Embody the Rhythms

A full moon reflection on movement, memory, and meaning

When I began this draft, I didn’t feel like talking about writing. I was still in a weird place with some of last month’s energy. This writing practice is one of the ways I alchemize. This was the strawberry full moon and that has so many innergetic echoes. Buckle up, Buttercup.

Writing Reflections and Rhythms:

In the last full moon post, I wrote:

“I want to be free to receive, free to have and keep, and free to give away.” 

The name strawberry full moon has almost zero significance to a non-farmer life in 2025. The significance in my life has only been since last year. It occurred on June 21 which was the night after the summer solstice, and I wrote the most fully integrated piece of autobiographical prose I have written to date. Only 10ish people have read/heard it because I’m still not sure how publicly I want people to know my own love stories. I tried to put it in third person and immediately hated the way it sounded. I imagined myself building a structure where its known that I post short stories in various voices. But then I didn’t write any new short stories. I didn’t even feel motivated to write them until the last couple of weeks. 

Last year when I found my humor and voice in that writing, I had also only been back in the US for 9 days. In 2025, I began writing this post on the one year anniversary of my move back, June 12th. (In case you didn’t know I lived there for two years… I did. I haven’t written about it explicitly. Someone implied that the story was unengaging.)

These full moon posts have started taking me longer and longer to write. Last month was actually two posts. I freed myself to write about love after a long time of pretending it’s not the most important topic to me. Maybe this is neurodivergent brain, but I don’t understand how I can devote so much time and energy to love and still feel like it’s not giving me an equal return on investment. I broke down one piece of the barrier. If you compare that post to the writing from last year, you’ll see how much freer I need to become.

I’ve begun, but not completed, a deep dive on my feelings about receiving love rather than taking it; submitting and surrendering to love rather than assertively gathering it through my own will. I don’t have any answers yet, but I feel certain that my love stories have a connection to my money story. Both my Venus and my Jupiter are in Gemini. My human design type has an undefined root and sacral.

The goal of my community curation is to find people whose lives would benefit from being connected to mine. I need people to look up to and to advise, people to co-write and edit with, people to perform with and amplify. Artists stay busy creating and sometimes we are hard to catch when we are not performing. I did make it to a Black MerMay Day celebration and my daughter created art with a friend. This is cyclical and ongoing.

I started a one-year-home-from-Guatemala post that will go up soon, probably after Juneteenth festivities. I went back and re-read my stories while prepping for this post. I saw the following question and was proud that I stayed true to this goal even though I’m still protective of my love energy. 

“What does it look like to live in cycles, to manage energy and expectations according to an earth-body connection?”

It means that I had to consider the submission types I wrote about last moon cycle. I pushed and replaced one hard submission with another, because I could not do two.

It means that I got excited during the last week of school and decided to become a festival girl, or rather to acknowledge that I’ve always been a festival girl. So I made a reel, and made a community connect, and wrote a promo article, and got excited about a blog series, but I have not been able to follow through on posting, much less marketing. It is so hard to manage my energy, and my child’s, while loving and curating a community, and navigating the love I’m already responsible for. 

I have been resting while watching the OKC Thunder in the NBA Playoffs. That has helped with connections and with slowing down. I also wrote an article hoping we’d win the Western Conference Finals, and we did.

I’ve also been bringing more honor to my earth-body connection with much more exercise and mindful eating. This has greatly impacted my moods and also my schedule. I’ve had two anxiety attacks and lost a few pounds and remembered how much I enjoy being outside. I’ve taken a walk with a friend and had lots of conversations with friends while walking. I’ve listened to audiobooks and podcasts that impacted me and supported mindset shifts. Being healthy is a full-time job, so I am thankful I’ve accomplished anything at all in addition.

I think these posts are the closest I can get to showing you what cyclical, connected energy management looks like without making my own reality TV show. If anyone wants to edit reels, for free, hit me up. 

Submissions:

• One book prize that responded quickly that they love my work but did not choose me.

• one poem to another prize. I haven’t heard back yet. 

• attempted a third but missed the deadline. I need to write an artist statement so that it will just BE ready and I won’t have to get it ready. 

Stats:

• Last month’s full moon wrap post has 20 views on my blog (6 more than the previous) and the standard 102 on Substack.

• I finally wrote the first book review! It’s about Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and it’s posted on Substack. But I never promoted it. 

  • I made a reel to go along and it got 425 views, which is above my average.

• Substack views are down by 200+ even with 3 more subscribers. 

• Website views are up 10% but post views are down 43%.

• Instagram views are up 96%, and almost 70% are non-followers

  • I’ve gained 35 followers and lost 9

  • I was really excited about my festival season reel. As I write this, the views are just under 1,000 and hopefully after posting, they’ll surpass that. This reel got me booked for a show. It makes me proud. 

  • The carousel for Malcolm X’s birthday surpassed the usual like count. 

  • I created a reel along with that blog post, following the propaganda-I’m-not-falling-for trend. I forgot the music and only got 265 views.

• My second anxiety attack was only two days after my first. I wrote a blog post about it, but forgot to promote that as well. 

• Nothing has gone well on Threads this month.

Refine and Recalibrate:

In my bullet journal. I’ve been writing “embody the rhythms.” I have a habit tracker that includes movement, rest, nutrition, and hydration. It also includes meditation and journaling, reading and writing. If I can get into a habit of taking care of myself in those ways, my writing goals will feel easier. I toyed around with adding a “logistics” check box and I think I’ll do it again. When school was in, doing all these things felt impossible. With school out, it still feels hard, but now is the time to practice. 

This reflection practice is getting me closer to connectedness, full embodiment and fulfillment. It is not for the faint of heart. 

Thank you for being with me on this journey!