An astrologer friend recommended reflecting on what life was like for me in 2011, so I did.
After three separate back-to-back terrible, no good, very bad living situations in 2010, I moved into a college friend's apartment on the Upper East Side (82nd and York) over New Year's that year.
I joked I was going upstate, moving from 1st and 1st. The sidewalks are wider up there, and the 10-minute walk to Lex and 86th was the farthest walk I'd had to a subway stop from home. It's different up there. Ginkgo trees everywhere! I could walk to Carl Schurz Park and the Met. Also lots of sports bars, not at all like downtown, but my rent was cut in half and it was a way better living situation even though it felt like the edge of the earth.
The first few months were great until I sprained my ankle and got laid off from my job. Thankfully, my mentor said to me, "Nobody ever lost a job they wanted." And he was right. I had really needed to move on, but I was scared.
I relearned how to walk. Started splatter painting watercolor on hemp paper. Got my first Netflix account and watched lots of great films I'd never heard of before. Had an intense healing process. So much time to scheme and dream while I was laid up on the couch.
When my mom came to visit, she pushed me in a wheelchair around the Met to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit with cousins Kiki and Ross. We had to take a cab home because my foot swelled up so much from a short walk.
While she gave me care during our visit, my mom told me she felt the moment I was conceived. I wouldn't describe myself as woo, and she is even less so. It was a beautiful thing for her to share. And as much as I love the story about sitting on one of her nerves for a month in utero, I love the conception story even more.
That summer I graduated from Physical Therapy and moved with the sofa I'd been sleeping on for months to a friend's apt in Bushwick. Moving from the Upper East Side to Bushwick is similar to moving from NYC to Salt Lake City. Totally different vibe. Hurricane Irene, the hurricane that wasn't, happened while I was there.
By October it was time to move on and I temporarily had one of the worst living experiences ever in Gravesend, Brooklyn. What broke me was the fly swatter she kept in the ewer with the cooking utensils. But that was just the breaking point. It was terrible.
An apartment in Queens that had come up a few times before came up again. (Thank you Sara Lovas!) No cats allowed. I had always turned my nose up at Queens, but I was desperate and didn't have many options. (As it turns out, Queens, the Majestic Borough, is awesome.)
I spent the month of December living with my mom in Dallas. (Oliver's first time flying!)
Though it all turned out great, I cried everyday for six months when I returned to New York without him. I didn't want him to think I'd abandoned him. I needed a normal living situation and to get on my feet. That's what the apartment in Queens provided.
2011 in a nutshell. For sure a transformative year and an amazing journey since then. Another person probably would have given up. (9 times I moved between 2009-2011. Oliver, too.) But we did it. It's been a beautiful evolutionary journey.
I was curious, why reflect now on 2011? So I looked it up.
Neptune will officially be settling in Aries on January 26 after its long transit in Pisces that began in 2011.
Neptune in Pisces is a time marked by collective spiritual awakening. It has offered a powerful period of idealism, understanding, and humanism. It also has been a time of blurred boundaries promoting fantasy and escapism. (There's always a shadow or back side)
In this new transit, there will be a profound shift where idealism meets fiery action.
Neptune in Aries is a time for actively and courageously manifesting. Now that we are awake, it's time to get out of bed and honor, with assertiveness, our inner spiritual warrior and the work we've done over the last 15 years. There's a powerful walk through this life as if you were invited vibe. Watch out for impulsiveness, burnout, and ego-driven conflict.
What was 2011 like for you? What are you going to manifest in 2026 and the next 13 years?
