The title caught my eye, then lingered in my imagination.
Since the day was already over-scheduled, I was trying to sprint through Barnes & Noble with blinders on and just get the one book I came for — but that’s never going to be possible for me.
I’m not sure why, but lately, I’ve been binge-watching a bunch of “cozy murder mysteries” — a genre where yes, there’s a murder, but the emotional world is contained, charming, and even comforting.
To be candid, I’m thoroughly ready to pack my bags — and find a time machine — to travel to Grantchester via PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery.
Anyway, the title that caught my eye was a recent book by Kristen Perrin:
How to Solve Your Own Murder.
Little did I know that I’d soon be investigating a mysterious chapter in my own life.
I woke up Friday morning and inspected my calendar to plot out my day.
It was all very standard.
A favorite barre class, an interview with a potential CTO (Chief Technology Officer), a virtual cohort for artists, and a creative coaching client session.
(I have a few coaching slots available — you’re invited to explore more HERE).
There was, however, one extraordinary item, scheduled in the header as an all-day event, just as if it were a national holiday like Memorial Day.
All it said was:
The Blue Storm Ends
The entire week already felt slightly off.
Since Memorial Day came particularly early this year, I forgot that this was still the end of May, not the beginning of June.
Earlier in the week I was loosely calculating that I’d need a new theme and would have to record a new meditation as well.
The theme revealed itself early thanks to a compelling synchronicity from that virtual peer-support cohort.
In May, I was exploring Intuition (meditation HERE).
In June — which I thought had begun, but hadn’t — we’ll be exploring Integrity.
There seems to be a natural bridge between the two because:
Intuition is knowing.
Integrity is living what you know.
Getting back to my calendar, I knew what The Blue Storm Ends referred to, and that I must have noted it in my calendar over a year ago.
I just wasn’t sure why it was located on that particular day.
Last year, I briefly went down an intense rabbit hole researching Mayan astrology.
For my deeper questions, I talked to several professionals about my chart.
One of them — I’m not sure which, since there are various interpretations possible — told me that my personal 13-year cycle, keyed to the particular “wavespell” I was born into, runs from 2013 to 2026.
This particular cycle — one of the 20 — is Blue Storm.
It’s a period of tremendous disruption, reinvention, and transformation through upheaval.
Perhaps you can relate because it just so happens that the world itself is in a global Blue Storm Cycle, though that one doesn’t end until 2028.
(For once, I get out of the chaos a little early).
Part of the inspiration for June’s theme was drawing the Angel of Integrity.
I love that card’s definition:
Stand up for what you believe in.
Act in congruence with your values
and follow through on your commitments.
That is exactly what I’m trying to practice, in particular with my new course: The Soul of Social Media™.
(Info is HERE).
Information is everywhere.
We live in a world where people can search endlessly and find the answers they seek.
Yet access to information was never really the true problem.
I learned this early on, at an intense personal development event right after college.
During one of the opening speeches, the leader asked the group, “If you want to lose weight or just get into better shape, please raise your hand.”
I’d say that at least 90% of the room did so.
“OK, then,“ he continued, “Put your hand down if information is what’s holding you back — but keep your hand up if you already pretty much know how to do that.”
Tellingly, I don’t remember a single person lowering their hand.
Most of my notes from those Mayan readings are extremely precise.
I can find nothing in them — and absolutely nothing online — about how I got that particular date for the end of the 13-year cycle.
I suppose that when I wanted specifics, the astrologer may have said, “Around June,” and I just added it to the calendar on May 29th as an event.
It’s definitely a lesser challenge than solving your own murder, but it was nonetheless startling to wake up to learn that a 13-year cycle — one with lots of mishegoss — was coming to an end, because Blue Storm is, well … so stormy.
I love what Lisa Star, one of my favorite Mayan astrologers, wrote about it HERE:
The key to Blue Storm’s clamor and chaos
is to truly understand its necessity in clearing the sky.
She goes on to say:
If you are guided Blue Storm, you are drawn to the raw intensity of an emotional upheaval that restores peace. You move away from stagnation and toward anything that will disrupt it. In some instances of your life, it means you embrace chaos and disturb your own equilibrium – sometimes too strongly to be sane or whole. …
(Blue Storm’s) mission is to intensify the denial until it cracks under its own pressure and the many layers of emotion beneath it are freed.
When I embrace this interpretation of the current global cycle — fortunately only for another two years — I find it quite comforting.
In designing my new course, I keep returning to this central theme.
Intuition is knowing.
Integrity is living what you know.
I have no seductive tricks for the algorithm.
I’m much more interested in exploring what it really means to show up in our lives — online or otherwise.
And it’s definitely not for everyone.
If you know you need to be more visible, but keep avoiding it.
Or you’ve taken marketing or social media courses, but still feel blocked.
Or you don’t want to become fake, slick, or performative.
It might be for you.
Years ago, I sent my friend Susan — who loves organizational systems as much as I do — a photo of my storage space so she could marvel at my mastery of labels.
Her favorite was a box I’d created for a large picnic basket someone had given me, a particularly charming but rarely used gift.
The label, however, was quite memorable: Fragile Picnic.
Indeed, it’s both amusing and empowering to believe that:
Life is a Fragile Picnic.
Recently, I’ve come to also embrace another slogan:
Maybe it’s also possible that (when we’re lucky):
“Life Is a Cozy Mystery.”
Our Blue Storms — as necessary for clearing as they may be — eventually pass, even though some of them take over a decade.
They give us the clarity to know what’s next, but it’s Integrity that allows us to do it.
And when the end of a cycle arrives mysteriously on your calendar — even if you’re not 100% sure why — maybe it’s just wise to honor it and celebrate what’s next.
Tell A New Story. Transform Your Life.