Circles

When I was a Laurel, I had a wonderful teacher, a young mother who particularly loved to teach us about making homes for our own families in the future and about developing in our homes a special circle of love.

Now that I am married, I am discovering all those circles she taught us about—and some she didn’t. First, there is the circle around your middle that keeps growing and growing till you feel like one big circle—and sometimes that roundness won’t go away easily after the baby is born.

Then there are circles of open mouths crying to be fed, circles in the bottoms of baby bottles, circles around eyes, crayoned circles on the walls. And just when you think you have adjusted fairly well and those circles from dirty dishes and those circles in the bathtub diminish, that circle in the middle starts all over again!

Thank goodness for the other circles that make these circles worthwhile—the circle of family prayer and the circle of priesthood holders giving a blessing. The circle of little arms giving big hugs, and the circles you dance in when your baby takes that first step.

Now I understand why my teacher wanted us to learn about that circle of love. You can’t live in it without becoming well rounded.