I met Blake fifty years ago this spring.

I was sixteen, and took a job babysitting his nephew. That fall, we found each other at the senior high, and over the next two years, I felt like I was home whenever I was with him. It was soul recognition. But the timing wasn’t aligned. So, we went our separate ways and lived our lives. Marriages, children, careers, countries. 

Thirty years passed before we would re-meet. And marry. And build the sense of home that had been waiting all along.

I keep thinking about that this week. About what it means to come home. And how sometimes you have to travel very far away before you can find your way back.

They’re home

Last Friday, Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific Ocean carrying four astronauts who had travelled farther from Earth than any human in history.

They saw things no one has ever seen: a solar eclipse from beyond the Moon, Earth rising from the far side. They even named a crater after the commander’s late wife. And then they came home. I’m sure they were changed by what they witnessed. But they came home.

That’s the energy this week.

What does home mean?

Home’s not just a place with walls and a mortgage. It’s the feeling of being held by something that knows you.

To me, home is the person who still sees you after fifty years. The return to yourself after you’ve been stretched past your edges.

Home is the planet that catches you when you re-enter. The ocean, the sky, and the parachutes that open exactly when they’re supposed to.

This week, you might feel a pull toward home, as a return. The desire to land somewhere soft after all that fire.

What to expect

The initiating energy of the last few weeks is settling. You’ve launched and likely made the decisions that needed to be made. And also taken the risks. And now comes the part where you integrate what happened.

There’s a New Moon at the end of the week. Think of it as one last fresh start in this fiery season before things slow down. But whatever begins this week might also stir something old. Maybe it’s a tender place or a part of you that’s still healing from the last time you were brave.

You can start something new and still be healing from something old. Both can be true at the same time. In fact, that’s usually how it works.

The belief that won’t survive this week

“I missed my chance.”

You didn’t. Some things wait, others circle back. And some things sit quietly for thirty years and then tap you on the shoulder as if no time has passed at all. (Living example 🙋‍♀️)

When the timing isn’t aligned, it’s not the same as being too late.

And if you’re thinking, “I don’t know where I belong”, I’m going to push back on that and tell you, you do. It’s just that sometimes the knowing gets buried under the noise of other people’s expectations, obligations, the life you thought you were supposed to live, and the years that took you somewhere else.

But the knowing is still there, waiting for you to trust it.

What I know is, home isn’t something you find as much as something you recognize.

Why this matters

This week, the fire gives way to ocean.

Think of the astronauts coming home. The heat has passed. The parachutes opened. Splash. 

And here on the ground, we’re being asked, what does home mean to you? Not the fantasy of home. The real thing. The soft place to land. The person(s) who still sees you. And yes, the ground that holds.

Maybe you’re already there, or maybe you’re still finding your way back. Maybe home is something you’re building right now, one choice at a time. Either way, this week is about the return, the integration. As though you went far, learned things, and changed.

Now come home.

Jonni

PS. You know that version of yourself who already knows where you belong? The one who’s not second-guessing or wondering if you missed your chance? You can meet them. Getting Ahead of Yourself is a three-part hypno-meditative series for doing exactly that. Three audios, about twenty minutes each. Once it’s yours, it’s yours forever. And if you want me in your corner while things percolate, UNLIMITED gives you ten days of real-time support.

P.P.S. Fifty years. I still can’t believe it.