Author Archives

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The Quiet Strength of Being an Empath 🌙

There is a different kind of sensitivity that comes with being an empath.

You feel the energy before the words are spoken. You can walk into a room and know something has shifted. You sense sadness behind a smile, tension beneath silence, and sometimes you carry emotions that were never yours to begin with.

It can feel like a gift.

And sometimes, it can feel like a curse.

Being an empath means learning that not every energy you feel belongs to you. Sometimes the heaviness in your heart isn’t yours. Sometimes the exhaustion isn’t yours. Sometimes you simply stood too close to someone else’s storm.

And learning to recognize that can change everything.

I am a huge Star Trek fan. I can not decide which series is my favorite, so I’ll just say I watch them all. The original series has an episode entitled “The Empath.” It was twelfth episode of the third season. The character, Gem (Kathryn Hays) possesses the unique ability to absorb physical pain and injuries into her own body, often healing others at great personal risk. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation had a central character for the series, Counselor Deanna Troi, portrayed by Marina Sirtis. As a half-Betazoid, she possesses powerful extra-sensory empathic abilities, allowing her to feel the exact emotions of others. She was the ship’s counselor. Her character always fascinated me, because so much of what she portrayed, I identified with. I think I was like 10-11 when I watched the original series in re-runs. The episode with Gem, stayed with me. I didn’t know why, but I felt her. Watching it again, I see why it effected profoundly.

When you begin to realize that your gift is one of being The Empath, so many truths about your reactions and decisions begins to become clear, mainly because as an empath it is difficult to control your reactions, and hard to make really good decisions. It is hard to separate your feelings from facts, or what may appear as facts. It is near impossible to not react immediately to what you see and feel, good or bad.

Some won’t understand.

They may think you’re too emotional. They may not understand why certain places, people, or situations leave you feeling drained. They may not understand why you like solitude.

It took me a long time to get here to the place where I understand these truths:

Let them wonder.

You don’t have to explain your magic to someone who cannot feel it.

” You are way to sensitive. “

Being sensitive doesn’t mean being weak. It means you experience the world through more than what can be seen. Your intuition speaks in whispers. Your spirit notices things your mind hasn’t yet put into words.

But your gift requires boundaries.

You can feel someone’s pain without taking it home with you.

You can love someone without rescuing them.

You can understand someone’s darkness without stepping into it.

And you can walk away from energy that no longer belongs in your life.

That isn’t selfish.

That is sacred self-preservation.

So ground yourself. Spend time in nature. Light your candle. Hold your tea. Walk barefoot in the grass. Sit beneath the moon. Whatever brings you back to the quiet place within yourself—return there often.

Because the world will constantly try to tell you who you should be.

Don’t let it.

You weren’t given your sensitivity so you could spend your life apologizing for it.

You weren’t given your intuition so you could ignore it.

And you weren’t given your beautiful, complicated heart so you could make it smaller for someone else’s comfort.

Be yourself.

Even when they don’t understand.

Especially then.

Protect your energy.
Trust your intuition.
Keep your heart soft.
Keep your boundaries strong.

And remember…

Not everyone will understand your magic.
They don’t have to.
It’s yours to know. 🌙🖤✨

Peace, Cath.

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Summer’s End

Time has a way of moving quietly until suddenly we look around and wonder where the days, months, and years went.

One moment we’re wishing for tomorrow, and the next we’re longing for yesterday.

I found this to be true lately, because I turned around and wondered where the Summer has went. I see evidence to it’s end in my garden, and I can feel it in the air. The breeze against my face is different. There are days in these late Summer days, where I feel I’m running to catch something, and I can’t. You can’t catch time, or can you?

Maybe the lesson is to stop trying to catch it, and stay with it.

To notice the morning light.

Savor the conversation.

Laugh a little longer.

Hold the people we love a little closer.

Because time doesn’t slow down for us, but will indeed stay with us.

