I began my life as a musician at the age of 12, singing with my cousin. I was a shy little Leo; she was a slightly older, brash and unafraid one, with a full-throttled voice. It felt natural to let her take the lead, while I mastered harmony. Harmonizing came so naturally that it never occurred to me to wonder why I felt so much more comfortable singing counterpoint to someone … [Read more...]
A few years ago, I discovered that I had to have a tooth pulled. Big deal, right? Yet I was astonished at the intensity of my reaction. Most nights I found myself awake at 3:00 a.m., tormented by thoughts of mortality. My poor old tooth prompted fears that growing older would mean a future in which I drop limbs like a diseased tree. Before long I’d be old, old and frail, old … [Read more...]
This Full Moon in the family-oriented sign of Cancer brings to mind a story from a 2018 trip to New Zealand. Jonny and I are standing in a tiny house, part of a museum in Okains Bay, a remote village on an out-of-the-way peninsula southeast of Christchurch. We’ve made a pilgrimage here to visit the general store, built by Jonny’s great grandfather in the 1870s. The little … [Read more...]
A few years ago, just before a Sagittarius New Moon, our indoor cat Spike escaped the secure confines of our home and went walkabout. I soothed my anxiety by imagining him on a kind of exciting Spirit Quest, possibly involving medicinal-grade catnip. When he returned 36 hours later, Spike seemed calm and fairly mellow, if ravenously hungry; but he paid the price for his … [Read more...]
When my friend's son was small, he talked incessantly. Born with Venus in loquacious Gemini, he jabbered constantly about stories he'd read or what he'd seen on television that morning. His mother is a patient woman, but eventually the sheer quantity of words wore her down. One day, she recalls, driving along with her child chattering away in the passenger seat, she suddenly … [Read more...]
