"Cosmic" Saturday

January 14, 2007 -- Set your sights high this week and refuse to settle for anything less than the absolute best. As both the Sun and Mercury move into your fellow Air sign of Aquarius over the next seven days your outlook will become a lot more positive, which in turn will attract positive events into your life. One of the best times of the year is about to begin. Make every minute of it count.

When looking for a picture to use today, I first looked in the Sacred Valley Peru "folder" since my yesterday bordered on the "cosmic" feeling I had when I visited the Sacred Valley in January, 2004. But then I saw this "Nature is Talking" picture and went with that. I was still in an inspired frame of mind yesterday from my incredible Friday night experience and then Saturday kept the feeling going. I mailed off a gift to a friend that I purchased months ago, but never saw her during the holiday season but wanted her to have it. Then I found my suitcase and got a phone call from one friend I will be seeing and an email from another - "bring clothes to wear when you go to kickboxing class with me" from one friend and "we will be having the dinner at my house this visit" - I love it that people are glad I am coming to visit. I got a bit antsy mid morning, so I sat down with Soul and Self. I had a few more pages to read and I re-read one line that summed up so many years of my life - "Charlie could better understand why he felt so lonely and gradually turned to mastery of external tasks for more dependable satisfactions." - me and Charlie seemed to be on the same wavelength during the lost part of our lives. Also, "...neglected their inner life to such an extent that they undervalued these reactions to others" - speaking of the sponsor/censor aspects of one's life. I don't do justice to the book pulling out just these two quotes, but it will be a book I pull out often to re-read certain passages to keep me on the right track or reaffirm a course of action I have decided to take to keep on the "Soul and Self" growth pattern. I offered the book to my 20-something son when he was up over Christmas, but he passed...I will keep making the offer and maybe just leave it with him during my next trip to NYC.

I did go for a walk and ended at the library to get my February book club book but also realized that book club falls on a Monday I plan to be in North Carolina, but I do want to read the book as I think that other area libraries are reading the book so maybe I can pop in on one of the other clubs. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. I also picked up "Bone by Bone" - I could not resist reading one of Mr. Matthiessen's books. I now have TOO much reading for my trip. Oh well.

Then off to the parents - do wash, chat with the folks. My mother got teary a couple of times - a friend of hers called whose husband had just passed away. The wife is a friend from elementary school - and at 84 years old...that is a long standing friendship. Then again when I talked about the horses at school. My mom was an award winning equestrian "in the day" and I really need to get her over to school to see the horses. She talked about the one time she got to ride at Madision Square Garden in a show. My father had already finished the crossword puzzle so I did not have any role in that.

Back to town just in time for church. And this is where the "magic" started. As I shared yesterday, I got that "call me" text message from my son during a dream on Friday night and planned to give him a call after church. And when I came out of church and I looked at my phone and it said "missed call" and it was my son! I called him back but he was at work, so he said he would give me a call today. But I got to tell him about the text message and tell him that I love him. On my way out of church, I ran into a husband and wife that I worked with at my last former job. Right before I left there to go to work at school, the husband went in for a hernia operation and when they opened him up and found lots of cancer including in the pancreas. They were talking months. I had sent them notes and the husband had called me to say that he was doing his treatments BUT then last night all three of us were in the back of the church crying as the wife told me that the latest PET (is that the right word?) scan showed nothing!! He is continuing his treatments, but I was so happy to hear such good news and so happy that they thought enough of my friendship to make the effort to wait for me as I worked my way out of church to share their news with me in person.

I had missed another call - from my old roommate and I called her back to see what was up for today. We are going to go to Mystic to the home of friends of hers who are having a fundraiser for a project in South Africa, and if the timing works, we are going to go to Bethel AME Church for their annual "I Have A Dream" celebration. I wanted to go to it last year, but it was not something I wanted to go by myself. I had just come back home and was not sure of my lay of the land yet. I hope it works that we go.

Then I called sister #4 to see if she wanted to join us in Mystic (her neck of the woods) but it is comment writing time for her and then she has a tennis match at night. But it was wonderful talking to her about the Friday night event as the organizer and "star" (outside of the author) of the event is dear friend of hers and former college classmate. She was going to call him after she hung up with me. Sister #4 is not one who neglected her inner self and her interaction with others. I thought about this yesterday as I walked and thought about our "first family" and the "second family" as my mother refers to her first 3 kids and her last 3 kids. I think there might have been a different "vibe" in the house for the first 3 (I am #2 of the first three) than for the second 3.

The good day ended with a good night of football - Colts are helping me with keeping my Super Bowl pick alive and the Eagles got beat - in my mind - as punishment for beating the Giants last week. So I am happy. And today, I don't have any dogs in the fight, so I will be happy with whatever. For some reason I an "seeing" Patriots and Seahawks as winners.

I did pass on the manicure - seemed way too "un-cosmic" for my day yesterday. What a week ahead!