Does it sometimes seem to you that life isn't going in the direction that you are pedaling? Like the further ahead you go the more behind you get?
Someone pointed out to me, this week, that some planet or other was in retrograde, so I looked it up...because you can Google anything! Right? So here's the skinny: June 26th to July 20th Mercury is in retrograde. Now, you might ask, "and?" Here's what my Google search revealed about Mercury in retrograde: "no planet actually moves backwards while orbiting around the sun. But, a few times a year, Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky for approximately three weeks." According to Susan Miller: "What happens when Mercury retrogrades? You miss appointments, your computer equipment crashes, checks get lost, you find the car you just purchased during Mercury retrograde is a lemon. (Or, you hate your haircut, the lamp you bought shorts out, your sister hates her birthday gift.) There will be countless delays, cancellations and postponements—but know these will benefit you in the long run. Don't fight them, although your frustration level and feeling of restlessness will be hard to cope with at times." Here's the good news, "This period is best used for re-organizing and reflecting. We look at the world a little differently—through different filters—and can come up with some very important inner revelations. It may be difficult to communicate them under this influence, but not everything needs to be rationalized. Mercury retrograde periods can be times of heightened inner awareness, when meditation, benefiting from keeping a journal, reworking old plans, and reviewing past work are favored. Minor breaks in the mechanical aspects of communication can actually re-connect us to other means of communication, such as when there is an unexpected power outage and we're forced off the computer and television, finding different and often satisfying ways to entertain ourselves."
For myself, I really like the idea of finding "different and often satisfying ways to entertain myself." So instead of focusing on the things that aren't working, which, believe it or not, is what brought me to this exploration of planets in retrograde in the first place, I am going to focus on finding different and satisfying ways to entertain myself...hmmmm... creating some watercolor paintings comes to mind... I haven't picked up a paint brush in years, though I used to be quite good at one time... motherhood seems to have displaced the brushes, paints, and paper with baby bottles, wipes, monitors, and child raising initiatives. But, the kid's all grown up, hands are empty... voila... pick up the paints, brushes, and paper once again and see what happens.
In the end it's not about astrology or planets in retrograde, or Astrological signs. In the end it's about what you can do when your life APPEARS to be headed in the wrong direction, and redirect your attention to behaviors and thoughts that will, first, ride out the pull of the riptides and currents of life that you may be caught up in, and second, as you get to the other side of them, be left in a state of mind and relaxed readiness to pick up where you left off and continue on your path.
Yes, right now I'm in one of those retrograde riptides: it seems like things are moving backwards and disintegrating, even though I'm pedaling forward. So, today, I'm about accepting the truth of the situation, and choosing to put myself into a mindful space and place, with water colors, brushes, and paper, that will allow me to be well prepared to pick up and move forward once I get to the other side of this rip tide... and if this post doesn't make sense or resonate with you... hey, Mercury is in retrograde... it's to be expected.
