Only Love Prevails.

I have noticed that when I am in the vibratory field of joy, appreciation and gratitude, I am somehow insulated from the swirling madness of our time. It is as if I am suspended above the conflicts that I was so engrossed in only moments before. And I have also noticed that if these feelings continue long enough, my external circumstances reflect this vibratory field. In other words, reasons to feel joy, appreciation and gratitude pop up all around me through such things as serendipity, and odd coincidences (i.e., synchronicities) that assist me.


When I succumb, however, to the lower vibratory fields of fear, anger and hostility (often after watching or reading too much of the news, or simply indulging in my own bad habits of imagining worst case scenarios), I find myself immersed in a world of conflict. Serendipity and joy disappear, and the world that was so full of magic and possibility evaporates before me.


But I am clear that this is all my own creation.


- Tom Kenyon



When you meditate, Love grows . . .
if you strive to love all and to meditate more deeply
there will come into your life such love as you never dreamed possible


- Paramahansa Yogananda


Love is the new religion of the 21st century.
You don't have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it
It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse
of all human beings.


Kids can't see us bombing, and then listen to us
talking about getting guns out of the schools.
How can we tell them to solve problems without violence,
if, in fact, we can't show an ability to solve problems
without violence?

Self-fulfilling prophets and assclowns....Yin to the Yang.

There are a number of issues that are recurrent themes in struggling or dubious relationships and seeking validation is one of them. Women who love assclowns and emotionally unavailable men spend an incredible amount of time engaged in activities that are supposed to lead to getting the validation that they seek.

While assclowns are thinking ‘I’m not that bad’, the women that love them are thinking variations of ‘Tell me that I’m good person of value and that I’m the exception’.

Assclowns get validation all the time that they’re not as bad as they really are, because the validation comes when they continue to get women and when each of those women accepts their behaviour. When one doesn’t but another one does, they can let their delusion continue.

We all have our values (even if we don’t use them) and they are tied to our beliefs determining what we feel is right and wrong, good and bad etc.

Seeking validation in relationships is when you look to get confirmation that something is true. This cuts both ways so while you may spend a disproportionate amount of energy trying to get others to confirm that you are a person of value, loveable, a great girlfriend, the best girlfriend, the ‘one’ etc, you may also be someone who spends an equally disproportionate amount of time confirming that negative things that you believe are actually true, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The issue of validation represents a huge problem with assclowns because you’re involved in a consistent conflict of interest that confirms the negative beliefs that cause you to be involved with the assclown in the first place.

We get involved with people that reflect what we believe about love, relationships, and ourselves and when these are negative beliefs, we gravitate to people who give us the opportunity to believe even though at the same time, we’ll also try to get them to validate the opposite about us.

So if you imagine that someone believes that relationships don’t last, that men disappear and cheat, and that there is something unlovable about her, she’ll get involved with someone who offers the least likely prospect for commitment who is likely to blow hot and cold and disappear or outright abandon her, and who will have a tendency to cheat with other women.

She’ll do this because her beliefs mean that she is afraid of actually going out there and committing herself because she’s afraid of it not lasting. That fear of abandonment will have her nervous of being abandoned, the cheating will mean she’s distrustful and not believing that he can be faithful and that there’s someone else a hop, skip, and a jump away from replacing her, and by feeling unlovable, it’s near unconceivable that someone could actually love her – even if she met someone who did, she wouldn’t believe them.

Despite ending up with someone that reflects these beliefs, she will look for validation by trying to get him to commit and stop disappearing, by staying with him even when he screws around on her or makes it clear that he is pursuing other interests, and by trying to get him to make her the exception to his rule of behaviour and treat her with decency so that she can believe she is good enough, valid, and lovable.

Instead, by the assclown continuing his behaviour, she instead learns that relationships don’t last, that men disappear and cheat, and that there’s something unlovable about her because he wouldn’t make her the exception and she’s ended up feeling emotionally depleted after being involved with him. She’ll think that if she wasn’t flawed and a lovable person, that she would have been able to hold onto a dipstick of an assclown like him because good, lovable people get the guy to make them the exception, so every negative thing she already believes about herself is perpetuated.

That ladies, is the self-fulfilling prophecy of seeking validation from people who are fundamentally incompatible with the concept of a healthy relationship.

