Kay:

Hey there, Questers, and welcome back! It’s Thursday, August 13th, and this is Episode 159! We have such a fun quote for you today, that got submitted by a listener, and, more specifically, by a VIL – (a very important listener)…our mom!

Shi:

Aww, well thank you Mom for giving us this inspiration and this simple, yet profound, piece of advice, which is a classic from our childhood, that goes, “Wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round…

Kay & Shi:

…round and round.” And, round and round they go, indeed!

Kay:

Whether you are a young child, or a child at heart, “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” is a song that we have all held near at some point. I know we sing it often in our house, with all the iterations! I think the favorite of all of our children has always been the mommies shushing and the baby’s waa-ing…

Shi:

That’s the highlight of the song for sure! I remember, we had a copy of the book that was like a pull in and out, and like the swishers would go, and the doors would open. We had that version when we were kids…

Kay:

We read that to death!

Shi:

We did! But, it survived the tests of time and actually made it to our kids! And, it’s still in our house to this day, (half of the flaps and things are gone) – but it’s fun! I’ve always loved the quaint town and art of that book, and having that memory. But, the lesson here isn’t about the children literally riding a bus full of crying babies, moms, and all kinds of different things…

Kay:

…Bus driver yelling, “You gotta move it back!”

Shi:

Move it on back – he says! But, this is really about that cyclical and circular nature of life that we see everywhere. You know, the circle of life metaphor, as well as the seasons of life, and lots of other things, use a circle to emphasize their point of this idea that what goes around, comes around!

Kay:

Well, just like the song, the wheels on the bus can feel like they’re never ending, and very similar in every verse. When you go through seasons, you kind of start to realize that there’s a pattern to the way things roll down. I mean, if you’ve ever experienced Winter, then you know that it’s cold, (both metaphorically and in the physical sense in nature), and, if you’ve experienced Summer, you know that it’s hot. If you’ve experienced Fall, you can probably smell that kind of autumnal leaf smell right now. And, if you’ve experienced Spring, you probably know what the flowers look like! But, those also apply to your life because, as above so below, and the wheels of that bus just keep on turning!

Shi:

They go round and round! And, what’s funny about observing the seasons doing this, is there are some people out there who get offended at the passing of the seasons, right?..Like, they lament all of the bad parts of each season, and they’re frustrated…They seem surprised that Fall comes after Summer, and then Winter comes after Fall. But, for the most part, we know that if you’re listening here you probably have some kind of zen with the seasons, and maybe even come to enjoy them, like we do! But, how indignant do we get at the seasons of our life sometimes, right? Like, how DARE Fall come after Summer, or Winter come after harvest – which is probably the hardest one for most of us to bear. But, knowing that it’s the nature of things, why would we get indignant at that?

Kay:

You know, what’s an interesting reflection here is how indignant all of us seem to get when our physical nature Winter goes longer than we anticipate that it should. Like, if it’s a cold week in April, we are all moaning and groaning. And, how often do you make it through a really tough season in your life, only to – (a couple months later) – have a really hard week and it feels like, “Oh my goodness, are the hardships just never going to end?!” But, sometimes seasons last longer, sometimes you get a really tough Winter and it destroys all your crops and you get coronavirus!

Kay & Shi:

*(Laughter)*

Shi:

And, it just seems like winter will never end! Or, as John Snow says, “Winter is coming!” – from Winterfell, of course, in Game of Thrones. But, you know, this is a delightful tale and tune from the children’s song and also a delightful metaphor that we see in so many different ways! One way that we see it is in the great series called The Wheel of Time series, written by Robert Jordan…which is a classic fantasy series – it’s like 14,000 pages total for the 14 books – but it started a lot of inspiration for other writers that we like to follow too. And, in this entire universe within the books, time is weaved on this big wheel. Things come around and they interact with each other and the threads between them. So, it’s interesting to see the way that the (*Shi sings*) circle of life…

Kay:

They come up and they come up! And, as they say in The Wheel of Time, “The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.” So, that’s how life can work as well! And, as a reminder, today’s quote from this classic children’s song submitted by our mom…(Thanks mom!)…was, “The wheels on the bus go round and round.”

Shi:

Which brings us to your quest today! And, it is a circle quest! So, you are on the quest to find circles, and to count all of the circles you see today! Whenever you see a circle, make a mental note and let it serve as a reminder to you of the cyclical nature of things. So – are you ready?

Kay:

Let’s quest!