Man, sometimes life just throws you curveballs, you know? And not the fun kind. A while back, I was stuck in a real rut. Everything just felt… flat. My energy was gone, my motivation was shot, and honestly, I was just spinning my wheels, not really getting anywhere with anything. Felt like I was just going through the motions every single day, trying to fake it ’til I made it, but ‘it’ never came.
I remember one particularly dreary Tuesday, just sitting there, staring at my monitor, mind completely blank. I needed something, anything, to shake things up. I’d heard whispers about the I Ching from a buddy of mine, how it could sometimes offer a weirdly clear mirror to your situation. Never really got into that stuff before, always thought it was a bit too mystical for my taste. But desperate times, right?
So, I pulled out three old coins – a couple of quarters and a nickel – and decided to give it a shot. Following some simple instructions I found online, I started tossing ’em. Six times, flipping those coins, tallying up the heads and tails, drawing lines. It felt a bit silly at first, just me and these old coins, trying to divine some ancient wisdom. But I kept at it, drawing those broken and unbroken lines, building up the hexagram line by line.
And when I was done, I had it. Hexagram number 24. “Fu.” Or, as most folks call it, “Return.”
My First Brush with “Return”
I gotta be honest, when I first saw “Return,” I was kinda confused. Return to what? I felt like I was already at rock bottom, nowhere to return from. Was it telling me to go back to my old ways? Because those weren’t really working out. I felt a bit of a letdown, like, “Is that it? Just ‘return’?”
But then I started digging a little deeper into what Hexagram 24 actually means. I grabbed a few different interpretations, kinda bouncing between them, trying to piece together the bigger picture. The core message really hit me: it wasn’t about going back in time, or returning to a past state exactly. It was about a turning point. A return to a fundamental sense of self, a natural cycle. Like the winter solstice, when the light starts to return, even if it’s just a tiny flicker at first. It spoke of renewal, of getting back on the right track after a detour, recognizing where things went wrong and gently, slowly, coming back to what’s natural.
The image of “Thunder within the Earth” really stuck with me too. It’s like, beneath all the stillness, there’s a quiet rumble, a spark of life getting ready to emerge. It wasn’t about some sudden, dramatic change, but a slow, steady, inevitable shift happening underground.
Putting it into Practice (or Trying To)
That really resonated with where I was. I’d been pushing too hard, trying to force solutions, feeling like I had to be “on” all the time. Hexagram 24, “Return,” felt like it was telling me to ease up. To stop fighting myself, and instead, trust that a natural rebalancing would happen if I just allowed it. It was about recognizing the small beginnings, not expecting immediate huge results.
So, what did I actually do? I decided to really lean into that idea of “return to fundamentals.” I stopped trying to tackle massive projects all at once. Instead, I started really basic. I made a conscious effort to rediscover simple pleasures I’d forgotten about. Things like taking a proper walk in the park without my phone buzzing, just noticing the trees and the sky. I started picking up an old book I used to love, just reading for the sake of it, not to learn or improve, just to enjoy. I even tried cooking simple, comforting meals again, just for myself, without feeling like it had to be some fancy chef-level creation.
It was about creating space for that “thunder within the Earth” to do its thing. I stopped guilt-tripping myself for not being productive every second. I allowed myself to just be for a while. It felt almost counter-intuitive, like I should be pushing harder, but this hexagram was whispering to me to just let go and trust the cycle.
The Shift, Slowly But Surely
And you know what? Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, things started to shift. It wasn’t like a sudden bolt of lightning, but more like the gradual lengthening of daylight after the shortest day. That feeling of emptiness started to fade. I found myself having small bursts of genuine interest in things again. My energy didn’t come roaring back overnight, but it definitely started to return, little by little. That pressure I’d been feeling for months? It eased up. I started seeing possibilities again, tiny ones, but possibilities nonetheless.
Hexagram 24, “Return,” for me, became less about going back and more about rediscovering that core balance, that natural rhythm I’d lost. It taught me the power of taking a step back, trusting in the quiet regeneration, and understanding that even the smallest turning point can lead to a complete renewal. It was a proper reset button for my soul, really.
