One Sunday a month, after regular programming and brunch, my study group meets at our meditation center. We discuss teachings from the masters of our spiritual path as they apply to the experiences of our lives.

Whether all nine of us show up on any fourth Sunday, or if only six of us decide to share the 90 minutes, the discussion is perfect. Sometimes our contemplations and personal narratives are largely for unburdening. Sometimes they’re illuminating. They’re always humanizing.

We arrange our chairs in a circle.

Now, I hate many types of circles. Directing street traffic with roundabouts or rotaries instead of with traffic lights makes me want to scream. I go crazy listening to a circular argument when so much of a case leading to a conclusion is based on an assumption.

But there’s something so wonderful about adults sitting in a circle to talk; to speak their minds…. and hearts.

Maybe King Arthur had this in mind when he created the round table – that everyone who sits in a circle understands that they are all equals. There is a democratizing effect of being in a group of people when you can look everyone in the eyes.

Even if one person leads the discussion, everyone feels free, even encouraged, to speak.

Circles create a sort of intimacy. You can see how people feel by their expressions and the way they hold their bodies. They can see you in the same way.

Circles foster a natural orientation towards reciprocity and trust.

People listen to others in their circle because they recognize everyone else as being like them. They listen because they want to be heard.

Sitting in a circle evokes trust. Like the saying What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… you don’t really have to remind each other that what is shared in the group doesn’t become topics of conversation or gossip elsewhere. It’s understood.

And this past Sunday, after I folded my page of next month’s study questions into my book, I felt content. I recognized that I like BELONGING to the fourth Sunday study group.

Sometimes I like to think about the world as a 3-D version of a circle. We’re all just sitting across from each other. We’re never opposite each other.

Thinking of ourselves within our small circles leads to knowing how we fit into a BIGGER CIRCLE, and that’s no small thing.