Nice people.

This thought has been spinning around my head for a while - what does it mean to be an authentically nice person?


There are many "nice" people out there. You know the ones - they put everyone else first and are seemingly relentless in their ability to help out and give. Yet, they bitch about all the good they do and how no one appreciates them or shows any type of gratitude for their chosen selflessness. In a circumlocutional way, doesn't that just make them selfish?


I think compassion and the true quality of niceness is about giving for the sake of giving - having no expectations or need for a "reward" other than, perhaps, the soulful rewards of fulfillment, happiness and peace.


Just sayin'.


"The rationale for universal compassion is based on the same principle of spiritual democracy. It is the recognition of the fact that every living being has an equal right to and desire for happiness. The true acceptance of the principle of democracy requires that we think and act in terms of the common good. Compassion and universal responsibility require a commitment to personal sacrifice and the neglect of egotistical desires."

Infatuation Anonymous

Infatuation - by Dana Peach

Infatuation... we’re in love with it! Millions of men and women live in anxious hope of experiencing it as soon as possible... and over and over again... if necessary. Come to think of it, infatuation has become a popular model for love itself, and at this very moment, infatuation fever is directing the most critical intimate choices of an enormous sub-culture of singles.

But wait! Before you rush to your next rapture, consider some of the following viewpoints on this most popular of all feeling states. Think about what it really is to be infatuated.

Plainly, the word itself is officially defined as a kind of affliction. In common parlance, infatuation is known as "being a fool for love". Most of us recognize it as a state in which a person’s normal ability to think clearly and act rationally are flung aside with suspicious eagerness. Desire focuses on a particular someone and suddenly nothing matters but that compelling attraction. The dictionary strongly suggests that the overt result of infatuation is a reduction in mental capacity. A frequent synonym given for infatuation is "folly", predicting grave consequences to follow from stupidity resulting from fixated passion.

Sounds ominous. Nonetheless, there must be something about infatuation that accounts for the hold it has over our imaginations... and our choices. Most of us know the feelings of infatuation from direct personal experience. Certainly we’ve all been introduced to Love Fever through stories told in pajama party whispers, fairy tales, the anguished confidences of dear friends, through cartoons and fine literature, B-movies and cinematic art, TV sitcoms and soap operas, and romantic novels. Wherever and however reported, though, the sensate phenomenon are remarkably similar.

Infatuation Phase I: Stricken!

The first act in the life of an infatuation is that magic moment when someone suddenly takes on "special" meaning for us.You hear a phrase or a particular inflection in someone’s voice that strikes a chord in your heart. You are struck by the exact tilt of his head. You are warmed by a gaze or an unexpected tenderness. An intriguing remark goes straight to your soul. Or, perhaps from a respectable distance, you notice legs or skin or hair (or a more private physical trait) to die for. Lightning has struck.

Infatuation Phase II: Intrusive Thinking

After the bolt of lightening comes a storm of intrusive thinking about the desired one. Every experience you now have seems interwoven with their qualities, every shared moment weighted with new meaning. When apart from them, you review and relish each moment spent in their presence and ruminate on their flavor. In fact, many infatuation informants report spending 80 to 100 percent of their time compulsively trying to crystallize the vision of their new love, living in vigilant expectation of the next contact.

Infatuation Phase III: Idealization

Early in the intrusive thinking phase, idealization sets in. The erotic sizzle permeates everything and creates that famous halo with which we love to blind ourselves. For a while, the infatuee sees no flaws in the beloved and admits to no blocks to forward progress.

Infatuation Phase IV: The Emotional Rollercoaster

From this high intensity anticipation comes the primary emotional dynamic of infatuation: an exquisite combination of hope and uncertainty which has funded libraries of poetry. At this point, life becomes that famous roller coaster ride: precious moments of delightful reciprocity (real or imagined) followed by agonizing doubts of ultimate success. Infatuation is now more consciously driven by simple fear. In fact, The Nagging Fear of Not Getting What You Have Begun to Desire is the unique torment reserved for the infatuated elite.

