nature's zodiac

Yesterday morning arose in a rouge kind of manner, overcast and clinging to the hues of the sunrise. The neighbors dogs were running at top speed in a fenced yard. Geo and I waved from the car and laughed at their hysterical forward drive. Two golden retrievers raced round and round; one with its head turned completely backwards so it could watch us watching them.

The Moon, though not visible, was at peak fullness in Aries, the sign that champions forward movement.

A few hours later we were hustling to Geo’s dentist appointment. I spent a bit too long marveling at the pretend rabbit poo he made at preschool and the next thing you know we were fixing to be late.

I was amazed at how cordial, cooperative and cool Geo was with his dentist. He had the hand gestures of a gentleman and the patience of a well-trained actor as he let her clean his teeth.

Moments later however, upon learning that I have his dinner leftovers to his father for lunch he lost his “cool”. He went into hysterical forward drive, but unlike the dog’s racing, it wasn’t fun.. for anyone!

I ended up losing my cool too and by the time we got home we were exhausted. It i s understandable for Geo to lose his cool, he’s only 4, but I want to be better at saving mine at 45. It was enough for me to do some research on anger, particularly how it affects our thinking.

As it turns out, it’s really interesting! The term “cooling down” is really rooted in psychological space because it comes from executive functioning; our frontal neocortex, the brain’s evolutionary frontier. When it is operating smoothly, we are able to make rational decisions and think clearly. But it gets throne out of office when some more primitive brain areas activate, like the Amygdala. The anger “heats us up” and the stress hormones rise from a more baser and primitive level in a virtuous leap to keep us alive and safe from the tigers of yester-age.

Cooling down is a willingness to remember what century we live in, and with what physiological equipment.

Learning this one fact lit such a lightbulb for me. I instantly commanded myself to release some residual circulating stress feelings in the name of reason and higher ordering! I could feel my clear thinking return like a bird to a branch.

Anger is the thwarting of forward movement. With anger comes stress that, by evolutionary design, thwarts the very forwardness that we have been cultivating over billions of years (that of becoming rational creatures)!

This, if nothing else, was a very nice aha moment. I like to think that it will help equip me better in the future, as a rational creature who is at the same time ‘only human’.

The rest of the day was peaceful, napful with an awakening to pizza! When Geo excitedly showed me the Aries Full Moon from beyond the curtain I was certain that it winked at us, from the top down.

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