When the planets align
In the past few days you can readily see Venus and Mars alongside the smallish full moon. This morning from the terrace off my office, I went outside pre-dawn and saw more planets all in a line.
November 2012 presents all five visible planets, although only Jupiter and Venus are clearly visible all month long. Mars appears but briefly after sunset, and the planets Mercury and Saturn before sunrise.
I woke early to light the yahrzeit candle for my mom as today is the third anniversary of her passing. Three years ago, my life changed profoundly as I watched my mother dying for six months in the hospital. Right before Thanksgiving our second adoption plans had failed and I tried to tell my mother because she kept rubbing a circle in the bed saying, “I’m making room for the baby.”
At her bedside I told her through my tears that there would be no baby. But she knew better. Because the week she died became the most profound week of my life. My mother died on Monday, I flew home from New York on Tuesday, we buried her on Wednesday and on Thursday I became very ill. On Friday, Heidi called and said, “I have a sad story, are you ready to listen.” And I learned that a barely nine month baby boy was in need of being adopted (yesterday). On Friday, we contracted an attorney in Indiana. On Sunday, I drove to Batavia, Illinois, just an hour outside of Gary to spend the night before heading out on Monday to meet my son.
It was 14 degrees outside and I walked into a strange house and was handed a baby boy in diapers and I looked into his eyes and knew why I had waited 50 years to have a child. I knew why I was here. I knew why my mother was so sure that I would have a baby soon despite the nurses thinking she had gone crazy.
Today, I celebrate my mother, my son, and my life. The planets aligned before November 2012. They aligned three years ago on this very date.
