Archive | City Matters

Dowager Chic, Dowager Not Shocked

The trains were so crazy last night. A woman carrying many bags and very wild energy–she might have been homeless, she might have been a very wealthy eccentric–entered my subway car, slapped me in the face, then burst into tears. I need help! Help! she cried. Someone else needs to step in here, I said. Then I opened my book. I have lived in NYC for 25 years. it is starting to show.

This Wolf’s Birthday

Question: What happens when your solar return arrives the day before a supermassive blood red wolf moon eclipse in my-way-or-the-highway Leo? Answer: You cry a whole river, which is how I spent my birthday. No holds barred, I wept more yesterday than on any birthday since I was a kid. Today I woke feeling crazy and a little frantic. I’ve long believed that how you spend your solar return dictates the tenor of your new year, which meant I was in for an unholy dirge. In desperation, I called my shrink, not an astro-maven but a wise woman across the board. 

“You’re letting it all go,” she said. “Your myths, whatever and whoever was holding you back. Your old ways of getting through the day. Whatever wool was still in your eyes.

“This doesn’t mean your 49th year will be terrible,” she went on. “It means you are being shown what can’t enter your year to come.” Continue Reading →

Pardon the Mess, I Live Here

I have known K since our late 20s, but we only became solid friends in our 40s. First he had a crush on me and I found him esoteric. Then I had a crush on him and he found me extra. Only now that we’ve outgrown feeling slighted by people who don’t desire us have we become good friends.

It’s the best.

Because we are neighbors, we often meet up for coffee, go on rambling walks, help each other out. We have seen each other through some very hard times–illnesses, deaths, breakups, poverty. Neither of us are out of the woods in that last category, and we talk about how being broke feels different as you get older. Aging is a constant undercurrent of our conversations.

Perhaps I should say overcurrent. Continue Reading →

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy