Hello Reader,

I've had "The Circle Game" stuck in my head for three days now. Which is fine — it's a great song. But it's been bothering me in a specific way that I can't leave alone.

It's not a circle.

Joni Mitchell wrote about seasons coming and going, about children becoming adults, about time spinning us around and around. The imagery is a carousel. A circle. You leave, you come back, you're where you started.

Except you're not.

Here's what actually happens. You go through a season — a busy stretch, a hard quarter, a productive run — and then it ends. Things quiet down. And then, a few months later, you feel the pull again. A similar pace, similar pressures, similar patterns. It feels like you've been here before.

But look closer.

You haven't returned to the same point on a circle. You've reached a similar point on an oval. You're in familiar territory, but you're not in the same place. The shape of what you're moving through is elongated — stretched in the direction of wherever you're actually headed. You loop back around, yes. But each loop puts you further along.

This matters more than it sounds.

When we think of time as circular, we tend to assume that what didn't work last time won't work next time either. We write off the patterns as just "how things go." The circle becomes an excuse. But if the shape is actually an oval — if there's a direction built into the arc — then the return isn't a repetition. It's a second pass with more information. A chance to do something different on the same stretch of road.

The oval doesn't trap you. It gives you another shot at the part you missed.

I still love the song. Joni nailed the feeling — the bittersweetness of time moving faster than we'd like, of seasons that end before we're ready. That part's exactly right.

But I think the geometry has been misleading us. We're not captive on a carousel. We're moving through something that loops, yes — but also goes somewhere.

That changes how you approach the lap you're on right now.

The Final Flicker

You're not back where you started. You're back at a familiar bend, but you're further along than you were the last time you came through here. Don't waste the second pass by assuming it's the same as the first.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. The oval plays out every week too — same Monday, same pressures, same patterns. If you want the next lap to look different from the last one, Your Clockwise Week is where that work starts.

Thanks for reading. Your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. In a world pulling us in all directions, thanks for choosing The Lantern.