This pattern of human experience is as well-documented as any emotional experience has ever been. You can find poignant elaborations on the process incised upon clay tablets, etched in marble, painted on papyrus, fixed in celluloid, playing on the radio, and filtering through the voices all around you. It is a famous and favorite form of anguish. But how can something so uncomfortable be so irresistible?

Science Has An Answer For Infatuation!

Research has confirmed the existence of an amphetamine-like chemical which is rapidly activated (like lightning!) when we begin to feel attracted to someone. This chemical is called phenylethylamine (PEA), that famous substance that makes laboratory rats press levers until they drop dead from exhaustion.

Diane Ackerman, author of The Nature of Love and A Natural History of the Senses, describes PEA as a "molecule that speeds up the flow of information between nerve cells", whipping the brain into a frenzy of excitement, sending ordinary attraction into overdrive and providing the assertive oomph! needed to take social risks and overcome any obstacles to mating. We can consider this a well-designed molecule from the point of view of species survival.

But... some other researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute claim to have discovered that PEA has a tendency to pave the way for that peculiar contemporary disorder, The Relationship Addiction. They point out that this internally-generated infatuation drug acts a lot like speed. Some people (and a lot of rats) not used to the rush begin to crave it.

In other words, some people are always infatuated, but not necessarily with the same person, and not long enough to develop a relationship that makes them really happy or leads to lasting happiness.

Is this what it means to be A Fool For Love? A Fool for Phenylethylamine? By many indications, once we are pierced by the arrow of attraction, the biologically compelling quality of infatuation insures for many people a helpless emotional state.

Psychology Has An Answer for Infatuation!

Biological models explain a lot about the "how" of infatuation, the mechanism governing the actual phenomenology of love foolishness. The social sciences have a lot to tell us about the "why". Why this particular man, why that woman?

Naturally, Freud would have said that it is all in your head. What else? His most profound contribution to modern thought was to show us the extent to which our behavior, especially our love behavior, is guided by unconscious processes. He might further have emphasized that we are attracted (compelled?) to experience specific relationships in an attempt to meet intimacy needs shaped in our earliest years, with our first love objects: Mom and Dad. (Just the basic meat and potatoes of attraction dynamics, folks!)

Carl Jung popularized the idea that opposites attract, and for very good reasons. He theorized that we are unconsciously drawn to those who exhibit qualities we find lacking - or somehow undeveloped - in our own psyches and that we always seek to complete or balance ourselves somehow through intimate attachments. In the state of infatuation, then, we are pulled like a moth toward the flame we wish to acquire for our permanent warmth.

The Imago Model of Infatuation

Harville Hendrix, author of Keeping the Love You Find: A Guide For Singles, has one of the best explanations I’ve heard for why we tend to fall so heavily and helplessly, if sometimes so briefly, into the infatuated state. He says we each have in our memory banks a highly individual imprint, a mental construct called an imago, in which the best and worst attributes of our earliest caretakers have been crystallized.

The imago we have of our dream lover is like an intimacy template. It influences and filters our perception so that we are particularly attentive and sensitized to those who match our private patterns. This then accounts for the highly specific nature of our infatuations.

Dr. Hendrix thinks we have something like psychic receptor-sites for certain people who evoke highly idiosyncratic responses in us. He argues - as do many others - that we are unconsciously attracted to people who help us recreate early relationship dynamics in the (also unconscious) hope that things will turn out better and we will have a lot more control this time around.

The perception of strong attraction then acts as an internal signal which flips the PEA switch (remember the infatuation drug?). Apparently, such attraction is relatively involuntary, primitively-driven, and seemingly beyond our control. Just like the drug itself.

Good News/Bad News

The deeper we go into this matter, the more infatuation seems to reflect its dictionary definition as the epitome of foolishness. The experience seems to take conscious choice right out of the picture. When we are infatuated with someone - or something - it is as though we become little love robots, biochemical puppets with no will of our own, without a rational thought in our heads! And what is the stupendous pay-off for what seems to be a love offering of mindless surrender?

Answer truthfully, now: 

How often have you experienced highly erotic and deeply gratifying love-making with someone with whom you were infatuated? 

How often has the object of your feverish desire turned out to be as you imagined him or her? How many smoldering, day-dreamed passions have actually burst into flame for you?

 How many times have you been a Fool For Love only to realize within weeks (if you are lucky) or months that there was no love there, only helpless yearning?

