Eclipse Season Is Ending

Surprise!

I'm feeling emotional. LOL.

Eclipse season will do that. I talked about the Leo solar eclipse on the 12th, and thankfully it closes tonight.

One of the 9 million things I thought about during eclipse season was that I didn't talk about Third Wave nearly as much as I thought I would.

Today though, we are talking about Third Wave.

We just finished a beautiful Week 11. Eleven women. The only new face was my mother-in-law. Shout out to my mother-in-law, a Marine veteran and spouse, who showed up and SURFED today.

Tonight into tomorrow morning, there's a partial lunar eclipse in Pisces. Lunar eclipses are full moons with the volume turned way up. More of a culmination than an initiation. Whatever's been building comes to the surface whether you gave it permission or not.

And this one closes out the Pisces eclipse series that started in September 2024.

Fun fact, the last time the moon was eclipsed at this exact degree of Pisces was August 28, 2007.

Where were you in August 2007?

I was a junior at Bayside High, still surfing that 7' red American board I loved. It would later fly off my car on I-95 heading back from FIU. My mom is still traumatized.

Fast forward 19 years and I'm a week away from the final Thursday of a 12-week surf program for female veterans. And we’re just getting started.

September 2024, when this eclipse cycle opened, I hadn't even moved into The Pungo Building yet. There's a picture on my Instagram from August 13, 2024, and my office didn't even have walls.

Beams and dreams, y'all.

Today (8/27) is also the five-year anniversary of my friend Derek's death.

We graduated from Bayside together, and I remember meeting him the first day of freshman year. He was a surf instructor for VB Surf and a big part of why I wanted to partner with them for this grant.

He's part of why there were 11 women in the water this morning.

Not a whole lot to say on this. I just wanted to take a minute to honor him.

While I don't think anything with Waves is ending, I think the version of me who started Waves is definitely ending.

I think she has to.

Pisces is the last sign. It's where things dissolve. Across from it sits Virgo, where the sun is right now. Virgo is the sign that audits, refines, asks whether the work is good enough. (Kate is a Virgo, and this is one of the reasons I love her.)

A full moon on that axis feels like the feeling body and the analytical mind just staring at each other.

I know the stare. I've seen it in the mirror every day over the last 12 weeks.

One of the first workshops I ever ran was about mantras and the power of your voice. Something I believe in deeply, and something I somehow lost my grip on during this grant process.

I wrote the curriculum. I built the blueprint. And then I got quiet about the wins and focused on the mess instead. For me, the mess is where I feel safe.

I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned through this program is how to ask for help and actually receive it.

Turns out you can't use your voice if you won't let anyone hear it.

It's been a whole different kind of nervous system training. Unironically, the same training we're offering the women of Third Wave.

I had to learn how to receive support. To let people in. To allow people to help. To receive without wanting to shrink.

Over 11 weeks, I have seen the impact of what we're building.

I've always believed in it, but for so long I felt like I had no actual work product.

Now I see it.

The Leo eclipse two weeks ago asked what you're brave enough to start. That part feels much clearer now.

This one asks what you're wise enough to put down.

I'm putting down the doubt.

That voice that says it's not right, it's not enough, and don't be fully seen until you're perfect.

This next chapter requires a version of me that I have never been.

I asked myself this week, am I resisting the change I need to make?

Yes.

I was.

Not anymore.

So I'm curious—

What are you putting down tonight?