Mercury Rising - SMS

Three weeks ago….

Picture this if you will... rainy day, sitting crossed legs on my mattress, trying hard to repair my errant phone. The rare occasions on which my keypad lit up those days was to tell me to ‘Select network’. I tried various things to repair it...banging the phone with a heavy blunt object, pressing down all the keys at the same time, threatening/ begging of it to work... you know, the usual.

Just as I was about to open up the phone for closer inspection, my room-mate walks in. She took one look at me and Phoney (I named the phone hoping that he’d feel loved and stop acting up) her eyes wide as saucers she said, “Its happening…!”. (Horror movie scary whisper) Shoe in hand, taking careful aim at Phoney I stopped and asked, “What is?”, “Mercury is in retrograde!”

Not one word of that sentence made sense to me. But from her tone, I realized that it would not be wise to trifle with her dire announcement. So despite all good sense I asked, “What does that mean?” My mistake.

Apparently, mercury is the planet which rules over the mind’s processes, studying, communication, businesses, travels and the like. So when Mercury goes into retrograde i.e. its course changes direction, all these areas are affected. Business, travels and communications tend to experience delays, computers and other processes that work with information may experience crashes, we’re advised not to buy cars, phones etc. and to back up our computer data and be careful in relationships because there is a lot of scope for misunderstandings.

1 hour later sitting at my dining table, coffee in hand, recovering from her explanation, I thought about all I’d just heard. What was unsettling about my new found knowledge was how accurate it seemed! Couples parting ways, everyone with network problems, my kinetic functioning as effectively as a cycle... it was all happening. For someone who ‘doesn’t believe in astrology’, I found myself spending in inordinate amount of time reading my weekly forecasts... alright fine, daily forecasts.

I have to admit though; it’s been an enlightening few weeks. Not because of what I learned about astrology, but because of what I learned about myself. And what did I learn?

1. I learned that I, like everyone else, need something to hold on to and to believe in when things are falling apart around me.

2. I learned that I’ll go to great lengths (reading daily forecasts in this case) to avoid spending time with my text books.

3. I learned that I’m scared out of my mind at the thought that my hard work and will may amount to nothing if a higher power has other plans for me.

4. I learned that all I can do is my best. And just go with the flow.

Mercury is, incidentally still in retrograde as I write this. My phone still doesn’t work, my Kinetic still sounds like an elderly gentleman with breathing problems every time I try to start it. But I’m through blaming mercury... I think I’ll just blame the rains.