Stay with time, so we keep it close. ✨🌿

“There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air,and time is quiet and mellow.” — Rudolfo Anaya

Peace,

Cath

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🌕 The 2026 Sturgeon Moon: A Moon of Strength, Release & Renewal

The Sturgeon Moon, the full Moon of August, rises on Friday, August 28, 2026, reaching its peak at 12:18 a.m. EDT. (Time and Date⁠)

Named for the great lake sturgeon traditionally found in abundance in the Great Lakes during late summer, this Moon carries an ancient connection to water, survival, nourishment, and the rhythms of nature.

Our Sturgeon Moon invites us to pause and ask ourselves: What have I survived, and what am I ready to release?

Late summer is a threshold. The garden is overflowing, the days are beginning to shorten, and nature quietly reminds us that every season has its purpose. The Sturgeon Moon arrives with that same wisdom.

Growth does not mean holding onto everything we have gathered.

Sometimes growth means knowing what to let go of.

This particular Sturgeon Moon is especially powerful because it coincides with a deep partial lunar eclipse, with the greatest eclipse occurring at approximately 12:12 a.m. EDT, just minutes before the Moon reaches full illumination. (Farmers’ Almanac⁠)

An eclipse can be viewed as a moment when the familiar light is temporarily altered and an invitation to look inward and notice what has been hidden in the shadows.

✨ The Sturgeon Moon whispers:

You have survived the waters that once frightened you.
You have grown through seasons you thought would break you.
You do not have to carry everything into the next chapter.
Release what has completed its purpose.
Make room for what is waiting to grow.

This is a beautiful Moon for cleansing, protection, emotional release, gratitude, and setting intentions for the season ahead.

On the night of August 27, step outside if the sky is clear. Let the Moonlight find you. Take a few quiet breaths. Think about everything this year has taught you and then imagine placing the weight you no longer need into the Moon’s light.

You don’t have to know exactly what comes next.

Sometimes the most powerful magic is simply trusting that the next season will meet you when you are ready for it. 🌙

Peace,

Cath

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Born Beneath the Waning Crescent Moon 🌘

The Soul of the Old Moon.

Several years ago, I discovered that I was born under a Waning Cresent Moon on April 4, 1967. There is something profoundly beautiful about being born beneath this moon. Over time it has helped me work to understand who I am, the whys as to how I move through this life, and this knowledge has insisted that I continue to discover and learn about myself.

While most people are drawn to the brilliance of the Full Moon, there is a different kind of magic in the final sliver of light. In the quiet Moon that appears just before dawn, carrying the wisdom of an entire lunar cycle within her.

The Waning Crescent, sometimes called the Balsamic Moon, is the final phase before darkness gives way to the New Moon. It is a time of surrender, reflection, release, healing, and preparation for what has yet to be born.

And perhaps those born beneath her carry some of that same energy.

🌘 The energy of the old soul

Those born under a Waning Crescent Moon are often associated with deep intuition, introspection, spiritual awareness, and an unusual understanding of endings and beginnings.

There can be a feeling of knowing things without always knowing how you know them.

You may sense when something has run its course before anyone else recognizes it. You may find yourself drawn toward solitude, not because you don’t love people, but because you need quiet to hear your own inner voice.

The Waning Crescent teaches that wisdom doesn’t always come from doing more.

Sometimes it comes from observing. From listening. From allowing life to reveal what it has been trying to teach you all along.

🌿 You may be a keeper of endings

The Waning Crescent isn’t afraid of endings. I can say for me personally, I don’t even like the ending of a TV or Netflix series, let alone the ending of anything else.  I do however understand this.  I look out and see periods of profound transformation throughout life. Friendships change. Old identities fall away. Beliefs that once felt certain no longer fit.

There is an understanding that everything moves in cycles: beginnings, growth, fullness, decline, death, rest, and eventually rebirth. It does not make anything ending easy, but it gives balance. 

And although those endings can hurt, there can also be an almost instinctive understanding that something must sometimes be released so something more authentic can emerge.

