SIGNAL 10. Golden Hour Code
Golden hour comes one time a day. A moment that anchors the day, offers perspective, a pause, a moment to evolve with Magic. It's special, and sacred.
There is a reason we call it the golden hour.
Not just for the way the light spills like honey across the earth, or how every photograph looks better in that final glow, but for what it feels like in the body. It is a soft opening. A permission. A deceleration that’s rarely granted in a world that chases what's next before honoring what just was.
You’ve felt it before: the quiet relief when the emails stop, when dinner is simmering, when the light makes everything around you more beautiful without asking for anything in return. It’s not just a time of day, it’s a state of being. The golden hour is the breath after effort, the transition between worlds. For parents, for creators, for those holding space for others all day, it’s where we remember how to hold space for ourselves.
The song “Golden Hour” by JVKE is one of the kids’ new favorite songs. It’s beautiful with its initial piano twinkling at the beginning. Not just a song, but a new frequency I really crave. It’s soft, saturated, sincere. A song that doesn’t rush, a song that lingers just long enough. It feels like my nervous system recalibrating back to coherence. It matches the rhythm I need to get through this moment.
Zai was having a moment last night and I tuned into it. I let it just play out and he calmed down. It was a wild experience.
In auric terms, golden hour isn’t just a color. It’s a tone.
A hue that melts urgency into S L O W. When the sun hits just right, the air becomes almost sacred, charged with stillness, yet alive. When the kids are the calm before the witching hour. It’s when everything goes on pause and you feel suspended in real time.
This is not a coincidence. We are wired for thresholds. We need them, the pressure that begins to express and push us to another space. Golden hour is how the earth transitions.
And we should take this cue. We all need this.
To live well, we have to finally learn to land. To carve out the time to descend and to schedule into the living of our life these moments and expressions where we get to enjoy life, together.
It is not a passive effort.
It is its own kind of labor and routine: the work of letting go. The undoing of effort. The metabolizing of the day.
If we skip it, we don’t just miss the light; we also miss the opportunity to land. We miss our own unfolding from one part of our life into the other.
This is especially true for those of us who lead, build, parent, or perform. If we move from output to output without a golden hour in between, we start to forget who we are underneath our roles. We don’t metabolize anything and we lose sight of the reason we are doing it all.
My recommendation to you; at 5:30pm every day over the next month, create the conditions for a beautiful golden hour. Just take the hour together:
Call your kids in.
Light a candle.
Play the music.
Move your body.
Let the sun touch your skin for a moment longer.
Just be. Exist without effort.
Let this essential golden hour teach you what all wise systems already know:
Transitions matter. Integration matters.
Glow is not a reward, it is a key part of the rhythm.
Want to explore more? Listen to the Podcast.
The Wisdom of Fireflies
I have learned that there are no coincidences. As I am listening to this song, the fireflies were out for the first time in droves. It was raining lightly and you could see little stars of light flickering all over the yard through the windows.
I remember fireflies from my childhood. We would catch them in jars after dinner and watch them glow when it got dark. I suppose this was cruel; however, for me, it was the wonder of childhood. They are living philosophy, glowing in pulses that remind us of what we’ve forgotten. They are pure magic.
To the firefly, light is a conversation: brief, intentional, and timed. Their glow is bioluminescent, created through a chemical reaction with no heat wasted. Efficient. Precise. It is both an offering and a reminder. You can’t control it, and yet it is imminent. You can watch it come and go, over and over again, on its own cadence. You know it will come.
They are not lighting up for show. They’re communicating through chemistry, timing, and rhythm.
It’s their code of language with us.
In this way, they teach us how to attract.
They don’t light the whole sky.
They light only what's needed.
They remind us: impact doesn't require amplification.
Presence speaks volumes.
Constant, gentle reminders…
Ecologically, fireflies are barometers of balance. They thrive in healthy ecosystems: wetlands, forests, meadows untouched by too much artificial light. Where fireflies disappear, it signals an ecological imbalance. They are a species of threshold, emerging only in that liminal window between day and night, heat and cool, stillness and movement. They come when the air is soft and everything is slowing. They signal coherence, that things are in rhythm again.
And so it makes sense that fireflies are disappearing in many places. We’ve lost touch with thresholds. With dusk. With moments that don't produce anything. We’ve flooded our evenings with artificial brightness, extending the day long past its natural end.
And in doing so, we've muted the signals. We’ve crowded out the soft language of pause.
