The Pivot Day: When Everything Falls Apart… and Falls Into Place

 The Pivot Day: When Everything Falls Apart… and Falls Into Place 

In this episode of Star Women Rising, Melinda shares a powerful real-life experience she calls “The Pivot Day”—a day where nothing went according to plan… and yet everything unfolded exactly as it needed to.

From canceled appointments and medical curveballs to sourdough gone wrong and garden chaos, the entire day became a series of unexpected disruptions. But instead of collapsing under the pressure, Melinda found herself doing something different—pausing, adjusting, and moving with the moment.

What started as frustration turned into something deeper:
 a lesson in adaptability, trust, and learning how to respond instead of react.

This episode explores:

✨ What it really means to pivot in real time
✨ The difference between control vs. adjustment
✨ How to stop internalizing everything that goes wrong
✨ Why perfection isn’t the goal—presence is
✨ How everyday disruptions can actually create alignment
✨ The power of breathing, trusting, and letting the process unfold

Melinda also shares a simple but profound realization:
 Nothing was actually going wrong… it was all part of the process.

If you’ve ever had one of those days where everything seems to fall apart, this episode will remind you that sometimes the breakdown is actually a redirection—and the pivot is the path.

Because life doesn’t require perfection…
 it just asks you to stay present and keep moving.

Star Women Rising is part of the Chickology Podcast Collective—real women, real stories, rising together.

✨ Breathe
 ✨ Adjust
 ✨ Trust the process

And remember… it doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be delicious. 

