New Year’s Blessings and 2016 Changes on The Radical Virgo

Dear Radical Readers,

I have so much to share with you about my 2015— now morphing into 2016—and all the personal evolution it has inspired. Above all, this post is from my heart to yours about how much this blog means to me and where we go from here.

Hubby’s Health. As most of you know, my husband Tim’s health took a downturn in February. He has a slowly progressive muscle disease, Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy Type 2. Due to a complex of related health issues, he lost his mobility prematurely right around Valentine’s Day. He is now in a wheelchair. His care needs are complex and even as a “radical Virgo,” the sudden reality of 24/7 caregiving has been shocking and overwhelming, the hardest work I have ever done. It is also, in many ways, the most rewarding.

I have thought many times this year, who but an extreme Virgo could give such round-the-clock personal service? Love does what love calls for. At times it has been isolating, joining (so many people want to help), and confounding as I’ve had to learn to be a nurse, physical therapist and chief cook and bottle washer for two adults and one cat. Except for wife and cat mom, I have no training in those other jobs. The learning curve has been fierce and demanding. The physicality required of helping a nearly 200-lb. man with wheelchair transfers and personal care has been a huge challenge for me at five-foot-nothing and being so not-a-jock. (I have developed biceps!) I still want time to be a wife, companion, and cat mom. To play with Kira and her nip mouse and watch her chase her laser beam. Even though my license plate says HIGH NRG, my vitality has been in the basement. I’ve had to take measures I’d never consider before just to have the juice to keep going, including medication for depression. (I’m lucky it has worked optimally at a relatively low dosage and I’m “me” again after months of being a wrung-out dishrag version of the old Joyce.)

Astrology Lessons. I have often written on this blog about my Jupiter trine Mars (in water, no less) and my tendency to overdo just about everything. This year of forced focus on family and the nitty gritty of daily living has been a revelation for me. There has been a lot of “right sizing” and release of perfectionism. (No one can be perfect at caregiving, the first thing I have ever undertaken that I cannot master and have surrendered my will to try.) I have learned to ask for help (huge for me) and to be the recipient instead of always the giver. (I’m singing a new Nep-tune.)

I “get” Pluto better than ever. Being a very Cardinal person, the Uranus-Pluto square has been ravaging me for several years. Of course, I resisted giving up the things Lord Pluto insisted upon—my beloved home of 17 years in favor of one that’s more accessible for Tim, starting with a single-level and wider doors for his wheelchair. Writing has had to be on the back burner. Astrology has insisted that I give it a vacation as a leader and become more of a follower, stepping into my lifelong star-student role. For now I’m dabbling in astrological conversations primarily on Facebook and not living every waking hour by my ephemeris. I am humbly grateful that while I have had to give up my husband as he was; his overall health is holding, and we are both still here, enjoying each other enormously. Humor has been our buoy on all these choppy waters.

What I’ve learned from all these changes, at a very visceral level, is that they represent what must die in me before my resurrection. I’ve been “threatening” to downsize my activity on The Radical Virgo for at least two years, probably longer. The Radical Reposts of 2015 have been a break and a breather to decide what to do next, and also to create an index by topic of the majority of posts. If and when I have an opportunity, I’ll create a page where the topics and related posts are up for a grand tour of the highlights of this nearly seven-year-old blog.

The Move is the Key. For now, it will take all my energetic resources to accomplish our move—the prerequisite to many more positive changes. (This year I could hardly get through the day, much less find the extra energy to prep for a move.) The sale of our home will loosen our finances, along with a significant income increase coming in autumn. These breaks will have a divine domino effect, allowing us to hire more help for Tim so I can resume the creative life and not be so tied to caregiving. We’ll be able to afford a van with an electronic ramp and increase our ability to get around with ease and as often as we want. I won’t bore you with the details of what it takes me to help transfer Tim in and out of the car at present and how stressful and tiring the job I forgot to mention—chauffeur to endless appointments—can be. What’s important is that to go forward, I have to put other things aside for the time being.

The Radical Virgo in 2016. As of this post, The Radical Virgo blog is on occasional post status. I’m sure I won’t be able to resist at least a poem at the Cardinal turning points, perhaps more if the spirit moves and an energy spurt bubbles up—or I need for a break from moving-related chores that happens to coincide with an astrological or metaphysical insight I want to share. These are likely to be the shorter Munchies for Astro-Thought type posts.

If you’ve followed the Radical Reposts, you know there is so much to rediscover on this blog before anything new is added. I read the reposts sometimes that popped up as “popular” in my statistics. They feel new to me. I rarely remember what I wrote and how it came to me! The reposts have allowed me to appreciate what an amazing body of astrological literature exists here and how much of it is channeled or co-created with Spirit. As I have captured and indexed the posts by topic, I have said “whew!” so many times. This Virgo has really earned a rest after 429 posts, most of them full-length articles.

Facebook. The more active and interactive Radical Virgo site is now this blog’s Facebook page. Even if you’re not big on Facebook, I urge you to consider learning what a positive and exciting “school” it can be for all things spiritual. When you befriend with awareness and share the good, Facebook can be a haven of love and inspiration. I post many fun and informative things and plenty of shares from other astrologers.

Visit The Radical Virgo on Facebook—often!
It’s where it’s happening now! https://www.facebook.com/radicalvirgo

Hug the New Year.  Embrace change. This is the biggest lesson I’ve taken away from my Uranus/Pluto transits. Whenever I have resisted my current caregiving role and resented its intrusion on my plans (like the next novel), I made myself miserable. The more I accepted it, the more I saw its tremendous gifts, like helping me learn to simplify my complicated life. Hard as it is to imagine in the midst of anger and resistance, Pluto really has our good at heart. Thanks to being “decked” energetically, I’ve learned the value of rest and have woven it into my life as a permanent habit. I’ve certainly learned at a new level that love is all that matters.

I want to take this moment to give all my readers a virtual hug for your love and support. This blog has fed my spirit and allowed me to express my astrological ideas and creativity for the first square of a Saturn cycle. It’s one of the loves of my life! Earlier in the year, I thought I might have to abandon posting all together and put the blog on archive status … but one of my lessons in toning down my Jupiter/Mars is that things don’t have to be all or nothing. I’ve done All most of my life. It’s now time to learn to bend with the times and make the most out of the moment.

I’m glad for my astrological hiatus, as it’s helping me to avoid burnout, which gives me hope for more starry conversations and contributions in the future.

Meanwhile, see you here now ‘n’ then and on Facebook more often. Posting short, speedy tidbits works well for this era of my life.

Wishing you your best New Year ever,

Joyce

Photo Credit: © penguinline - Fotolia.com

Full List of Facebook Opportunities!

In addition to Joyce Mason - The Radical Virgo on Facebook, which focuses on astrological posts and shares, including links to posts on this Radical Virgo blog, there are four other ways to connect with me on Facebook:

Joyce Mason – Personal news, inspiration, booster shots of positivity and occasional highlights of my writing life. This is where I post the most, including a few general  audience Astro-tidbits. (The more technical Astro-stuff is on The Radical Virgo, above.)

Writer Joyce Mason – Dedicated to quotes and inspiration about reading and writing, New Ink blog posts and news about my non-astrological writing projects.

Chiron and Wholeness – News on my Chiron primer and topics that relate to its content.

Keywords to Unlock Chiron – News on my ultimate Chiron book to date and its publication path from PDF to (eventually!) paper and other formats. Keywords explores 50 words or phrases that teach us just about everything we'll ever need to know about the Chiron archetype. (Available for purchase on the sidebar of this blog.)