But if we can adjust, if we can be like fireflies, we can return to patience and routine. They wait for darkness before they are fully seen.
Their message is clear:
Be precise in your timing.
Speak only what is true.
Trust the power of fleeting moments.
Let your glow come from within.
Don't overstay your light. Let the next signal rise.
As parents, leaders, and builders of new futures, the firefly gives us a model of integrity. Glow only when it matters. Rest when it doesn’t. Know that being seen isn’t the point. Being attuned is.
To follow the firefly is to choose truth over performance. It’s to believe that even the smallest flicker, when timed right, can change everything.
And because I am a complete nerd, I had to understand how they actually work. Want to know? See at the very end of this post.
This is the New Code We’re Beginning to Claim as a Family
We found it at the table last night. Not in conversation, but in calm. No tension. No scripts. Just the quiet joy of being near one another.
Zai curled up beneath the table with Kirra, his fingers tracing soft spirals on her belly, his head on the floor.
Iza drew cards, organized thoughts, and reflected on the fact that recess for her would never come again. She was now entering ‘big kids school,’ and playtime was now over. A sacred childhood threshold passed. She said it twice. Not in sadness, just in recognition.
They leave for their first overnight camp on Sunday, my alma mater, Mercersburg. They’ll have no phones, no devices. Just bunk beds, mosquitoes, and new friendships that might last lifetimes.
And this, too, is part of the golden hour: the transition from the known to the unknown. The pause before transformation.
The Golden Hour is a Liminal Field
It is the daily proof of impermanence, that the day is ending, that nothing stays, that every role we play eventually dissolves into something else. It is the exhale between identities. The moment we put down our work and reclaim our humanness, not by accident, but with intention.
In a world addicted to acceleration, the golden hour is a radical concept It’s rebellion through stillness.
It’s leadership through listening. It’s parenting through pattern recognition, through frequency, through care.
Let this be our new code:
A pattern of unwinding.
A language of light.
A future we feel before we speak.
The Golden Hour meets you exactly where you are:
If your mind is still in pitch mode, running numbers or reviewing feedback loops…
If your shoulders are tight from holding everything together today…
If your child walks in mid-process, needing your presence while you're still half-in Slack or email…
If your partner is waiting for a moment of eye contact that feels real…
If you want to show up powerfully, but you're still buzzing from the last decision made…
Then this is your space.
Golden Hour is not escape. It's integration. It’s how you complete your day, reclaim your presence, and model regulation to the people who matter most.
And if you don’t believe me, here is the science and how it works:
Circadian Neuroscience and the Role of Transition
The body is governed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain, which regulates our internal biological clock, known as circadian rhythms.
Transition times (e.g., dusk and dawn) are crucial circadian anchors. When ignored, the SCN experiences disruption, which contributes to sleep disturbances, mood volatility, and cognitive fog.
The golden hour (late afternoon into early evening) is naturally wired to be a time of winding down cortisol production and initiating parasympathetic activity (recovery mode).
Artificial light, extended screen time, and continued high-stimulation activity during this period disrupt melatonin release and keep the brain in a heightened beta-wave state, reducing quality of sleep and emotional reset capacity.
Takeaway: Respecting the golden hour aligns with your biological design. This meditation leverages the body’s natural downshift, rather than fighting it.
Parent–Child Co-Regulation and Emotional Patterning
Children do not self-regulate in isolation. They calibrate their nervous systems through a process called co-regulation, mirroring and syncing with their caregiver’s emotional tone.
If a parent is dysregulated (rushed, distracted, reactive), a child will mirror that internal chaos.
In households where caregivers use intentional downshift rituals, children exhibit increased resilience, better emotional vocabulary, and lower cortisol levels.
Micro-moments of attunement, eye contact, touch, shared silence, can reset a child's emotional field in under 60 seconds, if the parent is coherent.
Takeaway: Your presence is a regulation signal. The meditation doesn’t just restore you, it anchors your home.
Entrepreneur Recovery Cycles and Long-Term Output
High-functioning entrepreneurs operate under ultradian rhythms (90-120 minute productivity cycles), and require short but strategic recovery windows to sustain performance.
Without decompression, the brain cannot efficiently consolidate memory, process emotion, or reset decision fatigue.
Chronic output without integration leads to the well-documented phenomenon of “cognitive stacking”: where decision residue accumulates and reduces adaptive intelligence.
