Yesterday marked the end of our most recent bout of Mercury in retrograde motion, which was said to be particularly difficult for Virgos and Pisces. While such heavenly body movements seem tenuous at best when it comes to actual effects on humans, I do notice things going slightly more sideways during full moons and Mercury moments. I’ll usually hedge my bets and proceed with a little extra caution at such times. One astrologer said that for Virgos yesterday was going to be a ‘belt to ass‘ day, my new favorite term, so I put on a leather cowboy belt and prepared for the worst.
Sometimes simply being prepared to expect the worst can lead to a relatively benign day.
Who’s your Mr. Handsome, dark and stormy
Who’s the brush fire bandit in your dreams
Who’s your magic, manic, mystery lover
Too beautifully crazy to redeem?
It also puts one in a contemplative mood, because being careful often means being quiet. My mouth has been known to write checks that my ass just can’t cash. Overpromising and underdelivering are the very antithesis of who I am, but it’s good to get out of your comfort zone. In service somewhat to that, I’m leaning into these final death throes of my last mid-life crisis. It’s my last because I’m absolutely insisting on it, and also because I’m hopefully past the mid-way mark of my life as I don’t anticipate living to 102.
All the places he wandered
All the money he squandered
You only seem to grow fonder of him
All the hearts you traded
All the hours you waited
Flames never faded within
This is roughly the fourth mid-life crisis I’ve had since the age of 40. Rather unhappily, men are said to be prone to multiple mid-life crises – maybe that’s our menopausal rite of passage – and I’m totally over them. When my therapist explained this to me several years into our therapy sessions, it was a bit of a blow, as I’d started seeing her in 2019 in the meltdown of one of my first crisis moments, and I thought it would be a one and done deal. Seven years later, I’m careening on this last one, and actually kind of embracing it for the jolt of perspective it’s given me.
Who’s your Mr. Handsome, dark and stormy
What about his talk do you find deep
Whose eyes are you meeting when you’re dreaming
Whose hands are you holding in your sleep?
My therapist also thinks I need a new adventure at this point, as I’ve vanquished several of the demons that plagued me when we first began our sessions. That’s a challenge I’ll gladly accept, as adventure is what cowboys love best – and this is very much the Fall of the Cowboy.
All the places he wandered
All the money he squandered
You only seem to grow fonder of him
All the hearts you traded
All the hours you waited
Flames never faded within
