Full Circle

After the Great Flood of 2013 temporarily chased me out of my mountains I decided to make a short trip back to Ohio to visit family and friends. During this two week visit I happened to reconnect with an old college friend I had not spoken to in nearly a decade. On a beautiful early fall day we enjoyed lunch and then took a long walk through Blacklick Woods. The weather was absolutely perfect and as we wandered down the trail through a mix of oaks, maples, and hickories we enjoyed the sound of the birds and squirrels scampering and flitting about around us. We even heard a few frogs calling as we passed over some of the marshy areas that dot that forest. The walk, conversation, and sounds of nature all combined to make for a very agreeable afternoon. We walked around a large loop that eventually brought us back to my friend’s car and I couldn’t help but marvel at the significance of the circle we had just trekked upon.

The friend, that I journeyed with on that day, and I had a rather hard falling out ten years ago while attending college together. Harsh words had been spoken and hard feelings forged. But now both older and hopefully wiser we have buried the hatchet and are friends again in a place not so far from my origins nor the place where we met so long ago. Just like the simple trail we had just traversed together we had come to a full circle at last. I think of the significance of the wild and peaceful place we were surrounded by the power of the circle we crossed.

The earliest inhabitants of this land placed a great importance in both nature and the circle. We can find evidence of this in both their ancient ceremonies and artwork such as the sacred medicine wheel. Life and perhaps fate has taken me far and now I roam the mountains where I firmly believe I belong. Having found my own personal heaven on earth, I cannot ignore the path that brought me here to the high country. Nor, for that matter, can I allow myself to not occasionally complete the sacred hoop and return to my own roots. Returning to the original wild places that inspired me to journey in the beginning, reminds me that the earliest life lessons I took from the land came from here, not my beloved mountains. By coming here I came to appreciate the mountains even more. It is essential that we all give tribute to our beginnings and honor the place we started our journey in life. 

Only by coming to the complete circle can we truly come to term and fully understand who and what we truly are. The true mountain men were not born in the mountains. The seasoned sailor was not born on the sea. The celebrated hero more often than not comes from a humble and unassuming beginning. The mountain man returns to the flats on occasion. The sailor returns to port now and again. The hero returns to the place of his people that came before him. No matter how far you go and no matter where you find yourself be always sure to complete that holy circle every once and awhile so that you may have sacred time to remember who you are and how you got there. 

Sometimes completing the hoop can turn your life around for the better. If the earlier part of your journey was a particularly hard or painful one then do not shy from that past. Embrace it and take a measure of pride in the fact that you overcame those obstacles and endured what a weaker soul may not have been able to. The more you travel on your personal wheel of life, the stronger the wheel becomes and the surer you will become in just where on the wheel you belong.

Whenever I think back to that beautiful day in the Blacklick Woods I will always reflect on how insightful it was and how much I gained from it. Another valuable lesson was learned and a dying ember of friendship was fanned into a great blaze. I know now that my journey through the mountains started here in the forests of Ohio and as surely as I stand here today my journey will bring me back to this place again one day.