Making Lemonade with Giant Lemons of Change Opens Doors of Perception

MAKING LEMONADE WITH GIANT LEMONS OF CHANGE—Monthly Writers’ Gathering for Scribes Ancient and Modern, Insecure or Otherwise

Nihil Illlegitimi carborundum Don’t let the b- -tards grind you down

Keep Enjoying and Celebrating the Little Things

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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about Science and Technology

Carl Sagan, 1999

After a year of Zoom birthdays, virtual graduations, and masqued take-out dinners, many of us want to party again: to attend impromptu gatherings like music festivals, left, and explore the innards of ancient ruins or modern museums’ treasures, right. Celebrations help to create and cement relationships. Celebrating puts us back in touch with our happy self.

But it’s not just big occasions that should be marked. Acknowledging small moments is so important for wellbeing. Psychologists call it “savoring.” Savoring is about appreciating an event or activity in the moment, sharing tiny victories, and noticing the good things around you

Are you the Languishing or Flourishing type?

The Harvard psych department Dr Van der Weele quiz sets out five areas of life you can personally assess: good, bad or indifferent. Do you wake up each day with a reason to go out and do; or would you rather go back to sleep?

Ticking the Boxes & Remembering to feel Gratitude

Grateful for rain, fresh air, a small garden, a walk in the woods? Bringing that to our attention—feeling gratitude—has an effect of lightening the load, making us feel useful, purposeful aka better. Creating a weekly gratitude ritual can cement a good habit. Studies show that taking time to reflect on what we’re grateful for improves our mood,

Feel like we’re ticking boxes. Getting things done makes us grateful for the quality of life.

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Achievements may make us feel like Hercules l. slaying multi-headed Hydra, running off in our private time machine, or the busy scribe

The simple act of thanking someone for what they do—hospital workers, shop assistants, security guard. Even the masked raider who delivers your unexpected package out of the back of an anonymous brown and black UPS van.

The Robin Hood Effect: Being Kind—Giving a Helping Hand Makes the Helper Feel Good, Familiar

Sometimes people feel an extra spring in their step when they talk to a stranger on a plane or the subway, or when they are greeted in a restaurant.

While eating out has become a rare event, we have missed the familiar: being seen in public by other people, being greeted enthusiastically and with respect by others—particularly after long periods of isolation and self-entertainment—has the effect of energizing and invigorating the (lonely) psyche, and immediately helps create bonds within the neighborhood or community. This has happened for people connected with a church, choir or singing group, familiar running mates and yoga and fitness classes.

Re-connecting within the community—even something as simple as hanging out at your old coffee shop—is something we have all missed.

Social media has filled the gap in many western societies where iPhones and Smart devices have taken up the slack of no daily rhythm of entertainment. But all of us writerly virtuosos, weaving our virtual conversations, have become accustomed to retrenching in the Writer’s Cave, making our own coffee, and getting back to business —thanks to our Muse—on the keyboard.

Ancient Ibis-headed scribe Thoth’s ability to write made him god of wisdom, carrier of information and inspiration—similar to Greek Hermes, Roman Mercury. Patron of writers, he invented writing, music, medicine, and magic.

He wrote it all down.

Although Osiris and Isis are said to have brought civilization to mankind, Thoth gave the Egyptians their civil-religious practices. God of Equilibrium, he weighed the balance of life and death, kept records of the Afterlife and maintained the Library for the gods. At a time when few could write, his unique ability was supernatural, divine.

Make an Ancient Connection—with a Tree, a Bird, a Human, a Cat

Ibis-headed Thoth, seen as the “voice of Ra”—accompanying the Sun through the dark realm of Night to emerge next day, to begin again—sets an example to us 21stC lost souls: He sees mystical connections within the Earth, that all Life is interconnected and adapting to change. And we human scribes may actually benefit—yeah thrive—from learning something new; DOING a new dance routine, trying a woodland walk never attempted before. Writing the long-dreamed pf fantasy novel. Ticking happy boxes, indeed.

The gods assure us—cave-dwelling scribe-o-philes with a passion for the written word—that we won’t regret it. New habits for old; new life where there was none. Writing community/IWSGers, What are we waiting for?

