My wonderful friend Cynthia, who made her transition three years ago, used to ask me a question that has stayed with me ever since.

“What if you could just let it be easy, Bonnie?”

Cynthia knew me well. She knew how quickly I could slip into trying to figure everything out, find the right answer, fix the problem, or carry more than was ever mine to carry. Her question was never an invitation to ignore what mattered or avoid doing what needed to be done. It was a gentle reminder to notice when I was making something harder by believing I had to control the outcome.

I still ask myself that question all the time. “What if you could just let it be easy, Bonnie?” Sometimes simply asking it helps me loosen my grip enough to see another possibility. It reminds me that effort and struggle are not the same thing, and that the best answer does not always come from thinking harder.

This happens to be what we have been focusing on in my private Facebook group this week. We have been exploring what it means to stop trying to figure everything out, put down what isn’t ours to carry, and leave a little more breathing room in our days. I hadn’t planned the week around the full moon, but the timing feels almost perfect.

In the early hours of Friday, August 28, we will experience a full moon in Pisces and a deep partial lunar eclipse. Although it is officially considered partial, approximately 96 percent of the Moon will pass into the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, making it appear almost completely eclipsed. It may even take on the beautiful reddish or copper color commonly associated with a “blood moon.”

Here in the Eastern time zone, the visible partial eclipse begins at approximately 10:34 p.m. on Thursday night. It reaches its maximum around 12:13 a.m. Friday, just before the full moon becomes exact at approximately 12:18 a.m. The partial phase ends around 1:52 a.m. No special glasses are needed to watch a lunar eclipse. If the sky is clear, you can simply step outside and look up.

August’s full moon is traditionally called the Sturgeon Moon, but astrologically, this full moon’s placement in Pisces gives it another layer of symbolic meaning.

When the Need for Order Meets the Invitation to Trust

Every full moon occurs when the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the zodiac. During this full moon, the Moon is in Pisces and the Sun is in Virgo.

Virgo represents the part of us that wants to organize, analyze, plan, improve, and make sense of things. Pisces represents intuition, compassion, imagination, spirituality, emotional healing, surrender, and our connection to something larger than ourselves.

Both energies are valuable. We need the practical side of Virgo to help us care for our bodies, tend to our responsibilities, and create supportive routines. We also need the softer wisdom of Pisces to remind us that not everything can be solved, controlled, or understood.

Sometimes we need to make the plan and take the next practical step. Other times, we need to stop pushing, listen to our inner wisdom, and trust that the next step will reveal itself when the time is right.

The question this full moon seems to be asking is: Where might you be trying too hard to figure something out when life is asking you to soften and trust?

Putting Down What Isn’t Ours

The theme of not carrying what isn’t mine is especially personal for me when it comes to my adult children.

As a mother, it is not always easy to know where my responsibility ends and theirs begins. When one of my children is hurting, struggling, or facing something difficult, every instinct in me wants to help. I want to make things better, protect them from pain, and sometimes carry the burden for them.

But no matter how much I love my children, I cannot walk their paths for them. I cannot learn their lessons, make their choices, or control their outcomes. That doesn’t mean I stop caring, helping, or loving them with my whole heart. It means I continue learning how to love them without taking everything they are experiencing into my own body and nervous system.

Putting down what isn’t mine does not mean putting down my love. It means loosening my grip without closing my heart. It means remembering that the people I love have their own inner strength, their own guidance, and their own journey. It means trusting them, trusting myself, and trusting God and life a little more.

This is not something I have mastered. It is something I practice.

A Time for Completion and Release

Full moons have long been associated with illumination and culmination. They shine light on what has been hidden and help us see what has reached completion. Lunar eclipses are often viewed as amplifying those themes, inviting us to recognize what we have outgrown and what we are ready to release.

This is also the final Pisces eclipse in a cycle that began in September 2024, giving it an added sense of closure. You might reflect on what has changed in your emotional or spiritual life over the past two years. Perhaps you have begun listening to yourself more deeply, developed healthier boundaries, released an old identity, or recognized that something you have been carrying no longer belongs to you.

Not every ending arrives with a dramatic announcement. Sometimes we simply realize we are tired of repeating the same pattern. We recognize that an old belief, expectation, responsibility, or way of relating to ourselves no longer fits the person we are becoming.

The opportunity around this full moon is not to force an answer or make an impulsive decision. It is to become quiet enough to notice what you already know.

A Full-Moon Release and Reset

You can do this practice beneath the moon, beside a window, or anywhere you feel comfortable. You do not need to perform it at the exact moment of the full moon or eclipse. The purpose is simply to create a meaningful pause and give yourself permission to put something down.

Begin by placing both feet on the floor and taking three slow breaths. If it feels good, use the 5–10 breath by inhaling gently for a count of five and exhaling slowly for a count of ten.

You can also use the Tap & Breathe practice. Without saying anything, tap gently through the points on the side of the hand, top of the head, eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, chin, collarbone, under the arm, and back to the side of the hand. Continue breathing slowly as you allow your body to settle.

When you feel more grounded, take out a piece of paper and consider these questions:

What am I trying to figure out that does not need to be answered today?

What am I carrying that belongs to someone else?

What feels complete, even if I have not officially released it?

Where could I loosen my grip without closing my heart?

What would become possible if I allowed this to be easier?

Choose one thing you are ready to release and write it down. You might write, “I release the belief that I have to solve this,” “I release responsibility for someone else’s choices,” or “I release the need to know exactly what happens next.”

For a simple ritual, place a small bowl of water in front of you. Water is traditionally associated with Pisces and can serve as a symbol of allowing life to move and flow.

Read your statement aloud. Then tear the paper into several pieces and set it aside to recycle or discard. Dip your fingertips into the water, place one hand over your heart, and repeat:

I release what is not mine to carry. I let go of the need to figure everything out today. I trust that clarity will come in its own time. I loosen my grip without closing my heart. I make room for peace, support, and ease.

When you are finished, pour the water onto the earth or use it to water a plant as a symbol of allowing what you have released to become nourishment for something new.

What If You Could Let It Be Easy?

During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow temporarily obscures the light of the Moon, but the light itself has not disappeared. It is still there, even when we cannot see it.

I think the same can be true in our own lives. There are times when we cannot see the answer, understand what is happening, or know how everything will work out. That does not mean the answer isn’t forming or that we have lost our way.

Maybe you do not need to solve everything today. Maybe you do not need to carry every person you love. Maybe the next step is simply to breathe, put down what isn’t yours, and create a little room for the light to return.

As you move through this full moon, try asking yourself Cynthia’s beautiful question, using your own name: “What if you could just let it be easy?”

Then become quiet and just notice what changes.

With love,
Bonnie