Let’s Circle Back
There’s a phrase that somehow escaped the workplace and made its way into everyday life.
“Let’s circle back.”
And not just in meetings—
we use it everywhere now.
Let’s circle back to that coffee meet-up.
I’ll circle back to folding the laundry.
We can circle back to taking the trash out.
I’ve even circled back to getting gas—
only to remember later it still needs to get done…
and now it’s raining, cold, and somehow worse than before.
But it’s not just the harmless stuff we circle back to…
Sometimes it’s a person.
Someone you knew before.
Someone you had something with… even if you never fully defined it.
And somehow, it comes back around.
A connection. A conversation.
Another moment where you find yourself thinking… huh.
And then life happens.
Timing, choices, other people…
So you move on.
Until one day… you don’t.
And you find yourself drifting—
a little closer,
a little more aware—
back into each other’s orbit.
And it’s easy to justify.
There’s history.
There was something there.
It wasn’t nothing.
And maybe now it’s different.
Maybe now it lands.
The truth is…
this feels a little like that.
Like here we are again.
I recognize this space.
And this time, I know some things.
Life happened while you were gone.
I know myself more.
So, sitting there—
hours in, pizza, cookies, coffee…
and suddenly it’s 3am like that wasn’t even the plan—
the inner dialogue starts—
oh… we’re going there?
we’re talking about this? okay…
are we actually saying how we feel
or are we … staying up here, circling it?
am I going to say what I really think
or am I just going to leave certain things unsaid… for now?
you know that moment—
where you’re half in it, and half watching it happen in real time.
and I know a little more now.
Like… I don’t need to pretend something was nothing
just to keep it comfortable.
And I also don’t need to turn it into more than it is
just to make it meaningful.
Both can be true.
not rushing it,
not labeling it,
not deciding anything yet.
Just… noticing.
Noticing what feels familiar.
Noticing what feels different.
Because circling back
isn’t always about getting a different outcome.
Sometimes it’s just about seeing it
more clearly the second time around.
And yeah…
there’s always that little part of us that wants to believe
maybe this time—if things line up just right—
you get a different version of the story.
But I’ve also learned—
if nothing changes, nothing changes.
And that’s not a judgment.
It’s just awareness.
I’m just here…
Seeing it for what it is,
as it is, right now.
Without rushing to decide what it has to be.
So yeah…
No need to land the plane just yet.
We can circle back.
We always do.
