DIFFERENT THIS YEAR

 RHYS BOWEN:  Every New Year’s Day I have a ritual: I have a pretty notebook with pictures of English cottages in it. I began it in 2000 and every year since I have written an overview of the year just past and my plans, hopes and dreams for the year to come.  And each year I assess those plans to see which ones came to fruition and which didn’t. It is the first thing I do after my morning tea on New Year’s Day.

I took out the notebook on Friday morning and thumbed through the pages. Some years more successful than others. Some so busy that I wonder how I survived. Some plans that worked, some that didn’t. But each year full of travel, conventions, family milestones. 

Then I read my plans for 2020:  Back to Arizona for the spring. Launch of Above the Bay of Angels (my Queen Victoria novel). Left Coast Crime in San Diego (also hoping to watch my granddaughter compete in waterpolo tournament against Cal and UCLA).  Then Cruise in the Caribbean in April. Meghan’s graduation in June then off to Europe. Meet up with friends in the Cotswolds, maybe take the ferry to Jersey, a week in Normandy and of course time in Cornwall with the family. Book tour in August for the new Georgie novel. Write next big stand-alone, The Venice Sketchbook, and then next Georgie.

I stared at that page and felt that I might cry any moment. A whole year of my life that didn’t happen. Of course I’m grateful that my family is still alive and healthy. I’m grateful that I have two homes in beautiful surroundings in which to hunker down and take walks in nature. And of course I’m grateful I had plenty of time to finish both my novels. But life on hold for a whole year!

So now I’m thinking of everyone else and all their plans and dreams that didn’t happen. My granddaughter Meghan didn’t get a prom, nor the elaborate promposal that goes with it these days. She didn’t get to ride in a limo and feel like a princess. And she didn’t get a graduation, apart from driving through the school campus and having her diploma handed to her. No senior trip to Disneyland. No senior pranks or senior cut day. No graduation parties. And her first semester of college turned into a nightmare when the football players brought Covid into her dorm (the athletes building) and one by one everyone got it, including Meghan. So her first month of college was spent in quarantine, then in isolation feeling sick.

These were small disappointments in the big scheme of things. I’m thinking of the weddings that were postponed, the grandparents who haven’t been allowed to see their new grandchild, the parents struggling to home school their children, the jobs lost, the businesses closed down. And the families mourning the loss of a beloved mother, father, uncle. But now it’s a new year. 2021 and I’m going to be optimistic about the future. 

My son tells me that we are entering the Age of Aquarius. Seven planets lined up in Aquarius in February. 

The Age Of Aquarius

 

This will be felt heavily in February 2021, during which a whopping seven planets

( the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, plus asteroid Pallas)

will all be clustered together in the sign of Aquarius,

 creating what's known as a stellium in astrology.

 

The New Moon in Aquarius on February 11, 2021 is not a total solar eclipse like it was on February 4, 1962, but it does take place within a large stellium in Aquarius,

 

This intense influx of Aquarius' fixed air sign energy in February will shift our focus to humanitarian issues, technological advancements, and unconventional innovations.

 

And these themes will guide the framework of our society throughout all of 2021 and the years ahead.The last time that happened it signaled the birth of the Renaissance in 1600. I am told it means the end of the age of patriarchy and the start of the age of the divine feminine. An age of spirituality, tranquility, invention, creation. Sounds good to me. We can throw all those old white guys out of Congress for a start!

Okay, divine feminines, are we ready to assume our rightful place?