Wheel within a wheel a turning

Ezekiel saw a wheel a-turning,
Way in the middle of the air,
A wheel within a wheel a-turning,
Way in the middle of the air,
And the little wheel turned by faith,
And the big wheel turned
By the grace of God,
Ezekiel saw a wheel a turning,
Way in the middle of the air.

Ezekiel saw a flame a-burning,
Way in the middle of the air,
A flame within a flame a-burning,
Way in the middle of the air,
And the little flame burned by faith,
And the big flame burned
By the grace of God,
Ezekiel saw a flame a-burning,
Way in the middle of the air.

A thousand thousand years ago, when I was part of a Brownie Troop (tiny not-quite Girl Scouts), we used to sing this song. It captured my imagination back then - do you know it? We third grade girls didn't exactly sound like this, but we sang our young voices out on this like we did with everything else. Nobody cheered at the end. We just had a good time.

Lots of stuff works likes those visions of Ezekiel. "Son of man, can these bones live?" "O Lord God, thou knowest." Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. Wheel within a wheel. Ezekiel must have had a very strong mind to be able to take it all in and then say what he'd seen.

With C.S. Lewis, I too believe that this world is the one of phantoms and shadows. It is a reality that is but is not yet. The world to come is the Real World. We just can't see it yet. Like young children who watch the adult world and see only what they can see, we look into the Real World and wonder what it will be. What we will be when we get there. And we have our own echoes of it now.

People are wheels within wheels, I think. (I suppose this shows a lot of cheek to talk like this now, before I've studied it in school. (did I mention? I'm going to school!) -- but maybe this can just be the "before" shot of my perspective. I'm sure I'll have an "after" perspective to go with it.) But it seems to me that wheel within a wheel is a wonderful way to envision humans - and their interactions with each other.

The wheel turns around the wheel. Your gender turns around your place in your family, which turns around your birth sign, which turns around your personality type, which turns around ... your style!

No kidding, with all the sincerity I am and have, I tell you the truth. For an utterly unique to you, not "typed," not bound by any of those larger wheels, yet functioning within them and effecting all of them, if you want to know at a conscious level how you effect your own story, do the deceptively simple, deeply revealing work to name your own personal style. I thought it was a silliness at first. A new girl fad. Baseless. An expression of the rich West's fascination with all things narcissistic. But I've had my mind changed. One of the wheels within those wheels can be found in the unique work of Carrie McCarthy & Danielle LaPorte. If you're looking for a fully conscious life, I can highly recommend to you the use of this book. (Or, if you can afford it, a consultation -- I have the book.) Life as art. Life lived on purpose. Designed life. Choices instead of mere reactions. An "examined" life lived large. Style before fashion. This is a good book.