Can’t help but ponder circle of life

Do we experience a circle of life here on Earth or is it more like a merry-go-round?

I’ve pondered that question a bit since I returned to my hometown of Portales in 2005. After a quarter century of living in different and even wonderful places, coming home — while it’s not that exciting most of the time — has been very comfortable.

That realization has really been driven home recently as my wife just completed a rehab stay at Heartland Continuing Care.

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The building she was in was the same building where I was born. It was previously the county hospital and the only place I’ve ever been an in-patient myself — eight days in my junior year of high school after my appendix nearly burst.

I remember delivering newspapers to the hospital on a daily basis in high school and junior high. The Pink Ladies (hospital auxiliary) still has an office there in the old gift shop.

A few things have changed but a lot is still the same. Actually I think the bed my wife stayed in could have been among the originals at the old hospital because it had three Model T-type cranks at the foot.

The people there more than anything caused me to wonder if there were a “circle of life” thing going on there.

Among the residents were:

• a businessman and grocer the whole town looked up to in my youth,

• a grade-school teacher approaching nine decades old who still remembers her students by name and traits,

• a gentleman I remembered as a great softball player in the days of fastpitch softball in Portales,

• and, most distinctly, a couple of ladies from our church who were almost like extra grandmothers because we ran with their kids and grandkids growing up.

Could it be that I’m destined to complete my circle of life in the same facility where I came into this world?

I hope I’m not anywhere close to finished experiencing what God has for me on this Earth but when he tells me it’s time for the final phase I don’t think there would be a better place to be.

Elton John said it best in his song “Circle of Life:”

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 through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]