How many sunny, companionable days have you actually spent with someone you worshipped and longed to possess? In short, how many times has infatuation worked for you?

The answers to these questions will tell you there is little happiness in infatuation itself, precious little daily satisfaction is possible while we are acting the Fool For Love. That is because the state of infatuation thrives on distance and frustration. It flourishes under difficult circumstances. It is not magnified by consummation and familiarity.

Please note: Infatuation cannot exceed its own expectations. It is the spark and the emotional kindling, not a steady, warming fire. It is an appetizer that makes you anticipate the full banquet. But it will not keep you warm and it will not fill you up. Infatuation begins as an important emotional signal to point you in the direction of desire and get you moving. But it is not yet love and its impetus will never take the place of thinking about what you want and acting persistently on that intention.

Transcendental Infatuation

When all is said and done, we will always want to fall in love with the pull of a potent attraction. We will always want to love infatuation and we will always reserve our right to be a Fool For Love. And that is as it should be. Who does not want to feel moved by the thrill of a profound, mysterious attraction that is able to overpower our ego defenses and cause us to open our soul to another with the impetuosity of a child? The state of infatuation is so powerful that we want infatuation to have a meaning beyond that of a chemically-induced trance phenomenon. And that is possible, but with just one little catch.

In order to make certain that infatuation can fulfill its true role in the natural discovery and growth of love, we have to stay semi-conscious and aware of our choices. Only conscious surrender and sustained attachment can make the original spark of infatuation eventually work to our benefit.

"You're supernatural...extraterrestrial"

VALUES AND SELF ESTEEM AS ADULTS

    MEN 

• A man's sense of self is defined through his ability to achieve results, through success and accomplishment. Achieve goals and prove his competence and feel good about himself.

• To feel good about himself, men must achieve goals by themselves. 

• For men, doing things by themselves is a symbol of efficiency, power and competence.

• In general, men are more interested in objects and things rather than people and feelings.

• Men rarely talk about their problems unless they are seeking "expert" advice; asking for help when you can do something yourself is a sign of weakness.

• Men are more aggressive than women; more combative and territorial.

• Men's self esteem is more career-related.

• Men feel devastated by failure and financial setbacks; they tend to obsess about money much more than women

• Men hate to ask for information because it shows they are a failure.

   WOMEN

• Women value love, communication, beauty and relationships.

• A woman's sense of self is defined through their feelings and the quality of their relationships. They spend much time supporting, nurturing and helping each other. They experience fulfillment through sharing and relating.

• Personal expression, in clothes and feelings, is very important. Communication is important. Talking, sharing and relating is how a woman feels good about herself.

• For women, offering help is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength; it is a sign of caring to give support.

• Women are very concerned about issues relating to physical attractiveness; changes in this area can be as difficult for women as changes in a man's financial status.

• When men are preoccupied with work or money, women interpret it as rejection.

OTHER DIFFERENCES 

• Men are more logical, analytical, rational.

• Women are more intuitive, holistic, creative, integrative.

• Men have a much more difficult time relating to their own feelings, and may feel very threatened by the expression of feelings in their presence. This may cause them to react by withdrawing or attempting to control the situation through a display of control and/or power.

• Men are actually more vulnerable and dependent on relationships than women are and are more devastated by the ending, since they have fewer friends and sources of emotional support.

• Men are more at ease with their own angry feelings than women are.

• Women are in touch with a much wider range of feelings than men, and the intensity of those feelings is usually much greater for women than men. As a result of this, many man perceive that women's feelings appear to change quickly; men may find this irrational and difficult to understand.

• Men tend to be more functional in approaching problem-solving; women are aesthetically-oriented in addition to being functional.

• Women tend to be much more sensitive to sounds and smells than men are; and women as such tend to place a greater emphasis on "atmosphere". 

CONFLICTS WHICH ARISE DUE TO BASIC DIFFERENCES 

• The most frequent complain men have about women:  Women are always trying to change them.

• The most frequent complaint women have about men: Men don't listen.

• Women want empathy, yet men usually offer solutions.

• When a woman tries to change or improve or correct or give advice to a man, men hear that they are being told that they aren't competent or don't know how to do something or that they can't do something on their own.