The lesson isn’t to cling to what is disappearing. It is to trust the space it leaves behind.

🔮 Your magic may live in the unseen

The Waning Crescent is a quiet Moon. It doesn’t demand attention.

It doesn’t need to be the brightest thing in the sky. And perhaps that is part of its lesson for us

Not all power is loud.

Some power looks like intuition.

Some looks like resilience.

Some looks like walking away.

Some looks like forgiveness.

Some looks like beginning again when nobody else understands why.

This Moon reminds us that darkness is not the absence of light. Sometimes darkness is where the next version of ourselves is forming.

✨ The gift of being born under the Waning Crescent

I was always drawn to this moon. My jewelry reflects this, even before I knew this about myself. Every time  I saw any type of depiction of this moon, I would see it. I especially saw it as she lit the sky.   

If you were born beneath this Moon, perhaps your greatest gift is your ability to understand the beauty of transformation. You know, somewhere deep within you, that life is not meant to remain the same. You are allowed to outgrow people. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to shed identities that no longer fit. You are allowed to walk into the unknown. And you are allowed to become softer, wiser, quieter, and more deeply yourself.

Because the Waning Crescent carries one of the oldest messages of the Moon:

Nothing truly ends. It changes form. The light disappears, but it does not die. It simply prepares to return. And perhaps that is the magic you were born carrying.

The knowing that even in the darkest moments, another beginning is already gathering beneath the surface. 🌘🌿✨

Peace,

Cath

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August Garden

The August Garden insists you tend her.

Everyday she calls to you to get to it!

She isn’t exactly aesthetic anymore. There is a lot of cutting and weeding and pulling and Tylenol and wine and beer.🤣

In return you find peace, and she gives abundance.

I’ll have her all year in one way or another.

🍅

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Come Back to Yourself

There is a kind of loneliness that has nothing to do with being alone.

It is the feeling of standing in a crowded room and still longing for a soul who truly sees you. The feeling of outgrowing places, relationships, and versions of yourself that once felt like home.

But perhaps loneliness is not always an empty space. Perhaps sometimes it is sacred space.

A quiet season where Spirit whispers, “Come back to yourself.” 🌙

When the noise fades and the people who once surrounded you are no longer walking beside you, it can feel like abandonment. But sometimes what feels like being left behind is actually being gently redirected.

You are not forgotten.
You are not too much.
You are not unlovable.

You are simply learning that not every soul is meant to stay for every chapter.

So if you are lonely right now, sit with it gently. Light a candle. Step outside. Put your bare feet on the earth. Listen to the wind. Let the moon remind you that even in darkness, you are still becoming.

Some seasons are meant to be walked quietly.

And sometimes, the most important person you are being reunited with…

is yourself. ✨🌿

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Home Is Not Always a Place

We are often taught to think of home as somewhere we can point to on a map—a house, an address, four walls filled with familiar things.

But sometimes, home is not a place at all.

Sometimes, home is a feeling.

It is the exhale that comes when you finally feel safe enough to be fully yourself. It is the warmth that settles into your spirit when you are surrounded by people who see you, hear you, and love you without asking you to become someone else.

Home can be found in a person’s embrace, in the sound of someone laughing in the next room, or in the quiet companionship of a soul who understands you without needing an explanation.

And sometimes, home is found within ourselves.

There are seasons in life when the places we once called home no longer feel like they belong to us. People change. Relationships shift. Children grow. Houses are sold. Friendships end. Paths that once felt certain suddenly lead somewhere else.

It can be painful to realize that what once felt like home no longer does.

But perhaps there is something sacred in that realization.

Spiritually, we are always becoming. We are shedding old versions of ourselves, releasing what no longer aligns with our souls, and learning to trust the path unfolding beneath our feet. Sometimes the feeling of being “homeless” in our own lives is actually an invitation to come home to ourselves.

To listen inward.

To remember who we were before the world told us who we should be.

To create a home within our own hearts that cannot be taken away by another person’s absence.

