Some 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 and … [Read more...]

In Gemini, the Moon finds comfort in language - in the reassuring hum of parents' voices down the hall as their children fall asleep; in the soothing mantra, the dog's welcoming bark, delighted laughter, a favorite poem. Even, when the time comes, in the sensitive eulogy for a loved one, delivered by someone with keen powers of observation and a lyrical tongue. Eclipses of … [Read more...]

Each time we visit my husband's native New Zealand, I spend the first five days or so completely gobsmacked by the physical beauty of the place, feeling emotionally massaged by the gentle and courteous manner of its people. And the cows! New Zealand’s sheep get all the press, but I’ve never seen so many cows in my life, and I come from a farm community. Everywhere—alongside … [Read more...]

One recent morning, when I was on deadline and stressed out, an email landed in my inbox that made me angry. Angry, in fact, to a degree far out of proportion to the offense. Mars, the warrior planet, is strong in my birth chart, and I've always had a temper. But as a woman in her sixth decade of life, a professional, a mentor, and a counselor, I was unnerved that such a … [Read more...]