Star Struck Style

The past few days have been rather unpleasant for me. On Wednesday, I was stung by a yellowjacket while I was walking to work. I have a rather severe allergic reaction to these insects, but thankfully not the kind of reaction that causes anaphylaxis. This time, the swelling of my ankle was bad enough that I couldn’t even put on a shoe with shoelaces. I had to wear some Chelsea boots that didn’t constrict my puffy foot. When I woke up yesterday morning, the swelling had begun to subside and I could even see the veins on the top of my feet again. By the time I went to bed, my foot looked almost normal except for some blotchy redness that remained.

This episode reminded me of the tenuous nature of my health and fitness. I’m a healthy guy, but I still do have a few things that I should be concerned about. I recently saw a physiotherapist about a longstanding problem with my shoulder that turned out to be an injury of my biceps tendon. Now that I know what I was doing to stop the injury from healing, I’ve changed up my weightlifting routine and I’m already feeling better. I also started seeing a new doctor a couple of months ago after my old doctor retired. He put me through an entire regimen of tests, and that helped me to gain some genuine perspective on my physical condition. At my age, I needed that. I might feel terrific, but I’m not getting any younger. I can’t just take my vitality for granted when something as simple as a wasp sting can mess me up for a couple of days.

What’s interesting to me is that this urge to get to the bottom of what ails me has been occurring while Saturn has been conjoining my natal Chiron. It recently parked itself in the sky about a degree away from the axis in my horoscope that includes Uranus, Pluto and Chiron, and it has backtracked over that same spot. In February next year, it will make its final pass over that axis, and then it won’t return to the same place for another thirty years or so.

Anyway, I wonder if other people who were born around the same time as me are feeling the same. I feel as if my vulnerabilities have been exposed, but I also feel as if I’ve been given a heads-up from the cosmos to figure out what I need to do to keep myself from feeling any more vulnerable. With the Saturn/Chiron conjunction occurring in my fifth house, maybe I’ve made a connection between my vitality and the old person I want others to see when they look at me. I don’t want to appear old, injured or frail. I want to be that old person who everyone looks at and wonders “What is his secret?” I’ve always been that way: with my Capricorn sun and Libra rising, I’m undeniably superficial and I probably put too much stock in the opinions of others. But lately, these things have been taking on added importance to me, and that’s why I’ve been so eager to address my health concerns as they present themselves rather than telling myself “everything will be okay.”

Is anyone else born in 1965 or 1966 going through the same thing at the moment? I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a note in the comments section or on one of my social media pages.