One of the great things about working with cycles, like the moon cycle or the wheel of the year, is that they give us both structure and let us work with larger patterns. But sometimes, our nice tidy cycles get interrupted for one reason or another, and we have to adjust, and that can feel frustrating, especially if it leaves you feeling incomplete.
There are a lot of ways things can be (or feel) interrupted. We might get caught up in something else and forget to work part of a cycle, and then it may feel like we might as well just not bother with the rest. But as someone who frequently gets sidetracked like this (and who is highly forgetful...), if I stopped every time I went astray...I'd probably not get to do a lot of things.
Sometimes, it's something entirely out of our hands, like how February has less days than the other months (and boy do those 2-3 days really feel like so much more...), and now you may have to adjust your actions to fit a different structure. Or maybe you are used to working with the full moons in a particular way, and then there is a blue moon and now you feel all off kilter.
For me, the first (and often biggest) step is to simply acknowledge what's off (and why, if applicable). So if I had planned on working the Wheel of the Year, but I missed a Sabbat, I will sit down and spend some time thinking (or journaling) about why I missed it. This lets me acknowledge any issues that might keep me from further work (like if I missed it because I forgot, then I might make extra reminders for myself for the next one).
Sometimes, you can 'catch up' on things you missed, especially if you are flexible on timing. If I miss a moon phase, I might still make a note of it in my witchy log and can even do the work I was going to do....just belated. This is what I tend to do, as I find that it helps me feel more like I'm not just skipping over part of the greater cycle (which definitely makes me feel a bit lopsided). Even a small bit of work feels better than nothing at all.
Another thing that may come up is when you encounter a cycle that is either already imperfect or you want to create a new cycle for yourself, but the timing and content don't line up (like let's say you wanted to spend a year learning the tarot, but you can't quite find a good way to split the deck into the framework of the year). At that point, it's less of a matter of fixing the issue and more about finding the best fit and then accepting it.
One of the cycles that often is hardest for me to work with is the week. We have so many models for what a week is, from the workweek/weekend to working with the energies of the days (which I love doing), but I build a lot of my schedule around my husband's work (which is only 4 days a week on a normal week), so I almost have to think of my week as two separate cycles that rotate around each other (and I also have to shift tasks so the ones that I prefer to do when I'm alone, like writing, can be done when he's working). If a 'traditional' cycle doesn't work for you...feel free to change it!
When it comes to spiritual cycles, sometimes we need to adjust for who is there. This might mean changing your cycle to include others if you are mostly solitary but maybe you know some witchy people who want to get together and do stuff (in a cycle you are already working alone, like the wheel of the year or the moon cycle). Here you have the choice of either doubling down, doing your solitary work as usual and then working with others as a bonus activity...but that may feel a bit repetitive. Instead, you might adapt your solitary work into something that other people can join in on. You might even do some combination of both, doing only a minor work on your own (the bare minimum to tend to this part of the greater cycle work you are doing) and enjoying the group work as your main observation of this part of the cycle.
Or, maybe you regularly work with a group and have been working on a cycle together, but then you get sick and can't make a meeting or it has to be canceled for some other reason. Your group might decide to adjust their plans to a format that lets everyone do stuff on their own this time, and then you can work together next time (and share your solo experiences). Or maybe you decide to do a virtual meetup. Or you could choose to do your own solitary work even if the rest of the group chooses to not plan anything.
Life isn't perfect, and expecting all the cycles you work with to be is just asking for disappointment. The wonderful thing about these imperfections is they often drive us to try things we may not have come to in another way. They force us out of our comfort zone and even if we run right back to our plans as soon as we can, we still made it through, and the next time things get a bit wonky, we will remember that making adjustments wasn't so bad. Who knows, you may find that you enjoy things a bit lopsided!
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