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Editor's Note: The following article originally appeared during the week of December 13, 2004, in "Gordon Kirkland At Large," a syndicated newspaper column. It is reprinted in Circle! with the permission of the author. ©2004, Gordon Kirkland

All My Life's A Circle

by Gordon Kirkland

The late Harry Chapin used to end each concert with the song, All My Life's A Circle.

All my life's a circle
Sunrise and sundown
The moon rolls through the nighttime
Til the day break comes around.

That song has been running through my mind a lot this week. I know it doesn't sound particularly like something one would normally think about during the Christmas season. The airwaves are filled with the sounds of Bing Crosby singing White Christmas and Mel Torme singing about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Unfortunately I will no doubt also be hearing Nana Mouskouri singing Ave Maria, something that can just about put me over the edge, but that's another story for another time.

Those songs ringing in the background seems to reemphasize what Harry Chapin was saying.

All my life's a circle, sunrise and sunset.

Each year at this time we sit and listen to those same songs, decorate a tree, or get a little goofy at an office party, and the circle has come around once again.

I'm writing this column in the airport in Toronto, waiting for a plane to take me home; something I have done so many times before this year. I've sat in the airport waiting to leave, and I've sat in an airport waiting to come home.

All my life's a circle.

Most of my trips this year have been for appearances in different parts of North America. This one isn't. Last Monday morning, my brother-in-law passed away after a heroic fight with cancer.

I flew back to be with my sister through the days leading up to and following the funeral. My sister, brother and I were all together once again, in a city that I had spent so much of my misspent youth. Driving from the Toronto airport to London, Ontario was a route that I had taken so many times before. This morning I reversed the route and returned to the airport.

All my life's a circle.

The funeral was healing. We're an Irish family, so the tradition of the wake the night before was upheld. Bob had requested a plain unfinished casket so that the people at the wake could write messages on it before it went to the crematorium. His grandchildren wrote messages of love, his friends wrote messages and joked with him to the end. One, a master carpenter wrote, "Nice box, Bob. Why didn't I build it?"

It was hard to say goodbye to a man I had known for over forty years, but all our lives are circles. His just wasn't big enough for my liking. Sunset came too early. People like me are left behind to mourn his passing, and to go on without him. Our circles are still spinning.

All my life's a circle.
And I can't tell you why
The seasons keep on spinning
The years keep rolling by

As if on cue, to further bring home the concept of circles this week, my niece, gave birth to a baby boy, just three days after Bob's funeral, and starting a new circle with a new sunrise.

Kyle Robert Bethel, came into the world in time for me to see him before heading back to the West Coast. I got to see one circle close and another begin. Harry Chapin's voice hasn't stopped running around in circles in my mind since I saw the baby yesterday.

During the holiday season we all sometimes feel like we are going in circles. It may even feel like it is out of our control. It puts the words to that song into context with what has gone on in my life over the past seven days, and what is going on in all of our lives as we draw to the end of the circle that has been spent in 2004, I can only hope that Harry was right.

All my life's a circle
Sunrise and sundown
I just can't shake this feeling
That we'll all be together again.

As 2005 approaches, to start a new circle, I wish you all happiness, joy, love and peace; the things that Bob Shimer gave to all he knew as they traveled along in his circle.

Bye for now, Bob. Welcome to the start of your circle Kyle Robert.

All our lives are circles.

Gordon Kirkland is a Canadian syndicated humor columnist, author and comedian. His latest book is When My Mind Wanders It Brings Back Souvenirs (AuthorHouse, 2005) ISBN 1-4208-1150-9. For more information about Gordon visit http://www.gordonkirkland.com.

Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on June 7