🌸 About Chickology™
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💫 Because when women rise together, we change the world.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Star Women Rising, where cosmic roots meet earthly power. I'm Melinda and together we'll awaken the fire within and above, exploring intuition, soul wisdom, and the ancient truths written in the stars. This isn't about escaping the world. It's about remembering who you are and rising stronger in it. Star Women Rising is part of the Chicology podcast collective. Real women, real stories, rising together. Let's begin. Welcome back. Before I get started, I'd like to invite you guys to check out Chicology. Check out the amazing women that are sharing some real life stories. Really amazing stuff. So if you haven't already, go check them out. Today I want to talk about the pivot day. Uh a couple days ago, I had this day. It was this was not normal, or maybe it was normal. I mean, I don't know. It started off pretty rough. Actually, it started off okay, but then things seemed to kind of fall apart as the day went on. Each thing that was happening seemed to start collapsing. And I I kind of want to share this experience because it ended up being a pretty uh pretty incredible learning experience. And I refer to it as a as a pivot day because I kept having to pivot. All these things were were like planned things, and the plans just kept collapsing underneath me. So the day the day started with a typical appointment for my mom that she has twice a week, physical therapy. Took her to physical therapy. They decided they couldn't do physical therapy because her blood pressure was too high. And that that's happened before. So that wasn't really didn't really feel like it was some catastrophic type thing. It's happened before. But usually after that, it usually when they cancel it, it ends up in a 10-hour ER visit, and then they don't know what's going on and and send her home. But in that, I was able, I thought, okay, well, this gives me more time to do the things that I want to do and that I need to do. It's like, okay, this this works out for me in a in a better way. And you know, my mom was fine. And I got home and my dad was scheduled for a minor surgery. Actually, it was scheduled for today. And then I got home and I kind of was preparing myself. You know, he's an older guy, so anytime they have to have these kind of things, you know, it's a little stressful. I just wanted to make sure that he was going to be okay. And I went over and we I was kind of discussing what you know, the medications that he's supposed to stop before this happens, the things he's supposed to take, the day of. And in that, I ended up getting a phone call, you know, from the the place to confirm the surgery. And I I started asking them some questions, and then it sort of snowballed, and then I realized that my dad was taking a medication that he should not have been taking prior to this procedure. So I had to cancel. And then it was okay, I have to now try to reschedule this appointment. And it was, it felt very chaotic and very hectic. However, got the rescheduling done, it really wasn't a problem. I think it was more of a problem in my mind that I was concerned that he's now gonna be stressing out because he was preparing for this and you know, trying to get it rescheduled. Is it gonna be one of those things where now it's like six months down the road? And and this procedure is kind of important. And then I realized after kind of getting him to settle down, look, you know, this it happens. It's probably better. Because several weeks ago, I actually had a dream where he came to me and he told me that he just felt he was too weak and he was he had just come off of like a flu. And I this asked him, Do you want to push this procedure back? And he's like, No, no, no, I want to get it over with. But in my my gut, I was like, Man, I just think he could use a little more time. So in this taking the medication that he shouldn't have taken, we were granted a little more time. And I was acutely aware of this, like, okay, I f actually feel a little better about this, even though it was really hectic. Like I said, really kind of dealing with his response to it and then trying to get everything lined up. It was, it was a little, it was a little chaotic. And at some point during this whole process, I had actually fired up some sourdough starter. I like to bake, I do sourdough bread, and so I fired up some starter, and I kind of was my intent was to put together the dough, the dough balls. Like my usually put them together one day, set them in the refrigerator, and then bake them the next. And this is pretty much my routine. This is how I always do it. I looked at the starter and and I was kind of like, yeah, you know, I it's not quite looking as airy. Anybody out there who does sourdough, you know what I'm talking about. You know, I fed it and I think it had gone beyond its peak. So, but I wasn't sure. So I I went on with it anyway and mixed, you know, six cups of flour. So when you're when these things, it comes up, it's like six cups of flour. Like you don't want to waste all of this material, right? So I I mix in the flour and I'm looking at it and I'm going, man, it just doesn't look right. And when you've been baking for a while, you kind of know how it's supposed to look. And it just wasn't looking right at all. So I get on the Googler, my husband calls it the Googler, and I'm trying to figure out, you know, and I'm I'm totally novice with this sourdough thing. I I am not an expert. I do very basic stuff and I try to do it the easiest way possible that doesn't have a bunch of steps and isn't all overcomplicated. And the bread is fine. It's we enjoy it. It's not beautiful, it's not decorative, it's functional. So I get on there and I'm like, you know, is there's there's something I can do to try to save this dough. I didn't want to throw it out. And, you know, probably for you experts out there, you're like, oh, you know, you can throw a little yeast in there. And I it made me really nervous because I hadn't done it before. And and it's funny because and I think it was it was actually chat GBT. It was like, you know, don't overthink this. And