Greetings! If you’re new to the Writing Your Resilience Substack, welcome! I’m Lisa Cooper Ellison, a trauma-informed writing coach, author of this Substack, and your resident story alchemist. If you’ve been here for a while, thanks for sticking around. I’m so glad you’re here.
As a child, I believed the answers to my deepest questions could be found in the sky. So, I became a fervent observer of astronomical events, hoping to soak in their wisdom.
Of the celestial phenomena I’ve witnessed, eclipses are my favorite.
I saw my first full solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Magic swirled through the air as we headed to Furman University for their free public event, not knowing if there’d be parking or if the weather would cooperate. We simply allowed ourselves to be led and trusted the outcome would be good.
That day, we were rewarded with two minutes and ten seconds of crystal-clear totality. As night temporarily traded places with day, the temperature eerily dropped. Planets bloomed in the sky. Strangers gasped and wept alongside me. I’ve never felt smaller or more in awe of the vastness of the universe.
On that day, I learned that what Annie Dillard wrote about standing in totality is true: It is the difference between kissing someone and marrying them. You return to your ordinary life, but something in you has changed, because you’ve seen what’s possible when the lights go out and hidden things reveal themselves.
Tomorrow’s full solar eclipse will be visible in Spain and Greenland, which means most of us won’t see it. But you don’t have to witness an eclipse to be impacted by one. Their energetic invitations arrive whether you’re standing under them or not.
Both this eclipse and the one in 2017 fall in the sign of Leo. Leo governs where and how you shine. The 2017 eclipse was a north node eclipse. It invited you to name the doors you wanted to open and what you wanted to move toward.
This one sits at the south node. South node eclipses ask a question many of us resist: What are you finally ready to release so you can truly shine?
For most of us, this release won’t involve torching your old life so you can start over. It will look more like a refinement after a period of reckoning about the gap between the life you’re living now and the life you’re meant to.
You know the gap I’m talking about. It’s the one that surfaces at two in the morning when the house is still, and you’re alone with your thoughts. It’s the one that knows with a thrilling and frightening certainty that something needs to change, and that when it does, your life will be authentically yours.
Here’s what makes releasing so hard. Most of what we’re holding onto isn’t bad. Hell, some of it might be highly successful. It just doesn’t speak to us anymore.
It’s work that was once a passion but now feels like an obligation. It’s the role you stepped into because you were good at it, and now you can’t figure out how to step out without disappointing someone. It’s the version of yourself you’ve been performing so consistently and so well, you’ve forgotten that it was ever a performance.
Layer on the conditioning or stories and messages you’ve absorbed from family, community, society, and culture about what you should want, what success is supposed to look like, and what your priorities ought to be, and it’s no wonder so many of us are running on empty while things that actually matter wait on the back burner, hoping you’ll one day have time for them.
If this sounds like you, you haven’t failed. You’re simply carrying the accumulated weight of living life largely for other people.
That inner itch you’re now experiencing is nudging you to attend to yourself. It’s asking, what about me?
And as it turns out, the stars have something to say about this.
We are currently moving through Human Design Gate 4, the Gate of Formulization or the Gate of Answers. This energy of the mind urgently wants answers and searches for ones that make the discomfort of not knowing go away. You might feel it as a pressure to figure things out or decide what you’re releasing and what you’re stepping into, so you know how things will work out.
If you feel that pressure this week, take a deep breath, notice its presence, then let it go as you exhale.
Because while it’s a time to seek, it’s not necessarily a time to know. That’s because there’s more to do. This week’s Earth gate—the gate that grounds this insistent need to know—is Gate 49, or the Gate of Revolution. This gate carries a specific wisdom. It knows that the revolution that changes your life doesn’t arrive with dramatic solar eclipse flare. Rather, it whispers as you experience your version of stillness and survey your inner landscape—or should I say starscape, because we are made of the same stardust as the pinpricks of light above us.
The goal this week is to seek that inner light that knows and listen for its persistent message, which is usually the thing you’ve been sensing, and yet ignoring, for a long time.
Your inner revolution is already here. You don’t need to force it into being. You just need to listen to what it has to say.
As you listen, keep your journal handy.
Read through the questions below and answer the ones that speak to you:
What has become an obligation in your life?
What lights you up? What stories have you been telling yourself about these things?
Where are you working hard to build certainty because living in ambiguity feels unbearable.
What fears arise when you consider slowing down?
What would you give yourself permission to let go of if you could trust the outcome would be good?
What is your 2:00 AM voice telling you about the revolution that’s needed in your life?
And finally, this is the one that matters most: Who would you become if you released that one thing? What does that person want?
Years of walking alongside my clients as taught me that you don’t need to know everything before you begin.
You simply need to have an honest answer to one question, so you can take the next right step. That means telling yourself the truth about what’s no longer working, what desire is needling at you, and what you might be ready to release.
On the other side of the eclipse, the revolution will continue, should you choose to heed its call. All you need to do is allow yourself to be led and trust that the outcome will be good.
If you’d like to join me this week, let’s look up at the stars together, not because the answers exist out there, but because it’s a reminder that the light above exists inside you, and you have access to it every time you connect with your true yes.
If you’re a paid subscriber, I’ve created a guided meditation to walk you through this process, so you can work with your nervous system as you discover the answers for yourself. You’ll find it at the end of the free content.
Not yet a paid subscriber? One click, and you’re in.
Either way, I’ll be rooting for your revolution as I look up at the stars.
Love and blessings to you,
Lisa
Your Turn: What wisdom is your 2:00 AM self sharing with you? What is it asking you to release? Share your answer in the comments. I’d love to hear what ideas or images this inspired. You never know who you might inspire or help. Also, feel free to share some photos of the night sky to inspire us.
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The podcast is on a break so I can focus on my writing and some much-needed rest. Until it returns on September seventeenth, I’ve curated a summer rewind series of fan favorites. This week’s rewind episode features an electric conversation with editor and LAMBDA Literary Award Finalist Lilly Dancyger, as she shares her sharp insights on the craft of memoir, why she bristles at the idea of writing as catharsis, and how she pushes back against the dead girl trope by keeping her cousin Sabina fully alive on the page.
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Are you curious about the similarities between fiction and nonfiction? Have you ever dreamed of writing a novel? Could you see yourself dabbling in the speculative realm—or would you like to know what it is?
Then join me during the week of August 17th for the FREE WorldShift Speculative Fiction Writers Conference! During this weeklong event, you’ll have a chance to learn from over 40 presenters on the craft of fiction writing. If you’re fiction curious, this conference might inspire you to get started. And if you’re team memoir all the way, attending some of these sessions will make you a better memoirist. And if it speaks to you, I’d love it if you attended my session.
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Discover what a writing voice is, the question you should ask BEFORE trying to cultivate yours, and the skills you need to develop to make your work so distinctive that all people need to do is read a few sentences to know it’s you.
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