https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xSTF3bMu4 I’ve expressed my appreciation for the music and lyrics of Dan Fogelberg before. I also find myself especially moved by songs about the passage of time. In this song, Dan writes about the value of looking to and learning from the past. Here are the song’s lyrics. There’s a ring around the moon tonight and a chill in the air And a fire in the stars that hang so near, so near There’s a sound in the wind that blows through the wild mountain holds Like the sighs of a thousand crying souls, crying souls There’s a time when the traveler is fated to find That insight has turned his gaze behind, behind And the steps taken yesterday will beckon again And lead to his weary journey’s end, his journey’s end And in the passage from the cradle to the grave we are born, madly dancing Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days We run on and on without a backwards glance We run on and on without a backwards glance I cast my fate with the wife of Lot I turned my gaze around Knowing neither what I sought nor what was to be found Heeding weakness, feeding strength, oh life at length is frail I seek again the river’s source through time’s dark shadowed veil In the fast fading century, as we spin through the years I pray that our failing vision clears, our vision clears And in the passage from the cradle to the grave we are born, madly dancing Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days We run on and on without a backwards glance We run on and on without a backwards glance The places dash and the faces dart like fishes in a dream Hiding ‘neath the murky banks of long forgotten streams The lines of life are never long when seen from end to end The future’s never coming, and the past has never been There’s a ring around the moon tonight, and a chill in the air And a fire in the stars that hang so near, so near