“It is what it is.”

Where I live this is a popular saying.  I hear it a lot.  I find myself saying it a lot, too, especially when I've been struggling with something and have come to some level of acceptance about it.

I've become fond of this phrase because it captures an essential truth about life, and therefore also about astrology. 

The phase above is a line of poetry penned by a Massachusetts 10-year-old in 1980. The nonprofit I worked for back then chose the line to title a publication of children’s artwork and poetry from an artist-in-residence program.  What a lovely turn of phrase this is!  Recently it occurred to me that it captures a truth from our tradition about the nature of time: it’s all there already.

There is a saying in Spanish: “No hay mal que por bien no venga.”  We might translate this as, “Every bad thing comes for some good purpose.”

I learned this dicho years ago from a Spanish professor during my time at university.   She was one of the most cheerful and optimistic people I’d ever met, and a wonderful teacher.  The day she taught us this phrase she told us she was ill.  Although sad and anxious about her diagnosis, she truly believed that something good would come of it.

So I'm on vacation, and we're playing the game Bananagrams.  Have you ever played this game?  It's a bit like Scrabble but much faster.  Each player gets 15 letter tiles; the remaining tiles are in the center to draw from.  You make as many connected words with your tiles as you can, creating your own individual mini-Scrabble board, and when you use them all, you say "Peel!" and everyone has to take another tile.  This continues until there are fewer tiles in the middle than there are players.  The first person to use up their tiles says "Bananas!" and wins the game.

I have been thinking lately about the question of timing: of doing or experiencing things at the right or best time.

Being rather impatient by nature, I often feel an inner impulse to hurry up, to get going, to push things. Sometimes this impatience has worked out well for me, but mostly it has not. I’ve come to realize that it’s better to relax and trust that things will happen in their own time rather than forcing things to happen when I think they should. 

 Happy Three Kings Day to you, dear reader!  Thank you for taking the time to visit here.

It is my desire to share the truth and beauty of astrology with others, in whatever ways I can manage. Astrology is a gift, allowing us glimpses into the magnificence of the created universe. The best thing about studying astrology is that it leads us back to our Creator.  That may not be our intent when we start out, but it is inevitable.

A client came for consultation wanting to know if there was a proverbial pot of gold waiting for him at the end of the rainbow.  He was hanging his hopes on this pot of gold that he believed would solve all of his problems. 

I asked him to consider what it would mean for him if we proceeded with consultation and the answer was 'No'.  Was he prepared for that possibility?  He thought he was, and so we went ahead.

At a Christmas party a few weeks back one of my coworkers asked what my favorite Christmas movie was. The answer came easily: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ I’ve always loved this movie!  I’m clearly not alone in this. The movie has been standard fare at holiday-time for as long as I can remember.

As I think about it, my love of 'It’s a Wonderful Life' ties in a lot with my love of astrology.  After all, the movie’s central theme involves concepts of time and destiny. Astrology gives us glimpses into these mysteries.

As I was pondering today's New Moon chart a few days back I noticed that Mercury and Mars are in station. For those who may not know, this means they appear not to be moving and are about to change direction in the sky. That led me to gaze at the ephemeris a bit, something we astrologers tend to do, and then I noticed something definitely worth a mention!

What's in a logo?  

When I first took on the task of creating a website several years ago, I knew I wanted a logo—something visual to represent my astrology practice in the online world.  Luckily, one of my artist-friends, Mandana, was willing and able to work with me on this project.  I love what she created! Here’s some of the thinking that went into the design of the logo you see above.