Each full moon, I write to honor the wild rhythms of nature and the raw truths I carry inside. These are moments to reflect, grow, and be brave enough to be seen.
In July, under what’s known as the Buck Moon, male deer shed their antlers. One day, a deer walks through the woods with a full crown of bone, and the next, it’s gone. The weight lifts, and the deer keeps walking. The shedding makes room for something new to grow in the season ahead.
What falls away might be what frees you. That’s the refrain I’ve been hearing, quietly, under everything.
Fifteen Years, Gone in a Day
I was laid off from the job I loved this week. Fifteen years of rhythm, calendar invites, creative work with colleagues who felt like family. They were all laid off too, in sweeping cuts from a dying company, entire teams of creative people decimated.
Now I’m standing in the pale light of uncertainty, feeling raw and weirdly bare. The structure I leaned on is gone. In its place, something unknown is about to grow.
The strange weightless ache of free time is one I haven’t felt in fifteen years. My old antlers are gone. And they were good ones! They helped me build things I care about. I hadn’t realized how heavy the job was until they were gone, how much I was holding up, antlers grown layer by layer with very hard work. It gave me so much, but it also asked for so much of my energy.
Growing Something New
The deer keep moving, and so shall I. I’m choosing to pivot. I’ll still look for a traditional job, but in the meantime I’m building a space that matters to me, rooted in expression and connection, which has been quietly waiting until I had the energy to grow it.
I’m starting a writing workshop series for people with full lives, untold stories, and a desire to write them down for the world. I help people do that already with my publishing company Lingua Ink, but now I’ll have the time to meet them earlier in the process as they write.
I’m excited to see what shape my new antlers will be. Scared, but excited.
What falls away might be what frees you.
I’ve shed the stately crown I was so proud of. But I am strong, I am fleet, I am alive. What grows back will be even more magnificent.