Home might be the garden where your hands touch the earth and your spirit becomes quiet. It might be sitting beneath the moon, listening to the night, and feeling connected to something much larger than yourself. It might be music that reaches a place inside you that words cannot.

Home is where your spirit can breathe.

Home might be a familiar scent, an old song, a cup of tea held between your hands, or the peaceful feeling that comes when you finally stop running from yourself.

And sometimes, home is a person.

man and woman dancing at center of trees
Photo by Scott Broome on Unsplash

Not because they complete you, but because their presence reminds you that you were never incomplete.

The deepest kind of home does not demand that you shrink, perform, or pretend. It gives you room to grow. It allows you to change without making you feel guilty for becoming someone new.

Maybe that is why some places feel like home the moment we arrive, while others never do—even after years of being there.

Because the soul recognizes what the mind cannot always explain.

Home is where your spirit can breathe.

Where your heart can soften.

Where your truth does not have to whisper.

Where you can take off the masks you learned to wear and simply exist.

And perhaps the greatest spiritual lesson is this:

You are allowed to create home wherever your soul feels at peace.

You do not have to stay somewhere simply because it is familiar. You do not have to hold onto people simply because they once felt like home. And you do not have to fear beginning again when your spirit is calling you somewhere new.

Sometimes leaving is how we find ourselves.

Sometimes losing a home is how we discover that we were carrying one inside us all along.

So wherever life finds you—among familiar walls or somewhere completely unknown—listen closely to what your spirit is telling you.

Notice where you feel lighter.

Notice where you feel safe.

Notice where you can laugh freely, love deeply, and be unapologetically yourself.

Those places are sacred.

Those people are sacred.

And that feeling?

That is home.

Perhaps home was never meant to be a destination.

Perhaps home was always the moment when your soul whispered:

“Here. I can breathe here.”

Peace,

Cath

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The July 2026 Full Moon

A Time of Illumination, Reflection, and Release

The Full Moon of July 2026 comes to us as a luminous reminder that growth is rarely a straight path. Like the moon itself, we move through cycles of expansion, rest, challenge, and renewal. The full moon marks the peak of this cycle—a moment when hidden truths rise to the surface and the light reveals what has been waiting to be seen.

Traditionally known as the Buck Moon, she will reach peak in illumination on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at 7:36 PM PDT (10:36 PM EDT).

July’s full moon was named by Indigenous peoples because this is the time of year when young deer begin growing new antlers. These antlers are covered in soft velvet and represent growth, strength, and the promise of what is still developing. It is a powerful symbol that not all growth is immediately visible; sometimes our most important transformations are happening beneath the surface.

Under this moon, ask yourself:

✨ What part of me is ready to emerge?

✨ What gifts have I been hiding from the world?

✨ What fears or limiting beliefs am I prepared to release?

✨ Where is my spirit calling me to grow stronger?

This moon carries the energy of abundance and maturation. The seeds planted in spring are beginning to show results, whether in our relationships, careers, spiritual practices, or personal healing journeys. It is an opportunity to celebrate progress while recognizing there is still room to evolve.

The Buck Moon also encourages us to trust the timing of the universe. Just as antlers do not appear overnight, our dreams and intentions unfold according to natural rhythms. If you’ve been feeling impatient or uncertain, this moon reminds you that growth is occurring even when you cannot yet see the final outcome.

A simple full moon ritual is to spend a few moments outdoors under the moonlight. Reflect on what has blossomed in your life since the beginning of the year. Write down anything you are ready to release—fears, doubts, limiting beliefs, or old wounds—and safely burn or tear the paper as a symbolic act of letting go.

As the July Full Moon shines overhead, may it light your path, strengthen your spirit, and remind you that you are continually becoming who you were meant to be. Trust the process. Honor your growth. And allow.

Peace,

Cath

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Comparison is a Thief.

Your Path Was Never Meant to Look Like Anyone Else’s.