Entrepreneurs who incorporate daily down-regulation practices report:
40% improvement in next-day clarity
25% reduction in interpersonal conflict (both at home and in business)
Higher sustained creativity and focus
Takeaway: Integration is not separate from performance. It enables it.
The Monotony is the Magic: Why Routine is Everything
Routine is often misunderstood as rigidity. But in parenting and entrepreneurship, routine is rhythm, and rhythm is the foundation of safety, clarity, and emotional freedom.
Monotony creates predictability. Predictability signals safety to the nervous system. Safety unlocks creativity.
Think of fireflies: they pulse in rhythm, not randomness. The glow only becomes intelligible to others when it’s consistent. The same is true of your presence.
When golden hour becomes a daily anchor, it removes the decision fatigue of "how do I downshift today?" It tells your body, your children, your environment: this is the moment we return to each other.
It is the repetition that creates reliability. And in a world full of volatility, your reliability becomes your radiance.
The Golden Hour is Your New Skill
Think of this as YOUR opportunity. Return to coherence: daily.
Glow is not something you stumble into when everything is done. It is something you choose through rhythm, through ritual, through recovery. We can easily pass it by, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Golden hour should hold you, rewire you, and prepare you to lead, not through intensity, but through repetition and signal.
Follow my formula or your own. My only ask: Just hold space for your transition.
The Golden Hour Formula
A Framework for Transition, Integration & Glow
1. Time Boundary → Transition
“Without endings, beginnings lose meaning.”
Input: End of external duty (work, parenting, performance)
Action: Create a clear threshold—a symbolic close (e.g., closing your laptop, turning off notifications, changing clothes, lighting a candle)
Result: Signals to the nervous system: “We are safe to shift modes.”
2. Sensory Anchoring → Presence
“The body knows how to arrive before the mind does.”
Input: Light, scent, warmth, sound (golden sunlight, incense, ambient music)
Action: Set the auric field—choose environmental cues that calm and open
Result: Drops you into the moment; reattunes your system to beauty and slowness
3. Breath & Stillness → Nervous System Reset
“Glow follows when pressure leaves.”
Input: Shallow breath, scattered attention, residual adrenaline
Action: Slow your breath (box breathing, soft exhales); find one point of focus (flame, sound, a loved one’s face)
Result: Moves you from sympathetic (fight/flight) to parasympathetic (rest/digest/relate)
4. Relational Reflection → Integration
“Unwinding is where the truth of the day reveals itself.”
Input: Experiences, emotions, impressions from the day
Action: Reflect silently or aloud (with partner, child, journal); ask:
What felt true today?
Where did I push? Where did I listen?
What do I want to bring forward—or release?
Result: Turns noise into signal. Converts memory into meaning.
5. Frequency Drop → Glow State
“Radiance is coherence, not effort.”
Input: Internal clarity + external stillness
Action: Let go of the need to explain or achieve. Just be in the golden state.
Result: Restorative glow. Magnetism. Reconnection to self, family, nature, source.
Photo: Terry Priest, Flickr.
Chemistry of the Firefly
Fireflies glow through a highly efficient biochemical reaction called bioluminescence, which is a perfect example of nature’s chemistry at work.
Here’s how it works:
Controlled Oxygen Flow: Fireflies regulate their flash by controlling oxygen flow into their light-producing cells. When oxygen is present, the reaction occurs and light is produced.
Neural Control: Nerve signals trigger the supply of oxygen, making the light flash instead of being constant.
The Main Chemicals Involved:
Luciferin – the light-emitting molecule
Luciferase – the enzyme that catalyzes the reaction
Oxygen (O₂)
ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) – the cell’s energy currency
Magnesium ions (Mg²⁺) – cofactors required for the reaction
The Bioluminescent Reaction:
In the light-producing organ of a firefly (typically in the abdomen), the following chemical reaction occurs:
Luciferin + Oxygen + ATP (Luciferase) → Oxyluciferin + Light + CO₂ + AMP + PPiStep-by-step:
Luciferin reacts with ATP to form luciferyl adenylate.
Oxygen is introduced, and luciferase catalyzes the reaction.
The product oxyluciferin is created, and in the process, visible light is emitted.
The byproducts include carbon dioxide (CO₂), AMP, and pyrophosphate (PPi).
Hi, I’m Rache.
I am an entrepreneur and parent, single mom to Iza and Zai. I love the work I do. I am an advocate for doing the work; a philanthropist at heart.
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