NEW MOON IN CANCER:
The New Moon falls on Monday July 17th at 2:32 P.M. EDT at 24 degrees Cancer 56 minutes. Summer is in full swing and hitting home runs all over the place. I know I’m a bit biased, as it is my favorite season, but I can’t help myself. It’s like the one person you’ve fallen in love with and no matter how many years go by, or what changes you go through, nothing can dull that bright, sparkling shine. You will always carry a torch.

When I was not quite 18 I met a girl not quite 17. From the moment she opened the door to invite me into her parent’s house I was smitten. I’ve loved many women through my life, and was lucky enough to be a pretty damn good musician, playing top piano bars through the country, running a rock ‘n roll band, and on off season bartending, so I knew my share of young ladies. And some relationships lasted a long time, and I still love them. They are my sisters, my lovers, my friends. But I have never felt what I felt that June day when that door opened and this light rushed through me like the light from an angel’s heart. I was suddenly awake.

We spent that summer together, and while I knew it wasn’t going to last, for so many reasons I couldn’t cover it all here. Perhaps a novel or screenplay someday, who knows? But I learned more that summer at that young vulnerable age than I would have thought possible. I’ve written many songs about her and the influence she had over me. And now, all these years later, I know the truth. It was simply meant to be. We could never be together, just two sheep passing in the night lol. But every single moment I spent with her was as eternity that still sits in my heart. Had I known how much pain and how many years I would carry that torch it wouldn’t have matter. Would I have turned that fateful day and run back to my parent’s house to hide in the sanctity of childhood? No. I couldn’t have turned away from that beautiful face, that glorious joy and awful pain. For she offered me truth, life, knowledge in her simple smile. We spent my birthday together and had our first fight. I knew it was because of the inevitability of what would come at summer’s end.

And in many ways, that’s what summer is to me: The great promise that always disappoints; the plans and dreams that usually do not manifest in full. But without them what would life mean? So to all the loves we have felt, and shared, and lost, to all the wishes and dreams of our youth, and the people who have loved us sometimes for their own selfish reasons, and because as time goes on we know that there will be that inevitable last summer, I hold onto every moment, even the sad ones. And the people that I love now I love far more deeply and respectfully, and honestly than I could have ever known as a 17 year old lad. The years have changed me and seasoned me like a fine filet mignon, (I hope) and I have much more to offer and to accept from those who love me. But there is the freshness and unnerving vulnerability that comes with the age of innocence. And for that I will never forget or regret what I’ve been through. And this is what a Cancer New Moon can bring out of a Cancerian like myself, but really from anyone open to feeling its powers. As I wrote in one of my murder mysteries “Death in the 12th House”: “Grapes plucked from a nearly vacant vine quench better than the sweeter wine.” Happy Cancer New Moon. Water your soul with tears of sorrow and tears of joy. Love to you all. Mitch