My Mercury retrograde story goes like this.

This month for the first time in a long time I am travelling to Scottsdale Arizona to take a new Resonance Repatterning course called Healing the Family Systems part II with Carin Block. Carin is an amazing resonance repatterning teacher, gestalt therapist, and has extensively studied the Family Constellation work of Burt Hellinger. As excited as I am about taking the course, it has actually been sometime since I have travelled outside of Canada. Of course I managed to procrastinate on planning this trip until Mercury went retrograde which is when I started to make my application for a passport.

You are probably thinking I should have known better as well I might. For some reason, I did not feel unduly concerned about this. They make it so easy these days to apply for a passport with online forms ready to download, but what should have been the easiest part, – pulling together required documentation like my birth certificate turned into my big snag. It was not to be found! Ugh!!! Now, like most people who have misplaced things,I have a mental image of the official blue government issued paper, folded neatly in an antique envelope, in a leather wallet for important stuff and placed in my cupboard for important things – like the warranty for my 1980 food processor! I thought it was just as simple a going to the shelf and pulling it out. It was not there. I look again… it is really not there! My application process was already cutting it close as I had 29 days to go before travelling to get my passport. I needed that birth certificate.

The trickster planet was whirling around this apartment! My sister and I over-turned every drawer, cupboard, nook and cranny. It was not to be found! So with 28 days to go, and now well into Mercury retrograde, I went on line to order a birth certificate. I chose the premium rate which could only guarantee a minimum of 5 business days as opposed to two weeks. After pressing the send button there is nothing else to do,… but put everything back in place after turning the apartment upside down. A proper Mercury retrograde house cleaning ensued, with 4 bags of compressed garbage going to the curb and my filing cabinet almost emptied! It’s as though Mr.. Clean and Mercury retrograde were standing smugly in the corner saying “we told you so… we’ll find a way to get those drawers in order.”

However, the reward for being aligned for Mercury retrograde, was that in exactly 48 hours and a few minutes, my birth certificate arrived at my door! I was totally astonished!

Next with the wisdom of supportive friends, we went to the best passport application office in Ontario… in Mississauga where they specialize in efficiency. I have 24 days left before travelling. The administrator loudly stamps all of my documents in order, hands back the birth certificate and says “it will be mailed to you and arrive in a minimum of 2 weeks”. Yes that is a little close for comfort but I am aligned, and let go of any doubt or worry.

The day before Mercury went direct, and 3 days earlier than the expected minimum delivery date, my passport arrives at my door! I am mildly surprised, delighted and in awe of being aligned for Mercury retrograde. So it was a glitch, but I did not panic as I may have done years ago before being aligned with this kind of energy. I stayed on course and made the applications accepting the worst and got early delivery on both applications (birth certificate and passport). Perhaps best of all, is having the opportunity to sift through my “stuff”, de-clutter, and put things in order.

With now 14 days to go before travelling, my life feels like it is in order – what else can possibly “unfurl and blossom” as Julie says, until the end of the month? I will let you know if the original birth certificate shows up!

Carolyn Winter