It’s Soft Nudge Friday… and with it, a gentle reminder that the tide always circles back, carrying you home with something new.
Do you ever feel life circles back — a spiraling, cyclical journey?
If so, you are more like the Moon than you might first think.
Perhaps this is on my mind because Mercury’s retrograde just ended, a period known for revisiting old patterns. Certain themes were shaken, stirred, and remixed within, and I found myself circling back to who I’ve always been.
For instance, after a stretch of creative outflow, I began to crave joy, satisfaction, and connection — replenishment from the return tide. This awareness wasn’t new to me, as I experience it often, but this time it arrived with newfound luminosity. I saw more clearly what offers me a return current on my investment of time and energy, and what doesn’t.
Then, I gently realigned with myself.
This was not retrograde chaos. It was a return to clarity.
A World of Cyclical Returns
Cycles live in everything.
In astrology, every planet has a “return” phase, a time of ripeness when its principle reaches fullness. Saturn, for instance, first returns around age 28, testing our maturity and realism. Mercury, Venus, Mars — all planets periodically revisit the place they once occupied, offering us the chance to re-experience, to receive fullness again and again.
These spirals are so deeply woven into the cosmos and into life on Earth that we often have to step back to notice them.
When we do, we can feel the subtle ebb and flow in our own lives.
The Return Wave
Imagine standing in one of Hawaii’s tidepools. Sea urchins cling to lava rock, small fish dart between shadows. The tide pulls outward, water rolling away.
Then comes that sweet moment when the tide turns and the water flows back to you.
There’s something quietly powerful in that moment — knowing you’re receiving and revisiting, but not in the same state you left.
You’re altered, nourished, shifted.
A return is like this. It offers a chance to integrate into the fullness of now.
Just as the ocean carries the Moon’s pull, our own lives reflect her rhythm.
Moon Wisdom
The quiet rhythm of the Moon is softer than the solar world we live in.
Our culture often pushes for constant fame, fortune, and forward motion, but the Moon knows splendrous fullness arrives from rest, replenishment. In some Eastern traditions, the Sun is considered dangerous for its burning, destructive tendencies, while the Moon is revered for its cooling, nurturing wisdom.
For, just as a cool washcloth placed upon your head allows you to relax and receive anew, the moon never strives or pushes. It unfolds. It becomes.
Existing in seasons, returns, in cycles, this feminine way of being invites circling back, reflection, noticing, refilling, release — then doing it again.
When the inflow return is as second-nature, and as powerful, as the outflow, we don’t need to change our mood, pace, or self. Whether waxing or waning, we can meet each phase with presence. We are in harmony with what is.
Introducing: Life Wisdom From the Moon
You are more like the Moon than you may realize. Every Monday (Moon-day) on my socials and in Substack Notes, I’ll share a small drop of lunar life wisdom — gentle reminders to live in rhythm with your own cycles.
Soft Nudge Reflection:
The ocean is rich with Moon-metaphor. Just as a return wave is never the same water that left, yet carries traces of where it’s been, this is occurring within you.
This weekend, notice one place in your life where the tide is returning — a truth remembered, or a seed planted long ago now beginning to sprout.
How will you meet this phase? With open hands? With savor?
The feminine loves taking the time to sensually sink into what is being felt, experienced. Be generous. Give yourself the entire weekend to collect your reflections, like a silver bowl gathering drops of sweet moonlight.🌙
New Soft Human Voice Episode! 🎙
In tune with Sun in Leo season I’ve been noticing some chatter about co-creativity. I had already invited my bestie, Alice Inoue –a manifestor par excellence– to share strategies for calling in soul-level dreams, desires. It’s a grounding episode for anyone navigating a dream that hasn’t arrived yet—and wondering how to stay open, centered, and clear in the meantime.
(p.s.: We’d love your podcast review on either Apple or Spotify ⭐🎙)
Hi Jessica, love this poetic post as I felt the replenishment inside whilst reading. Really look forward to your Moonday posts! 💗
Jessica, I loved this so much. I have always loved the moon for the way I can stare straight at her without hurting my eyes. And just today I was reliving an old pattern of looking at my early years with my children, but with a softer gaze. It brought up a lot! So it was no surprise to me that your affirming post arrived on my mailbox today, full of wisdom, just what I needed, and a pleasure as always to read. Thank you!