All Planets Are Direct and Imbolc Is Still Ahead Monday Morning Check-In Thread

How Are YOU??!!

Blizzard of 1967 in Chicago

Ah, Imbolc, one of the lesser-known pagan high holidays, co-opted by the church and renamed Candlemas, then co-opted by capitalism and renamed Groundhog’s Day. It’s also my birthday.

If I never hear “Happy Groundhog’s Day!” followed by a snicker instead of “Happy Birthday” again, it’ll still be too soon.

I was born in Chicago a couple of days after the great blizzard of 1967. It holds the record still for the most snowfall for a single storm to date in Chicago, coming in at twenty-three inches. My mother went into labor inside their Lincoln Park neighborhood apartment, and my father was away on a business trip, stranded there due to the snow as well.

I was early.

The streets were filled with empty cars, as people trapped by the sudden storm abandoned them and got out to seek shelter or walk home. No plowing on the sidestreets had yet happened, an ambulance could not get through, and my mother had to be driven to Grant Hospital in a police truck, meaning I either needed a police escort upon my arrival, or needed the eye of the police upon me, or maybe both.

Every year, my birthday was often the coldest day of the year. On my first birthday in CA back in 2005, I found myself atop Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County hanging out with the butterflies that inhabit that peak, basking in the 70-degree weather.

It’s so strange to think that I may once again encounter a blizzard such as this. It’s a reality I had not even considered until just three months ago. Of course this February 2nd it’s going to be in the 50s and raining here in Ojai, while in Chicago it’s predicted to be sunny and in the 40s. Whut??? This timeline we are on just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

Last year I did something a little different than ever before due to a recurring theme of my birthdays sucking or being wrecked by subzero temperatures (two of Chicago’s five worst blizzards ever have happened on February 2nd, not including the one that happened just a few days before my arrival) and other external forces and started doing all of the things I thought I might like to do on my birthday over the week leading up to it. This way, if something could not happen for some reason (ie: the restaurant I wanted to eat at being unexpectedly closed - true story), well, I could just do it the following day or the day after without the whole, “Poor Me, nobody loves me, my birthday is ruined” aria.

Let me tell you, I am not sure why it took me 56 years to figure this one out, but it was a huge success. In fact, by the time the day of my actual birthday rolled around, I was so filled up from all of the love and self-care and beauty and good food that we just stayed home and ate leftovers. It was perfect.

This year, I’ll be doing the same, with one slight adjustment, I’ve been invited to a dance party on my actual birthday. It’ll be populated by people I know and probably many I do not, and this seems also perfect. Jon and I will both be wearing our grooviest dancing threads. Imbolc magic ahead.

Yesterday, we cleared the garden and front yard of dead plant material and pruned everything back as part of our pre-Imbolc release work. Yes, I know we are leaving this house and yes, I know that we won’t get to experience the direct result here, but I do know it will show up elsewhere for us, and we are happy to leave this yard better than it was when we arrived.

I am looking forward to applying all of the information, suggestions, and magical spellwork that came through during Saturday’s event. If you missed it and would like to get the recording you can do so here.

How are you on this first Monday of all planets in direct station this year? Please drop me a comment below and let me know.