The Long Turn

I spent an hour this morning trying to find my keys, only to realize they were in the pocket of the coat I wore yesterday. It felt like a small, silly failure. I stood in the hallway for a moment, just breathing, thinking about how much of our lives is spent in these tiny, repetitive loops. We wake up, we move through our rooms, we return to the same chairs and the same habits. It is easy to feel like we are just spinning in place, getting nowhere. But then I looked out the window at the trees swaying in the wind. They were moving, too, but they were also growing. Maybe the circles we trace aren’t meant to be traps. Maybe they are just the rhythm of staying grounded while the world keeps turning beneath our feet. If we stopped moving, would we lose our way entirely, or would we finally see the path we were meant to be on all along?

Ronnie Glover has captured this beautiful sense of movement in his image titled Star Trails. It reminds me that even when we feel like we are standing still, we are part of something much larger and more constant. Does looking at the night sky make you feel small, or does it make you feel like you belong?