One of the greatest distractions on our journey is the temptation to compare our lives, gifts, and experiences to those of others. We see someone who seems more successful, more awakened, more talented, or further along their path, and we begin to question our own.

With the wrong set of eyes, there will always be someone out there doing exactly what you do – only better. We have to work on adjusting that vision.

The Earth tells us a different story.

No two trees grow in exactly the same way. No two flowers bloom on the same day. The moon itself moves through phases, never rushing from darkness to fullness. Nature understands what we often forget: everything unfolds in its own sacred timing.

When we compare ourselves to others, we disconnect from our own magic. We become so focused on another person’s path that we stop noticing the signs, synchronicities, and blessings appearing along our own. We forget that our soul came here to experience a unique journey, not a copy of someone else’s.

Someone once told be that if you envy or want what another has, you cant pick and chose. You have to take everything about their life. That everything may not be the thing you would wish for yourself.

The spiritual path is not a competition.

There is no prize for reaching enlightenment first. There is no award for having the most crystals, knowing the most rituals, or appearing the most “awakened.” True wisdom comes from honoring where you are right now and trusting the lessons that are finding you in this season.

Sometimes the Universe asks us to grow slowly. Sometimes we are in a season of rest, healing, or transformation beneath the surface. Like seeds sleeping in the dark earth, much of our most important growth happens where no one else can see it.

The next time you find yourself measuring your life against another’s, pause and remember: your ancestors, guides, and the Divine are not comparing you to anyone. They are simply asking you to become more fully yourself.

The moon does not compare herself to the stars. The river does not compare itself to the sea. Each carries its own wisdom, purpose, and power.

So honor your pace. Trust your path. Celebrate your growth, even when it feels small. The life you are creating is unfolding according to a sacred rhythm that belongs to you alone.

Your magic was never meant to look like theirs.

Red felt heart on cream knitted blanket indoors
Peace, Cath.
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Our Wolf Moon

January and a brand new calendar year offers us the Wolf Moon. The first of three supermoons in 2026, this moon occurs on January 3, peaking at 5:03 am (EST).

Native American traditions used the name as wolves were heard howling in January. These vocalizations were to maintain pack bonds, define territory, and coordinate hunts.

Different cultures used descriptive names for this moon based on winter conditions, such as:

  • Cold Moon or Frost Exploding Moon(Cree).
  • Center Moon (Assiniboine), marking the midpoint of winter.
  • Greetings Moon (Western Abenaki).
  • Spirit Moon (Ojibwe).

Bringing nature to ourselves, this gives us the opportunity for introspection, identifying community, and every wild instinct that we can find symbolized by the wolf. Yes, I did say that.

I did a quick Google search about characteristics found in wolves:

  1. Social & Family-Oriented:Wolves live in family units called packs, typically led by a mated pair (often called alpha) and their offspring, working together to hunt and raise young. 
  2. Apex Predators:As top predators, they hunt large ungulates (hoofed animals like deer, elk, moose) and sometimes smaller prey, using teamwork, stealth, and endurance. 
  3. Masters of Communication:They use complex howls to communicate over long distances, mark territory, and rally the pack, alongside body language and scent. 
  4. Vast Territories:Packs require huge areas to find food, covering significant distances daily (up to 30 miles or more) and defending large home ranges. 
  5. Diverse Appearance:While known as “gray wolves,” they come in various colors, including black, white, brown, and reddish hues, adapting to different environments like tundras, forests, and mountains. 

As we take time to watch and reflect on the gift of this beautiful full moon, it is important to know our pack. Commit to who we run this journey with and feel safe within that community. You have strength in your singularity, but power in the ones you chose.

You can stand in full strength of who you are, while behind you, all around you, and sometimes even running ahead of you is the power of your pack.

Like the wolf, chose this wisely. Knowing who you are, those that run with you know that too, and with authority, you are your own. Even from afar, you will hear them, they will hear you, and your voices together are infinitely – resoundingly – strong.

May peace, power, and community run with us all into this new year.

Peace,

cath