Create the World through Play
bright blessings of the full sturgeon moon to you
Support for Every Season
I hope this is a supportive practice for you! And if you’re interested in individualized support, I offer virtual one-on-one counseling sessions. Tap the button to read more and schedule a free discovery call with me. I’d love to journey with you!
August 27, 2026
A season for play
Tonight’s full moon is named for sturgeon, which are huge, ancient fish that can live over 100 years. They spend most of the year in estuaries, coastal waters, or the ocean, feeding on fish and crustaceans deep under water. They use electric and chemical sensing to find their food and they are sensitive to changes in water temperature, light, and oxygen and sediment levels.
But every year, around this time, these giants surface. And not only do they surface, but they leap fully into the air. There are 27 species of sturgeon and they vary in size, but all are large. White sturgeon, what we have where I’m visiting in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, can get up to 9 feet long. And they breach all the way out of the water. They are huge! In some places, they have to warn boats that it’s sturgeon leaping season because people get hurt when a 100 to 200-pound fish jumps out of the water and falls on them. Sadly, it has actually been fatal for boaters at times.
The fascinating thing is that no one seems to know why they breach like this. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
Why they do this is not known, but suggested functions include group communication to maintain group cohesion, catching airborne prey, courtship display, or to help shed eggs during spawning. Other plausible explanations include escape from predators, shedding parasites, or to gulp or expel air. Another explanation is that it “simply feels good.”
Live your values—intentionally
So the question during the sturgeon full moon is, what draws you up out of the depths and into fresh air? What is motivating and energizing you? What is calling you forth?
An underlying theme to a lot of my work is adrienne maree brown’s fractal theory. Fractals are patterns in nature that repeat from a very small scale to a huge scale. For example, a twig looks like a branch, a branch looks like a tree. brown applies this to social movements by saying what we do as individuals informs how our communities function. How our communities function informs how our nation functions.
The idea is to start with ourselves, fully embrace our own values, and then invite others into that way of living, until all these values-based groups expand and fill the world.
Tonight we’re going to practice the values of sharing space, affirming one another, play, and pleasure. Because it simply feels good.
What values are you practicing in your daily life?
Improv for the soul
I’ve been a huge fan of improv for years, and I recently got back into through my friend Emily Iannuzzelli, who is a nervous system coach who uses improv to support embodied healing. Some of these practices are borrowed from her, and all of them are influenced by her.
The main practice, the heart cauldron, you could do on your own. But I strong encourage you to take a risk and invite a friend or three to do these with you. You could even do these virtually one-on-one!
The compliment game:
Stand in a circle. Person A turns to Person B and offers them a compliment and does a movement to go with it. For example, I could clutch my heart and say, “you’re beautiful!” Then Person B turns to Person C and mimics the same movement and compliment.
Keep going around and around, and notice how the movement and intonation shifts over time. And notice how it feels to give and receive compliments over and over again.
Continue around the circle until the group dissolves into silliness. Pause and Person B begins the next round and so on, until everyone has had a chance to start a round.
Loser ball:
Stand in a circle and toss an invisible ball back to one another. But every time, each person fails to catch the ball. Fail as spectacularly as possible.
After each fail, everyone in the group cheers their hearts out. Notice how it feels to fail, be cheered for, and to cheer for others’ failures.
Heart cauldron:
Stand in front of a wall. Soften your gaze. Take a few deep breaths. Notice your heart rate. Release any tension in your body.
Imagine your heart is a cauldron. It’s bubbling with emotions, memories, and desires.
Reach your hand into your heart cauldron. (Literally move through the motions with your hand!) Pull out a grief. Hold it in your hand for awhile. Notice any emotions this grief evokes in you. When you’re ready, lean down to the ground, and bury this grief. Give it some love and care as you do so. Repeat a couple of times, if you like.
Reach your hand into your heart cauldron again (really do it!). And pull out a dream, hope, or desire. Hold it in your hand and notice any emotions it evokes in you. When you’re ready, hang it on the wall in front of you. Give it some love and care as you do so.
Repeat this a few times until you have a sweet burial plot of griefs and a glorious gallery wall of dreams, hopes, and desires.
If you’re doing this with others, gather in pairs or small groups and present your burial plot and your gallery wall. For those being presented to, just listen without interjecting. Once the presenter has finished, the presentees should reflect back what they heard.
After going through these exercises, move around, stretch. Notice what you’re feeling in your body. Spend some time journaling and reflecting on the experience.
Join me
Friday, August 28, 2026, at Mama Be Well in West Seattle and we’ll play these and other improv games together, reflect, and share. I hope to see you there!
Photo by David McElwee.