• Men often feel responsible or to blame for women's problems.

• Men always assume women want advice and solutions to problems, that that is the best way to be helpful and to show love; women often just want someone to sincerely listen to them.

• Housework: men avoid it, try to get others to do it at all costs, feel demeaned by doing it. For women, cleanliness of house is a manifestation of warm, homey nest. Men and women have different thresholds for cleanliness and dirt.

• Men often try to change a woman's mood when she is upset by offering solutions to her problems, which she interprets as discounting and invalidating her feelings.

• Women try to change men's behavior by offering unsolicited advice and criticism and becoming a home-improvement committee.

HOW TO WORK WITH THESE DIFFERENCES 

• When women are upset, it is not the time to offer solutions, though that may be appropriate at a future time when she is calmed down.

• A man appreciates advice and criticism when it is requested. Men want to make improvements when they feel they are being approached as a solution to a problem rather than as the problem itself.

• Men have great needs for status and independence (emphasis on separate and different); women have needs for intimacy and connection (emphasis on close and same).

• Women need to receive caring, understanding, respect, devotion, validation, and reassurance.

• Women are motivated when they feel special or cherished.

• Men need to receive trust, acceptance, appreciation, admiration, approval, encouragement.

• Men are motivated when they feel needed.   A man's deepest fear is that he is not good enough or not competent enough, though he may never express this.

SUMMARY

• There are major, significant differences between men and women.

• The differences are different, NOT better or worse.  Do not judge the differences.  Do not try to change the differences.   Do not try to make them go away.

• These are generalizations! Individual differences exist; we all have some of these qualities.

• To get along, you MUST accept, expect and respect these differences.

• Be sure to remember these differences when communication about anything important, when expressing care and concern, and when solving conflicts.

Total eclipse.

About the Lunar Eclipse in Gemini on June 15th, 2011

As noted above, a Lunar eclipse is an especially potent lunation -- in this case a potent Full Moon. Lunar eclipses are relationship-oriented. The "crisis" that these eclipses tend to elicit is a crisis of lack--a time when we suddenly realize a great need or want. The impact of the crisis can act to sever a relationship--it's possible. But it can also bring two people together with a sudden awareness of a great need for each other. Although Lunar eclipses are more relationship-oriented than Solar eclipses, they are not always about relationships between two people. They can trigger awareness of need in other areas of our lives, such as our relationship to work, to our health and bodies, and so forth. This is a time when matters come to light--things that have been brewing under the surface.

When a Full Moon occurs, we can suddenly burst forth with proclamations and outpours that seem fresh and new, simply because they are not yet rationalized. A Lunar eclipse is a more potent Full Moon, and its effects tend to last longer. Many astrologers believe that the effects of a Lunar eclipse last approximately three to six months. The Lunar eclipse on June 15th, 2011, occurs when the Moon is at approximately 24 degrees of Sagittarius, opposing the Sun at 24 degrees Gemini, and is a Total Lunar Eclipse. Lunar Eclipses are about relationships and polarities. With the Gemini-Sagittarius axis involved, this Lunar Eclipse presses us to look more closely at our needs, lacks, and wants in our lives concerning the balance between Gemini-ruled and Sagittarius ruled areas of life. The Gemini-Sagittarius polarity is a mental axis, where Gemini represents the "lower mind" and Sagittarius represents the "higher mind". The Gemini Sun encourages us to think logically, while the Sagittarius Moon persuades us to intuit, and to think in a broader manner. Sagittarius symbolizes the quest for meaning and ideas that expand upon the "here and now". Gemini is quite comfortable in his or her immediate environment or neighborhood, while Sagittarius stimulates us to venture beyond it. Neglecting either end of the axis will surely backfire on us. Ideally, a balance should be found between the two energies, and this is what the Lunar Eclipse invites us to do. This eclipse is about communication, attitude, and our sense of adventure. Something has been building inside of us, and now is the time when the energy of the cosmos fairly demands that we let it out. Over the coming weeks, we will discover what this means for us. For now, we can't sit on our feelings. We need to express them.

