids, who my eldest is 31. There was not so much emphasis on technology my kids played out on the streets in our neighborhood. They played with toys, they played hide and seek on our street (much to my neighbor’s chagrin). Kids having cell phones in elementary school was unheard of.  Neighbors hardly talk anymore. I have been fortunate that I live in area where I have made a point to make community with my neighbors. I bake and take them goodies, when someone new has moved into the neighborhood I have taken them a welcoming gift and introduced myself.  We used to have block parties as I was growing up. We would block off the street and all the neighbors would bring pot luck and there was music and the kids would play. So much fun! And such wonderful memories of community.

I have planned to implement this in my neighborhood. I have had this inclination for some time now and I thank Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha for introducing me to the book by Scott Peck, The Different Drum because I fully understand where my inclination is coming from now.  We need to start ' community" again. We need to start even of its with block parties!  We need to connect with each other as a member of community. We must begin as individuals to change the course of how things are going in our world. It is up to us! 

To reach back and grab the hand of your neighbor and pull them forward is to lift up the community as a whole!   And THEN we will have come full Circle.

This is my vision!

 

-MAJ.