https://astrobackyard.com/the-little-dipper/

Earlier this week, I connected with former colleague. We never had dinner at each other‘s houses, or exchanged holiday cards, but I definitely felt a kinship with her while we worked together. She is starting up her own consulting business, and her website will be going live soon, and I shared that it would be a special “birth-day,” when her site is live, and her work has a formal home. She loved that idea, of a birthday for her business, and previewed that the website will explain the very personal reason she chose the name for her consultancy. It’s named after a star in the Little Dipper, and a star that has deep meaning for her through a connection to her mother, who passed away unexpectedly. 

We Zoomed for over an hour, mixing professional and personal updates, and I was surprised how easily we fell back into conversation. (Truly, this is someone I haven’t spoken to in 10 years.) When I got off with her, I recognized some of the feelings that were coming up for me, especially joy - listening to an energizing human, excited by their work and the future she’s creating for herself and the love story she told, about finding a person who brings out the best in her, and who creates a grounded family with her and her teenage children.

Then, an unexpected boost of recognizing that I feel calm and content entering a much different phase in my life, a phase where I am slowing down my work, and looking to lessen my travel schedule and pass on new work commitments, rather than take on new relationships and stay in the hustle, a hustle that I have loved, but in this new season of life, a hustle that tires me out in ways I’m still trying to articulate (and will likely work out in a few Slices this month).

I walked the dog tonight, and there were a ton of stars, which is not always the norm here in the suburbs of Cleveland. I purposefully found the Little Dipper, which I haven’t admired in a long time. It was a comfort to connect that phone call to the evening sky, and to think about my own journey and what will guide me.