then it gave me, well, the purist would just freak out over the idea of using yeast while I can appreciate this purist perspective. I was not trying to waste six cups of flour, just toss it out, although, you know, the birds probably would have ate it or the pigs or whatever. But I had already put in this this time and energy. So made me a little nervous. So I kind of and it wasn't really specific. It was just throw in a pinch of yeast mixed in a little water, and then I was thinking, man, this yeast has been in the refrigerator for a while. I don't even know if it's gonna work. Like this is this is really I mean it it may sound silly, but it was really this, oh my gosh, I'm having to pivot on this and pivot in a way that felt very unfamiliar. And it's like I might I may end up having to throw this out anyway. So I did the little pinch and man, I I really fumbled through this process, but I'm I was determined that I was gonna just give it a try and try not to freak out too much over the end result because, like I said, if I had to toss it, I have chickens, I have pigs, you know, they'll eat it, but I just didn't want to do that. I wanted, I had it in my plan to bake bread. So I I did it, set it aside for the rise and all that. And then after that, I went out to the garden. I'm checking things, things are starting to pop. I did a keyhole garden this year, and I should say my husband did. I'm I'm the idea person, he's the one that carries them out. He's like, he's like action. I'm like, you know, thought. I think of things, and he is able to put them together. So he put together our first keyhole garden, and I and it's new, like I I have no idea how this are it's it's actually ancient, but it's new to me. So, you know, I'm out there staring at it constantly, and and the fact that he put in all this effort, I really want it to work. And I also really want it to work because over the past eight years of trying to garden, it was the very first year we got here that I actually had some really pretty lettuce and spinach, and I had a few things that were beautiful radishes, some carrots. I haven't been able to do carrots since. So there's kind of this pressure for me to get this garden going. And so far, I've planted some stuff and I've tried not to overthink it, and I've tried not to overplant, and I'm just trying to see how this system is is gonna work, and things are starting to pop, and I was really excited about that. But then I noticed that the compost smelled funky, right? And I was like, uh, I don't think that's right. You know, things aren't looking right in the compost pile, and that's a big part of it. So I end up having to pivot. I, you know, I have to figure out what I need to do to save this compost pile and wrecking this system. I mean, it was absolutely crazy. You had to be here, but it was like another pivot. Okay. I went from sitting out there and admiring the garden and staring at it. I stare at it like it's a sleeping baby. I'm pretty excited about it. It's pretty aesthetically, it's made from the rocks that are here. It's very natural, very organic looking. And now all of a sudden I'm in a panic over this garden, this compost issue. So I had to pivot and I had to figure out what do I need to do to fix that. So I stuffed some straw down there and mixed it up real good and checked back. And it was it was fine. The fooshy, funky smell was gone. So I was like, okay, but you know, still in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, is this, you know, is this gonna do it? Is or is the system gonna be completely wrecked? So I guess the jury's still out on that, but at least it knocked down whatever was going on. I think I was able to add some oxygen and some brown material to it to uh to offset whatever was going on. Then I came back in and I'm noticing that this bread dough is really sluggish. It's really sluggish. So this is going on through the course of the whole day. The whole day is like something happens, I have to adjust. Something else happens, I have to adjust. And I'm thinking, man, this this is a crazy day. This is bonkers, you know, and my stress levels up a little bit, but I'm able to kind of figure out new ways of dealing with things, right? It's while it's super chaotic, super crazy, super hectic, I'm also there's also this learning process. So this episode isn't about perfection, it's about what happens when things don't go according to plan. And I think that probably happens more often than not. But this particular day, it happened all day long. And when plans shift unexpectedly, the internal pull that you get, you know, the frustration, you want to control it. And then you you you obviously you want to fix it. And, you know, this this creates this stress of trying to manage it. So I gotta fix this, I gotta fix this dough, I gotta fix this situation with, you know, my dad's procedure, I gotta fix what's happening in the garden. And I realized that some of the some of these pivots that I had to make weren't even mine, right? Like my my dad's situation. The dough was definitely something that I had planned. The garden was definitely mine, but the real, the major one of the day was actually my dad's, and I'm thinking, and this is, you know, I have to try to fix this, and this isn't really a a me issue. And I realized I had to I had to breathe through it. I had to not internalize everything that I was responding to. Like I really had to make a conscious effort to not internalize this and just do what I needed to do to to to adjust. You know, I'm not fixing it, but I'm adjusting, or you know, I didn't fix anything, I just had to adjust. And I had these decision points, you know, do I throw it out for the starter? Do I throw it out or do I adapt? And and really my need to not waste six cups of flour made me adapt. And even with that, it was late that night that the bread finally rose enough where I was like, okay, I was ready to bake. And I had two loaves. I put the first loaf in and it, boy, it was beautiful. I was looking at the oven, I was just admiring how beautiful it was. And right towards the end, in the meantime, I noticed the other loaf was overproofing. So that sent me into another, another tailspin. Like, what