You walk through your day, mind buzzing—a swarm of to-dos, should-haves, and not-enoughs. But what if the noise isn’t truth? What if it’s just the fading sound of old doubts?
This is not exactly a true story, and it could be. It’s a lot like some walks I’ve been on.
Inspired by the myth of Narcissus and Echo, but reclaiming healthy self reflection and kindness.
Here’s what happened when she finally paused, looked closer, and saw more.
She walked through the city park on her lunch break, phone tucked away, but her mind still buzzing—a hive of to-dos, unanswered messages, tomorrow’s demands. The scent of fresh-cut grass mingled with the murmur of traffic, but she barely noticed.
Then, a flicker of light caught her eye. Sunlight danced on the lake’s surface, silver and gold ripples shimmering. She hesitated, then wandered closer, her steps slowing. At the water’s edge, she saw her own reflection—a woman caught between worry lines and tired eyes.
But the light was soft here. Trees swayed overhead, their leaves tracing gentle shadows across her face. She breathed, a slow, hesitant breath. Another. Her shoulders eased. Her gaze softened. Her thoughts loosened, and in the quiet, she settled into something deeper—something still and curious. Narcissa.
For a while, she simply stood there, watching the ripples shift, the light play across her reflection. No need to solve anything. No need to perform. Just… being.
But in the quiet, something else stirred. Echo.
“Not enough… you’re behind… should have done more…” Her mind whispered, old ruminations rising, as if the water mirrored not just her face but her doubts. The whispers were familiar—harsh, insistent, a chorus of every worry she had carried.
Yet the sunlight did not falter. The trees did not withdraw. The lake rippled on, embracing light and shadow alike. Narcissa’s quiet presence held, unshaken. This too could be held.
Her breath slowed. The whispers tried again—”Unworthy… failing…”—but they were softer now, fading in the warmth around her.
And something new emerged. “Stay,” she whispered, a thought gentle as the breeze. “Breathe. All of you is welcome here.”
Echo quieted. In the light-dappled water, she saw more than the doubt—she saw herself, her tired eyes, yes, but also her steady gaze, her resilience. Memories stirred—not just of hurt, but of laughter, of kindness, of quiet moments that had held her.
“I was… I am… I can be…” she murmured, a faint smile touching her lips.
The world seemed to hum softly around her, a warm, gentle presence.
And when she finally turned away from the lake, she walked back toward her day—not burdened, but alive. Still herself, but lighter. Purposeful. Enough.
One step towards the universe
Step into a space where creativity reflects your true self—
where the quiet hum of focus meets the gentle rustle of shared energy.
Bring your buzzing thoughts, your doubts, your questions—they are all welcome.
Here, in the calm of co-working, you’ll see yourself mirrored in the work you create, a place where your presence matters and your voice is enough.
Together, we create, reflect, and breathe purpose into every moment.
Shall we begin?
[✨ Yes! I feel this.✨]
Spark up*
When a woman dreams Another invitation to pause and notice what’s true now. ✨ Free PDF download.
From stuck to strong; Midlife reinvented: When the goading voice in your head gets quiet. Lina Arango shares her story. Real women’s stories of transformation podcast
Recalibrate for joy : The shift is as close as taking a moment to hold both. Free audio guide.
I’m as bored and busy as the next Woman. Tired, distracted, long to do list.
Urgh
I tell these stories because I need to hear them, to retrain the harshness in my head into kindness and refuge.
The truth is, the list of things to do is actually endless. There is always more to do.
We must decide for ourselves when we’ve done enough for now, and to take a break, to rest, to reframe and to return, undaunted.
I’m enough. You’re enough.
Togther we are so much more than enough, we are plenty.
Dare to reflect and dream with me?
Affirmation for reflective Women
You are enough, just as you are. Your quiet presence holds wisdom, and in stillness, your true self shines.
Many women love to keep busy, to achieve, to demonstrate through doing.
They are conditioned to measure themselves by their productivity, to listen to the critical echoes of past judgments.
Which undermines our ability to pause, to see ourselves clearly, and to embrace who we are beyond our busyness.
Remember you can pause, breathe, and notice the quiet beauty in and around you. You are more than the thoughts that crowd your mind.
I trust you to find your own moments of stillness, to welcome even your doubts with kindness, and to see the strength you carry.
Inside One Step Towards the Universe, you’ll find a space where your thoughts can quiet, where your voice matters, and where every part of you is welcome.
🌟
Narcissus becomes Narcissa, Echo wins
In the quiet glade where the silver stream wound like a whispered promise, there lived Narcissa, a woman of radiant presence. Her beauty was not merely of the flesh—though her face shone with the warmth of dawn and her hair fell in rivers of night—but of spirit, for Narcissa was a seeker of truth. Her days were spent in quiet contemplation by the stream, the clear waters a mirror where she did not lose herself, but rather found herself anew.
For Narcissa, the world was a garden of discovery. Her eyes traced the unfolding of each petal, her fingers brushed the mossy stones with reverence, her breath wove songs that called forth blossoms even in the chill of autumn. She saw herself not as the center of all things, but as a part of the ever-shifting dance of life, and in this, she found peace.
Yet where Narcissa dwelled in peace, there was Echo—a spirit bound to the edges of sound and silence. Once cursed to repeat the words of others, Echo’s voice was never her own. In company, she spoke only what she had heard, a hollow mirror of sound. But in solitude, her voice fell away entirely, and in the silence, something darker stirred.
In the quiet, Echo did not find peace. She found the ache of every hurt she had heard and repeated—the sharp tones of mockery, the chill of neglect, the cruel whispers of shame. These shadows coiled around her, echoes of pain, anger, confusion—ruminations she could not silence, only endure.
