Circle of Life: a winding path of despair, hope, faith and love
“The Circle of Life” seems an appropriately large, thought-provoking piece of music—from a cartoon!—with which to launch Grounded Relating’s Monday Music Challenge. One of my favorite, favorite songs is “The Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” album and children’s movie of the same name. I love this song. It’s fun to sing, you can do voices, there’s a bunch of gobbbly-gook at the start–sometimes LIFE itself is a bunch of gobbly-gook, so I love that symmetry. (Reality as it is: good, bad or indifferent.)
At the watering hole of life, just like on the African safari, some of us drink, some of us eat, and some of us are eaten. There’s not necessarily a huge rhyme or reason to it all. With your thought forms you can create whatever you want to manifest about it, but I wonder if at the baseline, there just isn’t a real rhyme or reason. Which is fine, when viewed as a Yes-AND! But, maybe don’t stay there too long, because it could get depressing. Use “The Circle of Life” song to help lighten the mood.
You can never do it all!
For over achievers, I think this song spells it out pretty clear: You can never do it all. What a potential blessed sentiment of relief! You can’t do it all, so you can stop trying to do it all; you have choices, be discerned where you put your energy. The lyrics say: “….there’s more to be seen than can ever be seen. There’s far too much to take in here, more to find than can ever be found….”
For me personally, “The Lion King[‘s]” “The Circle of Life” song, captures the essence of humility, surrender and compassion, from a child-like perspective, that my ego can play with, staying in harmony, without too much dissonance. And I find, when I can approach life from that vector of this song, I actually do experience some Ease, with an intentional capital “E.”
In order to find peace, bliss, non-attachment, “one-ness”, I wonder if you don’t have to develop in equal measures humility, surrender and compassion?
Finding our place on the winding circle of life’s path unwinding
For me, the following phrases point in that general direction: “… The Circle of Life….it moves us all: through despair and hope, through faith and love. Until we find our place on the path unwinding….”
The path unwinding? What could that be? The path? Insert: of life, of marriage, of person-hood, of health recovery, of money-making, of career choices, whatever–The Path is unwinding, and ever unfolding. Each and every one of us must pass through all the phases: despair, hope, faith, love, and whatever else is in store for us. There’s no “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
But, “….the sun rolling high, in the sapphire sky, keeps great and small on the endless round, The Circle of Life….”
So I love listening to this song. It shifts my attitude, my latitude…it opens my heart to Hope and Potential. It says there’s a place for me “on this endless round;” and sometimes, I need that. I need that sometimes to buoy me in this ocean of life, to ground me into the experiences I am having now, while I also (Yes-AND!) hold and remember future potentials that may arise quite differently from this now, which I am focusing on, through the lyrics of this very poignant song of a child’s cartoon.
It’s Monday; time to WAKE UP!
Remember the Grounded Relating Monday Music challenge:
As you go through your day today, can you be conscious to the music around you, where you are now? Are the birds singing? Can you hear them? Can you still your thoughts long enough to hear the birds? What about the insects buzzing? Can you quiet your mind long enough to see the beauty of something outside of yourself? Can you experience the honking of traffic, the rush of people in their own lives, the beating of the collective heart, the Muzak in the elevator, the music at the gas station while you fill up the car: are you listening? Or are you on automatic?
What is your consciousness trying to rise up in your awareness, in this NOW? Pay attention.
It’s a practice. And music is just one of the many ways to help transport you, bridge your gaps, make new neuron pathways. Monday Music from Grounded Relating is here to help. Give us a try and let us know how it goes?
“The Circle of Life” full lyrics (by Tim Rice), composed by Elton John follow below:
From the day we arrive on the planet,
And blinking, step into the sun.
There’s more to see than can ever be seen,
More to do than can ever be done.
There’s far too much to take in here,
More to find than can ever be found.
But the sun rolling high in the sapphire sky,
Keeps great and small on the endless round.
It’s The Circle of Life.
And it moves us all,
through despair and hope,
through faith and love.
Until we find our place
on the path unwinding,
in the circle, The Circle of Life.
Some say eat or be eaten
Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stampede,
You should never take more than you give.
In The Circle of Life.
It’s the wheel of fortune,
It’s the leap of faith,
It’s the band of hope,
Till we find our place
on the path unwinding,
in the circle, The Circle of Life.
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles,
And some have to live with the scars.
There’s far too much to take in here,
More to find than can ever be found.
But the sun rolling high in the sapphire sky,
Keeps great and small on the endless round.
It’s The Circle of Life.
And it moves us all,
through despair and hope,
through faith and love.
Until we find our place
on the path unwinding,
in the circle, The Circle of Life