©2021MarianYoungblood

Wrapping Troubles in Fog-Ocean Dreams

POWER OF A Piscean Stellium
Monthly IWSG Corner
Many times during a new transition, a house move, rearrangement of one’s life, writing has to go on the back burner. Much though we would like to keep up the pace, our stamina—our ability to get through it—flags and we feel the need to let it all go.

Ocean pulls in her skirts gracefully; see poem below

So it seems poignant and synchronous that some of us IWSGers over the last month have felt ourselves swayed, influenced—in our writing flow and in other ways—by a huge swelling wave, a virtual convocation of planets and heavenly bodies in the astrological sign of Pisces, the Fish. It is the ultimate watery sign of duality, emotional excess, unbridled boundlessness—some say chaos. A return to our primeval form.

Stellium in Pisces
With the present swing in public fancy to the ‘Astroview’, it will astonish nobody to learn that we are currently midway through a major stellium in Pisces. For the uninitiated, this is astrospeak for turmoil of the heart/emotional mayhem throughout the run-up to the new moon [in Pisces] March 10-11th, 2013.
On those nights, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Chiron, Venus, Mars, Neptune are held in a crucible within the bosom of Pisces—the most emotional, watery, spiritual sign of the zodiac. These bodies already stand in close conjunction, waiting for the Moon.

Following in the wake of the recurring potent three-year-long stress of a Grand Cross, it isn’t surprising that we now feel like a wet dish rag.

March 2013: crucible astro-chart: Piscean emotion holds seven planets suspended in a ‘stellium’, while Jupiter & Saturn maintain balance on either side

Psychic Piscean ‘Go with the Flow’
Life-affirming Piscean tendencies include:
Compassion, forgiveness and healing without sacrificing your self-esteem
Using the energy of the dream/fantasy to create something that touches people
Faith in what’s healthy for you
Letting go of what drags you down
Seeing what lies beyond the mundane world
Allowing things to happen

Less-than constructive qualities include:
Compassion, forgiveness and healing that drains you
Using the energy of the dream/fantasy to become addicted to someone
Faith in anything/everything, whether it’s healthy or not
Letting go of all boundaries
Denying the mundane world
Passively waiting for things to happen

For those who like specifics,
Neptune entered its watery home sign two years ago and will remain in Pisces through 2024;
Mars moved into Pisces: February 1st
Mercury into Pisces: February 5th
Sun into Pisces: February 18th
Venus into Pisces: February 25th
Moon stood in Virgo (full) on February 28th and
will move (new moon) into Pisces March 11th.

The immediate window extends through March 21st, equinox. So, brace yourself!

Being guided by one’s heart and following one’s intuition seems the only way. Or, to translate that in psychiatric concepts: allowing the left hemisphere to dominate—right handedness—will only lead to grief. By allowing our right hemisphere to guide us—left handed creativity—we may pull through this massive—planet-wide—emotional storm.

Sometimes, during Insecure Writers’ Support Week, we get to throw out a little nugget of a favorite subject—astro being one of mine—and our tolerant Ninja Cap’n Alex allows us the liberty of rabbiting on about matters unrelated to the honored art of writing. Such is this post; but since it DOES have a ‘space’ theme, and gives us a little insight into what we’re currently experiencing, never before having been exposed to such a degree of cosmic force, may I wish us all Godspeed and stamina to sail these choppy waters in uncertain times.

Cassini’s fragile Venus cradled in Saturn’s G-ring

To end on a (positive) romantic note, when in trouble, dream…
… and a poem-let of inspiration by my nine-year old muse, inspired by [Neptune and] her ocean vista, top.

The Ocean by Oriah
The Ocean’s waves gracefully in the sunset
Where the seagulls fly
Pink clouds gently float away while the Moon rises
Then the Ocean comes back

No doubt our SpaceCaptain feels mucho at home in the rarified reaches of planetary atmospheres—Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all familiar territory; so maybe wishing ourselves well through this emotional roller-coaster is the best support we can give each other. May all our blogs be guided by superlative cosmic forces… sounds like a phrase from his forthcoming CassaStorm.
Thanks again for being there, fellow IWSGers and Alex.
©2013 Marian Youngblood