August 2026 Week 2

Last week brought us into a natural “closing and opening” phase. The Lions Gate portal closed on August 12, 2026, alongside a partial solar eclipse. Looking back at that energy, it feels like a beautiful invitation to pause and notice where we are.
Something was shifting. Something was being revealed. Something was asking us to pause.
When we're striving, we're often moving toward something:
I need to get there. I need to fix this. I need to accomplish this. I need to become something more.
But when we soften, we become available to what is already here.
We stop asking, “What should I be doing?”
And begin asking, “What am I noticing?”
That's a very different way of moving through life.
This keeps bringing me back to a clear message I heard in my meditation earlier this summer:
Soften, Karen. Soften.
Soften my expectations of others.
Soften my expectations of myself.
Soften my expectations of my summer.
And soften my FOCUS ON MYSELF — which, by the way, I only noticed as I typed it!
Another meditation I did last week asked the question: What are you lacking?
It made me wonder if, when I am striving rather than softening, what I'm actually lacking is humility — and my ego is running the show.
Two things came to me:
EGO — Edging God Out.
And…
Humility — not thinking less of myself, but thinking of myself less.
In my mind, the energy of striving can feel like gripping, controlling, forcing, doubting and trying to figure “it” all out.
Maybe that's what last week's Lions Gate and eclipse energy invited us to consider — not necessarily what we need to manifest or create next, but what are we ready to release our grip on?
What are you striving for that might actually need some softness?
What are you trying to control that might need some trust?
What are you pushing through that your body has been asking you to notice?
And what becomes possible when you stop forcing the answer?
Maybe, just maybe, the wisdom we're looking for doesn't arrive when we try harder.
Maybe it becomes audible when we become quiet enough to hear it.
I choose softness over striving.
And I trust that what I need to know can reveal itself when I make enough space to notice.