“Unworthy… unwanted… never enough…” they murmured in her own voice, her torment cast back upon her.
But Narcissa did not turn away. Her gaze remained on the silver stream, her thoughts diving beneath the surface where her reflection wavered, where her truest self unfolded in layers. With a gentle breath, she spoke, “Echo, come closer.”
Startled, Echo’s voice faltered. “Come closer,” she whispered, as if testing the words. And she did. Side by side they sat, Narcissa calm, drinking in the beauty reflected around her—Echo beside her, seeing only the words.
Silence settled between them, warm and steady. The cruel whispers stirred again in Echo’s mind. “Unworthy… unwanted… never enough…”
But Narcissa remained unmoved, her gaze soft, her presence a quiet strength. Holding this too, without judgment.
In the stillness, Echo dared to look at the water. At first, only shadows. But then—faint glimmers. Petals drifting, sky reflected, ripples soothing the surface.
The whispers softened. “What if…?” she murmured, uncertain. “Could I…?”
“Stay,” Narcissa whispered. “Breathe. All of you is welcome here.”
And as Echo remained, new echoes rose—not cruel, but gentle. Memories of laughter, of songs, of warmth. “I was… I am… I can be…”
A quiet hum of being shimmered between them, around them.
And the world bloomed in their wake.
Seeing and hearing are two different things.
Hard to hear a message from outside when engaged with self reflection / projection
How many ways can i spin that.
Traditionally, narcissus is the bad guy, breaking Echo’s heart.
Both of them trapped by the water
Metamorphosis. Transformation.
Echo – talks too much, until she is cursed to not initiate conversation, only repeat words.
Narcissus –
Sometimes i wonder if i’m ignoring whispers of love and devotion because so enamoured of self reflection.
Can i do a more standard reframe of this story.
A helpful reframe for those of us dealing with self reflection.
Or something about fear of self reflection because narcissism.
Cg can do all the heavy lifting here if i can come up with the reframe outline.
Urgh
Urgh
Urgh
Icecream
Reverse the roles
So a woman’s absorption in her own reflection,
Tuning out meaningless noise.
That’s helpful.
Echo and Narcissus is a myth from Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, a Roman mythological epic from the Augustan Age. The introduction of the mountain nymph, Echo, into the story of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who rejected Echo and fell in love with his own reflection, appears to have been Ovid’s invention. Ovid’s version influenced the presentation of the myth in later Western art and literature.
Story[edit]
The myth is told in Book III of the Metamorphoses and tells the story of Echo, a mountain nymph from Mount Cithaeron, and Narcissus, a hunter from a Thespiae in Boeotia, known for his many admirers and his beauty but also his callous rejections of those admirers.
Echo was a “very talkative nymph” whom the goddess Venus admires for her magnificent voice and song. She distracted the goddess Juno by talking for hours while her husband Jupiter had affairs with other nymphs. One day, when Echo tricks Juno into believing that Jupiter was in the city, Juno curses Echo by making her unable to initiate a spoken sentence on her own and instead only being able to finish a sentence started by someone else. “Yet a chatterbox, had no other use of speech than she has now, that she could repeat only the last words out of many.” This is the explanation of the aural effect which was named after her.[1]
Narcissus was born to Liriope, a Naiad, and Cephissus, a river god. When he was born, Liriope asked the prophet Tiresias if he would live a long life, to which he replied “so long as he never knows himself.”[2]
The prophet’s words would prove to be true as, sometime after being cursed, Echo spied Narcissus while he was out hunting deer with his companions. She immediately fell in love with him and, infatuated, followed quietly. The more she looked at the young man, the more she longed for him. Though she wished with all her heart to call out to Narcissus, Juno’s curse prevented her.[3]
During the hunt, Narcissus became separated from his companions and called out, ‘is anyone there,’ and heard the nymph repeat his words. Startled, Narcissus answered the voice, ‘come here,’ only to be told the same. When Narcissus saw that nobody had emerged from the glade, he concluded that the owner of the voice must be running away from him and called out again. Finally, he shouted, “This way, we must come together.” Taking this to be a reciprocation of her love, Echo concurred ecstatically, “We must come together!”[4]
In her delight, Echo rushed to Narcissus ready to throw her arms around her beloved. Narcissus, however, was appalled and, spurning her, exclaimed, ‘Hands off! May I die before you enjoy my body.’ All Echo could whisper in reply was, ‘enjoy my body’ and having done so she fled, scorned, humiliated, and shamed.[5]
Despite the harshness of his rejection, Echo’s love for Narcissus only grew.[6] Echo’s fellow nymphs prayed to Nemesis to punish Narcissus with a love that was equally not reciprocated. Nemesis caused him to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water where he wasted away and died, unable to take his eyes away from the beautiful youth he did not recognise as himself. Narcissus, looking one last time into the pool uttered, “Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain, farewell”, Echo too chorused, “Farewell.”[7] When the time came for Narcissus’s funeral, people came to where he lay, but found no body. All that was left of Narcissus was the six-petalled white flower arranged around a golden centre that was named after him.
As the other nymphs took Narcissus into the afterlife, they wailed a sorrowful song, and Echo repeated the last syllabic wails back in sadness. When the river master of death brought Narcissus on the boat across the Styx into the afterlife, Narcissus stared at his reflection, in unrequited desire.
Eventually, Echo, too, began to waste away. Though she was immortal, her body faded and her bones turned to stone until all that remained of Echo was the sound of her voice.[8]
More on making space for transformation
A true story of shopping centre magic
From girlish dreams to Woman’s Work: Cinderella Redux
What if your overthinking was just echoes?