Some sort of crisis (which can be a crisis of consciousness) or sudden awareness of a lack in our lives provides us with a golden opportunity to explore our emotional needs within the context of the house polarity where the eclipse occurs in our natal charts. Relationships may be challenged, broken, or strengthened dramatically at this time. Our discovery is emotionally charged and dramatic. Epiphanies are likely at this time as we become acutely aware of our lack. This understanding can propel us into positive action, although there can be some level of chaos initially. This eclipse is the second in a series of eclipses that fall along the Gemini/Sagittarius axis (in December, 2010, a Solar Eclipse occurred in late Sagittarius). It can be viewed as the second cosmic push regarding the themes it will be stimulating.

Full Moons and Lunar Eclipses bring issues in our lives to fulfillment. Our emotions are heightened, and there is often some sort of drama involved with the house, sign, and any contacted planets activated by the Full Moon. Look to 24 degrees of Gemini and Sagittarius in your own chart (allow at least a 5 degree orb when examining the planets and points it aspects). This Lunar Eclipse gives us a cosmic push to make needed changes in our lives. The areas of life activated by the eclipse may see dramatic turns, after which the path is clear to move forward. Note that whatever happens at this time is nothing truly new. The issues have been brewing inside of us, and emotions have been building. Something comes to light at the time of the Lunar Eclipse, and if we get in touch with our emotions, we can get a better idea of what needs to change, or what needs to go. This Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius is bound to thrust us into a state of heightened awareness of flaws in the structures of our lives, particularly in our communications and transportation. Decisions made now tend to be emotionally-driven. This Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Sun is aligned with Mercury, reinforcing communication themes. There can be a real dichotomy between what our heads and our hearts are telling us, which is true of any Full Moon to a certain degree, but much more so with the Sun in Gemini and conjunct Gemini's ruler, Mercury. Nervous tension can result as we feel pressure to make decisions. If this Lunar eclipse conjuncts a planet in your chart, you may feel its intensity more than others. If the Lunar Eclipse conjuncts your Sun, for example, it can act like a charge of energy. The desire --or necessity-- to turn over a new leaf is strong. A significant other or the public can play a large role in the events of your life now. In major aspect to the Moon, a Lunar Eclipse can trigger major changes to your living situation and personal life, including personal relationships. Circumstances that significantly change your daily routine and domestic world can arise. There can be a culmination or fruition of a matter that emerged with the Lunar Eclipse in Gemini in December 2010. The Sun's position in Gemini and its placement in your natal chart should not be ignored.

About the Solar Eclipse on June 1, 2011

A partial Solar Eclipse occurs on June 1st, 2011, at 5:03 PM EDT at 11 degrees and 2 minutes of Gemini. Its effects can be felt up to six months after the actual date of the eclipse. In the Mercury-ruled sign of Gemini, communications, daily interactions, and learning will be a strong focus on a personal level. This eclipse is about new beginnings regarding all of these matters. This is a time for improving our communication skills by listening to others and enjoying others' points of view, rather than doggedly seeking to find that one "answer"; taking the time to socialize and enjoy others--whether they are neighbors, friends, family, or acquaintances--just for the simple pleasure of doing so; re-evaluating our communication and social skills by questioning just how much we actually take in information, and communicate in a friendly, non-threatening manner; finding new venues for expressing ourselves and for learning by awakening our own curiosity, and refining our writing, speaking, teaching, and listening skills; adding some mental variety to our lives; beginning a new project that involves writing and/or speaking, or that is in the communications field; and for opening our minds to gathering more information and facts from our environment.

Some of Gemini's "lessons" involve learning to be comfortable with people-- putting them at ease, and feeling at ease ourselves. Instead of communicating with others to prove a point, to come up with an answer to problems, or to get our opinions across, Gemini urges us to truly enjoy the moment. By consciously tuning in to positive Gemini energy, we learn that there isn't always an answer, and we become comfortable with that idea. As we learn to let ourselves truly listen to others, we learn through others simply by being curious, and we improve our social and communication skills at the same time. We open our minds to more information, and we learn to truly enjoy the variety of different personalities around us. We become more aware of the superficiality of our communications. Although Gemini is sometimes associated with superficial connections and communications, dig a little deeper and you will see that there is much to learn from the light, two-way, and comfortable conversations that characterize the sign.

