You guys are feeling this too, right? The Mercury retrograde
is incredibly frustrating. And besides allowing extra time for travel hiccups –
which I clearly failed to do, d’oh! – there is only one thing you can do. Surrender.
Stop checking your unhelpful bus timetable obsessively and pull out a magazine
to read while you wait. Breathe deeply. Smile at strangers. Listen to Uptown Funk on repeat. (OK, that’s more
than one thing... pretty sure my shoddy arithmetic skills are not Mercury’s
fault.)
This is an important lesson for me in just about every area
of my life, so instead of getting angry at planetary forces beyond my control,
I’m choosing to see Mercury as my teacher. It’s not easy. And sure, letting go
of my frustration at having to wait half an hour for a bus is not quite the
same as letting go of my attachments to the bigger-scale things I could really benefit
from letting go of (habitual self-criticism, regrets over failed relationships,
ideas about how my future *should* look, just to name a few) but it’s certainly
a step in the right direction. It reminds me that while I don’t have the power
to change what life throws at me, I always have the power to choose how I respond
to it, which is an extremely powerful concept. If nothing else, it reminds me
how good it feels to be at peace with the world (even for short bursts of time)
– that’s the place where wisdom starts to flow.
Good luck out there everyone!
BTW, for an excellent reference on how the mercury retrograde
nightmare affects us (causing communication breakdowns and technology fails), check
out this helpful post by sparkly blogger Gala Darling.