The Night We Both Saw a Shooting Star for the First Time

I was celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary with my husband. We were on the beach, looking up, admiring the starry night — when we saw a shooting star, together, for the first time in both our lives.

We'd only ever seen them in movies and dramas. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we'd quietly filed them away as fiction. A "fairy tale" thing. Not something that actually happens to actual people looking up at an actual sky.

So when it really happened — this streak of light, gone in a second — we both gasped. Turned to each other, eyes wide, searching each other's faces for confirmation on what we'd just seen. Did you see that too? Was that real?

I scrambled to make a wish before the moment passed. And because I felt greedy, I quietly folded two wishes into one. (Efficient, I know.)

For me, I felt this strong emotion inside me — it was like I'd unlocked a new level of hopefulness.

The Lesson That Stayed With Me Longer Than the Star Itself

When we let go of attachment to a specific outcome, our happiness in the actual outcome is so much higher.

We weren't standing there expecting a shooting star. We weren't trying to manifest it, chase it, or force it. It just happened — and because we weren't attached to it happening, the joy hit differently. Bigger. Purer.

It made me think about how much of our life we spend gripping tightly to how things "should" go — and how much lighter, how much more magical, life feels when we loosen that grip instead.

Learning to Just Be

Sometimes the real work isn't doing more. It's learning to be free. Open. Present.

• Being with people you love, without an agenda

• Lying on the ground, looking up at the sky

• Watching the sunset together

• Talking about our dreams

• Reading, just because

• Breathwork, just to come home to yourself

No outcome to chase. Just the moment.

This Week's Question for You

I'm not asking you to go find a shooting star. I'm asking you: where in your life are you gripping too tightly to an outcome, when what you actually need is to loosen your hands and just be?

With love, Elynn