With the potent Gemini energy of the Solar Eclipse, we have the chance to make important changes in our lives that will benefit us well beyond this Moon cycle. For some of us, circumstances are such that we need to pay more attention to these matters. Flaws in an important system in our lives are revealed around the time of the eclipse, prompting us to redo or to start fresh. Something ends in order for something else to start anew. We may be called to give up something in order to move forward into a new chapter in our lives.Although the "new" may be unrecognizable, it is important to allow the necessary surrender to the unknown. The eclipse point itself is trine to Saturn, suggesting an orderly, step-by-step, mature, and practical approach to realizing our goals can bring the most success. An eclipse occurs close to the nodal axis, and this eclipse is closer to the South Node. Eclipses close to the South Node sometimes "feel" a little more challenging than those conjuncting or closer to the North Node, if we concentrate too heavily on what we are letting go instead of focusing on the fact that we are moving forward. Important developments in the personal areas ruled by Gemini in our charts are likely to occur over the course of the next 3-6 months. Note that this is the first solar eclipse in a series of eclipses falling along the Gemini-Sagittarius axis, and thus sets something in motion that will likely take some time to unfold. Not everyone will feel the effect of the eclipse with the same intensity. Those whose personal planets are activated by the degree of the eclipse will most feel its effects on a personal level. This phase of the Moon occurs at 11 degrees and 2 minutes of Gemini, affecting people born with personal planets and points at approximately 6 to 16 degrees of the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces) most significantly.

From: www.cafeastrology.com

What's been on my mind.

I'm sure this post will be a lovely conglomeration of thoughts. A mixing bowl full of randomness.

On life perspective: So I jacked up my knee this week. I felt like someone took away my ability to breathe. No really. I probably cried 1,348.34 tears the day after it happened. My reaction probably renders me as a workout addict -  I think I was more upset than after my last break-up.Although it's nothing immensely major, I won't be able to do much with the lower body for at least a week and that's probably pushing it. It's like I went from being a moving freight train to a turtle. The odd thing is - my belief in everything happening for a reason is paramount to feeling better and understanding the situation. I've taken my abilities for granted - even the mere fact of just being able to walk around leisurely. For a long time I had been caught up in the selfish parameters of feeling depressed for no good reason, while pushing myself beyond bodily limits in hopes of....that's just it. For no good reason. Being better or stronger means nothing if your soul is weak. I realize I have based too much of Myself on what I can do rather than who I am. I've been striving to keep up with this "work out" image I attempted to create for myself, knowing that it felt empty and soul less. I was pushing myself to the point of actually hating the push. I think I got hurt because what I was doing ceased to be about me and more about this underlying competitive beast that permeates the world of "athletics." I truly understand the need for balance now and not driving yourself to the brink of physical madness. It's a soulful thing that I don't think most people will understand but it makes sense to me. This injury was the cessation I needed to take a view of the Big Picture and realize that life is about doing more and being more than just a facade - there is something else out there I need to doing in order to make the world better. I can't define myself and my life through competition, times and weights. Some people only feel secure when they can "beat" someone else or get rewarded for self-sacrifice. For me, the greatest reward is the sanctity of my inner peace and authenticity. The only true way to "happiness" in this ever fluctuating world is to listen to your soul and find something that truly makes a difference in the lives of OTHER people. I hope to discover that.....

On dating perspective: People need to get over their shallowness. Yes, it's important to take care of yourself and have a physical attraction but that's not all there is to life. Plus, you need to check yourself and not let your issues interfere with someone who does like you for who you are. If you can't believe that - then you still have a lot of soul-searching to do. Until you are happy within yourself and by yourself, no one will be able to cultivate it for you. You'll just end up pushing away the authentically good people and attracting the whack jobs. And remember - if something doesn't feel right, trust your intuition. Personally, I'm still in a realm of confusion as per usual. The only thing to do is go with the flow and chalk your experiences up to life lessons - stepping stones to the gateway of wisdom.

Random - I remember a guy saying to me that he all he wanted in a future wife was someone hot, who kept herself physically appealing. Give me a moment to chuckle, please. What about being a compassionate person? Being able to help a relationship flourish? Having a great sense of humor and the ability to hold a creatively intellectual conversation...........?

The summer is near - let the revitalization begin.

Peace and love.