Tough Transits: An Opportunity for Random Acts of Kindness

The other night I was invited to speak to a group about an hour drive from my home. The weather was cold and somewhere in the forties when I began my drive toward eastern Long Island. Strange as it may seem, it never occurred to me to check the weather forecast. I suppose I was leaving with an in-the-present frame of mind and forty degrees was well within my comfort zone. My only concern was the traffic so I made sure I would leave long before rush hour which would allow me plenty of time to fit in some Christmas shopping before my talk.

I can't totally run my life by astrology. By that I mean if the planets look ominous I simply focus on matters at hand and visualize a successful outcome. I believe we make our own reality. By focusing on positive outcomes we can neutralize the negative. I mean really, the Moon goes void of course almost every two and a half days and there are going to be times when it will be near impossible to alter plans. I rationalize it this way. Sometimes it is a good thing when flights are cancelled. Just think about it.

So it was with this philosophy that I left my home when the midpoint between transiting Mercury and Saturn was at 25 degrees of fixed. My Midheaven is 28 degrees of Aquarius and we all know Neptune is transiting in the fixed sign of Aquarius at around 26 degrees and a few minutes. It was also a day when my Mercury/Mars midpoint was being transited by Saturn. Granted it was separating by 3 degrees but considering my experience of it I'll take it as an effective energy. Mars and Pluto were also pulled into this mess because the transiting Mercury, Mars, and Pluto at around 4 to 5 degrees of cardinal were making a transit of transiting Saturn at 15 degrees or so of Libra. They all hit the fixed Taurus/Scorpio midpoint located at 25 degrees. I'm exhaused just writing about it.

I left the home of my hostess around 10:30 PM. No one was more surprised than me upon opening the door to leave that a full blown snowstorm was in effect. My three inch heels caused me to lose confidence. Nevertheless I made it to the car. After scraping a thin layer of ice that clung to my windshield like a stubborn child I began my journey south on the Northern State Parkway.

It took less than five minutes to reach the exit that would take me onto the parkway and on to my way home. It was when I reached the parkway that I realized that in just a matter of hours it had turned into a skating rink. Cars were unable to stay in their assigned lanes, some skidded into one another and others swerved and fishtailed like wounded animals in the snow. I was horrified.

I am really a good driver and have always felt confident behind the wheel and this confidence includes snow driving. But this was ice driving and another thing altogether. Ice driving almost always results in unintentional metal bending and insurance exchanges. Something I wanted to avoid like the plague.

Eventually every driver on the parkway came to the realization that normal driving speeds were impossible after witnessing and dodging too many to count out of control vehicles. Soon everyone on the road was doing, according to my speedometer...3 miles per hour. Crawling like this went on for over an hour.

Sometime during this nightmare I noticed a man in a turban who was driving a Lincoln Continental pull over to the side of the parkway to help a woman in distress. Her car was stopped in the middle of the road and she and the driver engaged in a conversation. Having only my imagination to go on I assumed the woman was his wife and he had come to her rescue. My assumption as it turns out, was wrong.

I crept along and passed the couple. All during this time my heart was leaping out of my chest so afraid was I was of losing control of my car. Then horror of horrors, my wiper blades were icing and I was unable to see. As I slowed almost to a stop a man standing by a parked SUV with blinking lights, whom I only could identify as a career do gooder yelled and motioned me to the side of the parkway. With too many people to direct he left me to fend for myself.

Things began to get worse because visibility was terrible. I had to stop my car and scrape the wipers so I could see. When I pulled over the man in the turban came over to my car and and directed me to the shoulder of the road. He instructed me to drive on the grass now covered with snow. He told me that conditions will start to get better further on up the parkway. Still fearing for my life I was buoyed by this random act of kindness. I found myself sobbing with relief over being guided by this anonymous guardian angel.

For what seemed an endless number of stops to scrape ice off of my wipers my turbaned driver held watch over me. Then suddenly just as he predicted we would soon be approaching the exit that would get us to the Long Island Expressway. The LIE is a very imposing highway becoming an impressive six lanes wide the closer one gets to NYC. Besides passenger traffic the LIE is also a truck route that enables some umpteen sixteen wheelers get to their destination twenty four hours a day three hundred and sixty five days a year. Getting on the LIE ramp meant that I could probably be home in two hours. After leaving the endless bumper to bumper crawling traffic my anxiety lessened. The only good thing about the traffic on the LIE is that because of the constant heavy traffic snow has less time to accumulate.

My guide continued to escort me. He drove along side me until it became obvious to us both, that like a child learning to ride a two wheeler, I no longer needed training wheels. I now know that this man lives his faith. By assisting a fellow human in distress he was practicing The Golden Rule. How fortunate for me that a terrifying experience pulled me up and reminded me what is really important for all of us to remember.

There will always be difficult transits and obstacles to be overcome but our job is to stay focused and in a constant state of expectation for positive outcomes. We cannot do this alone.

After my latest experience I vowed to provide random acts of kindness to anyone in need whenever the opportunity presented itself. Just think what it would be like if we all behaved like my Sikh protector.