I spent the morning talking with a friend about cycles. What goes around comes around. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning. How although we know that wheel must turn, we often resist or try to stop it. How relationships, jobs, passions, politics, and markets all have their cycles. And how if we are patient and steadfast and willing to enjoy the journey we can learn so much – and take comfort – from our cycles.
Every month we witness one of the most vivid cycles, the waxing and waning of our moon. Without fail, the moon appears from the dark sky, climaxing in full glory, only to diminish to darkness again. The universe gives us the perfect times to set intentions and celebrate their manifestations. And generously gives us these times every month – so if we miss the glorious full moon on July 27 we get another one in August. We let ourselves off the hook. We allow ourselves to live in the moment without judgment.
Sometimes the universe grants us an even more exciting light show. From my home in California, I can see four planets. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are dancing in the sky with the moon, stringing themselves across the night sky like pearls in a necklace. It’s a powerful reminder that however large and looming our challenges may feel, how important all the daily stuff and squabbles may appear, we are players on a small stage on a small planet in a giant galaxy.
Last Friday was the 49th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. And in December we will celebrate 50 years since the first lunar orbit. The astronauts who first saw the dark side of the moon were appropriately wowed by the lunar landscape. But what captured their hearts and cameras was seeing Earth from such a distance. The infamous earthrise picture reinforced how fragile and inconsequential the earth really is amidst all the blackness of space, and yet how utterly vital it was to the voyagers a long way from home. Perspective and mindset are the difference between a tiny blue ball and the source of life as we know it.
Astronaut Jim Lovell described it from his perch in the Apollo 8 command module:
The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything you’ve ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy.
From the stargazers at WorkJoy, we celebrate your importance, your human relevance. We encourage you to honor the cycles you are experiencing in your life. To lean into them and appreciate what you are learning along the way. To remember that there is grace in the powerlessness to stop these cycles, and that surrender is not defeat. And to remember that if you let the wheel in the sky keep on turning, it will carry you to where you ultimately are meant to go.
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Tina Robinson is CEO of WorkJoy. As a workplace love coach, she empowers humans to love what they do and helps organizations nurture this love through compassionate, human-centric cultures, practices, programs, and systems.
