I usually don’t attach much importance to astrological signs. But I’m a Pisces and the second half of February was busy – too busy. When the Mystical Soul Academy email came, I flagged and saved it. I’ll read it later.
I sent out Valentine cards, which I love to do. Answered personal emails, again, a plus. Deleted the ubiquitous, already unsubscribed emails. Indifferent to those. Read updates of political, social, and health editorials of trusted writers. Disturbing, enlightening, and often fatiguing.
More and more of my bedside, chair-side, and desk-side readings hold spiritual and enlightening viewpoints. I look forward to reading The Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness with my sweetheart, and Geri Larkin’s Tap Dancing in Zen with my dear online reading partner- inspiring and hopeful. Leaving Home at 83 is my own chuckle to myself, a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by Sandra Butler. I’m exploring the Toltec roots of Don Miguel Ruiz’s Beyond Fear. And that was just the sitting down activities.
None of this is boring or scary, but there was that building thrumming that signals “it’s too much.”
Let me check out the Mystical email. The Pisces heads-up from Frances Billinghurst revealed, “Piscean energy is connected with shipping, the waterways, dreams, spiritualism, addictions, and even escapism… Further, being the final sign of the astrological wheel, you may feel suppressed emotions rising to the surface, to be released once and for all.”
Oh jeez, sounds like my month. But with release. There was the TFOB confusion with my writing group, a flurry of emails, research, more emails and the resolve to decline participation. Wobbly and disconcerting national and world events. And yet the world was still spinning on its axis. And birthday month excitement was stirring.
Further on Ms. Billinghurst reminds me, “So, breathe. Ease back on the “doing” and simply “be” for a moment. Allow yourself space to get out of your head and come back to the body.” Frances Billinghurst- Mystical Soul Academy 
A sure sign to head over to Agua Caliente Park, the hidden gem just a five-miIe drive from my home.
I smile, no, I grin, as I walk in the park. A toddler “poses” for her birthday photo, clutching a giant “3” balloon. Adoring friends and family act as the paparazzi. Four ducks whistle, warble, and splash as they bathe.
Leaving the little island by the pond, I walk by a man gazing straight up at one of those old gnarled mesquites. He’s also smiling. I stop, stand nearby, and look up. The mesquite is one whose branches have twisted and turned, some choosing to begin the downward descent to graze the earth. But the branches going up have a kind of majesty rising above the mundane, against the downward pull. The bark is twisted and shaggy like thick torn paper. They are desert survivors. The Old Mesquite on the property is estimated to be over 200 years old.
“What do you see?” I ask.
He breaks away from his upward gaze. When he looks at me, I’m startled by the muted gray-blue color of his eyes. He turns back and gestures up at the tree. “It is beautiful.”
And that’s the point. Stop the doing, look up, and be.
The Old Mesquite at Agua Caliente
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She retired after 30 years of teaching, and semi-retired from coaching, and professional editing. Founder of the Eastside Tucson Writing Room based in Tucson AZ, she’s posted 100s of blogs, and is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, teaching about the power of words, gather writers together, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys teaching, speaking, and storytelling at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together,Tucson Tellers of Tales, Center for Spiritual Living Tucson, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.