what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do here? You know, I'm panicking and I couldn't, I couldn't put it in the refrigerator because the uh the loaf pan that I was using was a silicone loaf pan and it was all flimsy, and every time I moved it, it was like rocking. It was it was terrible. So I'm thinking, well, you know, and it's late at night. By the time this dough rose, it was late, and I'm I'm freaking out. And it's like, okay, well, I just have to roll with it. So I put that second loaf in and it turned out beautiful. It wasn't as puffy as the other one. It wasn't as it's not that it wasn't as aesthetically pleasing, it was just different. And both loaves ended up being delicious. So I learned in that that it didn't have to be perfect, it just it didn't have to be perfect. But here's the motto that I I tell my grandchildren when we are uh baking and they worry about, you know, I didn't do this right or I didn't mix it right, or I always tell them it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be delicious, and that's how I keep the I keep the pressure off of the process. You know, they're little, we're trying to just do stuff together, it doesn't have to be perfect. So the bread, the second loaf, it wasn't perfect, so to speak, but I guarantee you it was absolutely delicious. You know, the the garden uh it had some really wet conditions in the compost. It was really kind of stick, you know, stinky. Uh I had sort of over mulched it a little bit, and uh I had, you know, like I said, it this was a new experience. I desperately want it to work. Like I said, I feel like I'm under pressure. My husband did a lot of work to create it. The gardens have been just a flop. So I just I felt this tremendous pressure. And what I kind of, you know, going out there and just making the repairs and and sort of learning that gardens they reward consistency, not perfection. It's not gonna be perfection. I am not one of those master gardeners. I am just trying to have some edible items here for my family that we know where it's been, we know what's on it, we know what it's grown in, and not to overthink it and just just make the adjustments and not internalize it. And you know, the whole world's not gonna spin off its axis if you know, if it if something goes wrong. It just it's it was okay. I've you know, I feel like we we get so caught up in the you know, the reason I wanted to share this because I know that this I'm not the only one that's dealt with something like this. Um, you know, you these systems, they talk to you. You can adjust, you know, your your bread dough, it was it was telling me that, you know, there needed to be some adjustments made. And, you know, if you listen, if you take some time, center yourself, breathe, and then act. Felt felt like in this day, all of these seemingly catastrophic, and they weren't catastrophic, but at the time they kind of felt that way. I just felt like tremendous pressure. In that, I was I was learning. I was learning something new. And I was all you know, I was acutely aware of that, that okay, this is this is good to know, this is handy. It was a powerful realization of learning, and it was a powerful realization of breathing and working through it. And you look, I'm no stranger to having to like think on my feet. You know, I had a career that required me to pivot a lot, but it was really more reactional. I was having to react a lot, and it actually, I think it created a lot of stress, like just reacting. You know, the situation with my dad probably would have had me in a full-blown meltdown at one point in my life where I was taking responsibility for the fact that things didn't work out. I should have been on top of this, I should have made sure he didn't take this medication. I should have been keeping track, and it would have had me feeling pretty low, pretty stressed out and pretty low. And I genuinely had to go inward, breathe, and and say, no, you know, this is this is not mine. I'm gonna, I'm gonna help out. I'm gonna do what I can to, you know, right this ship a little bit, but I'm not going to internalize it. I am not going to collapse under this pressure. It would have had me probably in a bad way for days had I done that. At some point in this this day, this very odd day, I realized that everything was following the same pattern. So, you know, which was a powerful realization. It was, it was kind of late at night, I think, while I was waiting for the last uh loaf of bread to bake, that I realized that there was this pattern playing out. Something was off. I had to make a small adjustment, I had to let it play out, and then the result ended up good. I noticed, I adjusted, I didn't overreact, and then I had to trust the process. What I realized was nothing was actually going wrong. It was all just in process, right? It really, nothing really went wrong. And there was a time where I would have thought the day was a disaster. Like I would have thought, this was the worst day ever. This was terrible. You know, everything fell apart. This this was my would have been my thinking at some point that that the the day was a disastrous day. I would have gone to bed, stressed the hell out, upset that things didn't work out, even even if they had, right? And and probably in a time before, I wouldn't have even tried. I would have just scrapped everything. I would have tossed the bread dough out. I would have internalized the issue with my dad. I would have sulked over the garden and maybe gave up on it. Maybe gave up and said, well, maybe I'll try next year. I would have been freaking out over what my husband was gonna say. Like, I did all this work and and you know, you messed up the the and not that he would have said that. This is what my mind would have played. My mind would have made up a story, but you know, just this everything's a disaster. And I would have gone to bed and I would have tossed and turned all night, freaking out over what a shitty day I had, and I would have held on to it probably for the next week. So this day taught me, it taught me a lot about pivoting, about adapting, about acting, and about trusting the process. You know, the the bread, it was a very slow process, and I had to be patient. And I kept checking. I'm