Resonant Reading (Wednesday)-The Circle Game—Joni Mitchell
2026-01-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Resonant Reading (Wednesday)-The Circle Game—Joni Mitchell An exploration of ideas, feelings, and our life experiences, using a different short reading as our springboard each time. The sessions are on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome to come twice a week or once in a while.

The participants over the years have found that the approach we take, and the respectful, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and converse, are as important as the reading itself. While many small groups begin with a check-in, with a session only an hour long, Resonant Reading jumps right in to the conversation. Those who are frequently in the group get to know each other very well this way, and those who are new will soon find they are among friends.

Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever's Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.

The reading for this session: Wednesday, January 7th

The Circle Game
by Joni Mitchell

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons.
Skated over ten clear frozen streams.
Words like “when you're older” must appease him,
And promises of someday make his dreams

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now.
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town.
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now,
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty.
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true.
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams, and plenty,
Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down.
We're captive on the carousel of time.
We can't return, we can only look
Behind from where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

How to join:

Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/96865808923, passcode [REDACTED]
Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
Join this class by phone: 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923
Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: 6699006833,,96865808923# (San Jose)
Phoning in, but not in the Bay Area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT

This is the Zoom link for Wednesdays. For the Zoom link for Saturday, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.

Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.

*This activity was formerly called "Sacred Text Reading." That proved misleading--for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular--but it's worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:

connect to something of supreme importance to us
feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
feel more intensely alive
align our lives with our values,
perceive or feel more deeply
be more fully and authentically ourselves.
