Happy Equinox! It’s Ostara, the first day of spring, and also International Astrologer’s Day. Light and dark are equal, and the days will continue to increase in light until the Fall Equinox in September. The Sun is reborn.

Today is the first day of the natural new year. The Sun has entered the first degree of Aries. This is the time for you to begin new things. Whereas the calendar new year is in Capricorn and happened during the thick of the pandemic, now is the time to start that exercise routine, start that diet, start meditating, etc., to try new things and to start over again with things you may have given up on — the trick is to try to forget that you ever gave up in the first place.

In Chicago, it’s in the high 40s and sunny, getting warmer and rainier in the week, and it feels like spring. I love spring. It’s sunny, and it’s not too hot. It’s rainy, it can bring snow, but it’s the stirrings of new life – crocus pushing up from the ground, the call of birds – that remind us that we’re still alive, and damned lucky for that.

Because it’s been one year since the pandemic began, and it’s turning a corner. We’re going to have to get used to being alive again. This means no more extended winter, no more extended hunkering down. Eating right, exercising, going outside. Greeting people again. Caring about the way you look. After all, spring IS mating season.

I think this weekend I’ll definitely go outside, definitely buy some flowers, color some eggs, make a nice dinner, have a nice ritual. The Sun is conjunct my natal Moon today.

But coming up — transiting Mars will be conjunct the transiting North Node in Gemini on the 28th, so set your plans and start reaching out to people again because it’s going to be a good time to meet new people, even though circumstances are pretty much against that, but you never know.

It’s still early, and I have some things to prepare for the weekend still. But for now, in whatever you have for it, try to think about joy, even if it seems years away, because sometimes your salvation isn’t a savior, or an event, but rather your own optimism.