like, well, there's movement, there's movement. And and what also because you know, it wasn't really warm, it wasn't really a super warm day. I had it on a heating mat to try to help the rise because my house was a little cooler. You know, there were some things about how this works that I am aware of, but it was a very slow process. And I had to trust the process, and I had to trust the process in the garden, and I had to trust the process with my dad, that it was just that in doing that, it was just gonna work out. And it did. And, you know, the the deeper meaning for me, my dad's procedure was rescheduled, and I think it's actually better timing. I think it works out better. I think it gives him a little more opportunity to recover from when he had the flu. That really took him down to like nothing, like he had no energy. And I and I, like I said, I dreamt it and it had me very stressed out, but it worked out. My mom's canceled appointment actually created space for my day. It created space for me to learn how to trust this process and do the things that I needed to do and act on the garden, which really needed to be acted on. And I may not have realized that if things had gone differently. And it could have been catastrophic if I had not acted when I did, because then it possibly could have gone past the point of no return. So, what actually looked disrupted created alignment for me. You know, what looked like very disruptive events actually aligned me in a very powerful way. And I think it's important to understand that not everything is controllable. You cannot control every event in your life and and granted these these probably on the on the grand scheme of things aren't the most difficult of of circumstances they aren't like the most important events of the day there's clearly far bigger issues happening on this planet right now for people but I was able to to manage it by doing some some simple things taking a deep breath thinking before I acted trusting the process not internalizing it so not everything is controllable that's I think that's important to remember but what is controllable is your response you can curl up in a ball which would have been my response probably just maybe even two years ago you know my nervous system couldn't have handled all the stress so you can curl up in a ball or you can adapt you can make adjustments you can trust the process you cannot put the pressure on yourself to be perfect or whatever the case uh your your response is absolutely within your control and sometimes the pivot is the path right and sometimes that pivot is absolutely the path it was such a it was such a powerful realization that that night that this pattern emerged in my day that was showing me my own ability to pivot and adapt and do what was necessary to keep things going keep things flowing and that was powerful I mean I literally learned something about myself I can stay steady in unpredictability and not spiral into collapse I can you know I can I can adjust and not abandon what I started because there was like I said I there was a time where I would have just said no I don't have time or the energy for this scrapped the bread dough tossed it out to the chickens hauled it off to the pigs and salt there was definitely a time I would have done that I was able to reframe the day I was able to actually look at it for what it was and what it was showing me as opposed to making it the most catastrophic day of 2026 I was able to say you know my thought process went from you know I would have said in spite of the pivots this was a good day but really when I thought about it on a deeper level it was because of those pivots that it ended up being a really good day. Because of those pivots I had to make because of those adjustments because of that adaptation at the end of the day that night I literally felt good about the day I thought man this ended up being a really good day and that was that was an interesting sensation. It wasn't in spite of it was because of so I had to I I reframed it and now I know how to move through days like this. You know I know how to move through these types of days I can breathe I can take a minute I can adjust and I can act and then after that I really have no control over the outcome but I can I can at least make the effort and then not have these super high expectations and if it doesn't turn out perfect that's fine. Doesn't have to be and what's really funny is on this particular day it actually turned out perfect. Everybody's been enjoying the bread didn't have to be perfect and it was you know it was delicious which in my mind makes it perfect. Um it applies to bread it applies to gardening it applies to life you don't need perfect conditions to have a good day you just need to stay present and adjust as things unfold. So maybe the goal isn't to avoid the pivots maybe it's just to learn how to move with them. That's my thought for the day and I just wanted to share that like I said because I know I'm not the only one who experiences these days. I know it's not you know sometimes it may be one thing but this particular day it was literally everything. And at the end of the day I made the adjustments and because of all those adjustments I learned something very powerful about my ability to adapt and adjust and take care of business. And it was it was a super good powerful experience. So next time you have one of those days stop think about it. Stop and think about I see what's happening here. I see it call it out I see what's happening take a deep breath and then do what you gotta do. Do what you gotta do and don't have so much pressure on yourself. Just do what you need to do and the end it may not be the result that you were looking for but it may be the result that you need. So thank you for joining me here on Star Women Rising. If today's conversation stirred something in you trust it that's your fire awakening this podcast is part of the Chicology collective where women everywhere are reclaiming their voice, their power and their light be sure to subscribe share this with the Soul Sister and explore more shows under Chicology because we rise higher when we rise together. Until next time keep reaching for the stars and rooting deep in your power