I grew up with a story handed down,

Carried voice to voice from elder days,

Passed through hands and hearts of generations,

Till it found in me these words to say.

The ground beneath us never was our own,

We're only here to tend it while we stay,

And every step we take, a pattern sewn,

For those who walk this ground another day.

What came before us shapes what we believe,

Those who follow inherit what we leave.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

Every word we speak keeps traveling through,

Every hurt can leave its shadow too.

What we leave behind becomes their beginning,

What they carry starts with what we do.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

Every word we speak becomes a part of what we leave,

Every choice we make can change the way we live,

Every act of kindness leaves a light by which they live,

Every wound we add leaves darkness where they live.

The Circle that we shape is shaping us,

In every word we hear, in all we see,

What we place within comes back to us,

And shapes the people we will come to be.

What came before us shapes what we believe,

Those who follow inherit what we leave.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

Every word we speak keeps traveling through,

Every hurt can leave its shadow too.

What we leave behind becomes their beginning,

What they carry starts with what we do.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

Someday the Creator calls us from this place,

But what we leave behind keeps traveling on,

Through lives we'll never know and paths we cannot trace,

Long after all our footsteps here are gone.

The children yet to come will find us there,

In every path we leave for them to take,

They'll walk the ground entrusted to our care,

And live within the choices that we make.

Our elders are the Circle.

We are the Circle now.

Our children are the Circle.

And generations yet unborn will be the Circle for thousands of years.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

Every word we speak keeps traveling through,

Every hurt can leave its shadow too.

What we leave behind becomes their beginning,

What they carry starts with what we do.

Everything we do changes the Circle,

Everything within the Circle changes you.

What will **you** leave behind?