Dr. Breszny’s Orders
What’s your sign?
Summer’s water sign, Cancer, is mine. I share it with Free Will Astrology writer Rob Breszny, who has been inspiring you these 20 years with his insights into how our birth links us in the great chain of being. I wish I’d counted the number of readers who’ve told me over the years they got into Bay Weekly because of Breszny. Even better are stories of how he’s guided readers’ lives.
I proofread the column each week, so I read all 12 signs, and you’ve told me I’m not alone. Witty and maybe wise, Breszny’s weekly essays make good reading. But I often feel Cancer gets the most righteous and dutiful advice, as if Breszny is talking to himself as well as avoiding favoritism. So whatever horoscope I like, I take for myself, assuming astrology is a study inexact enough to allow a bit of free will.
This week I’m inspired by Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22), the autumnal air sign. Here’s what Breszny has to say:
Studies show that people spend 87 percent of their time inside buildings and six percent in enclosed vehicles. In other words, they are roaming around outside enjoying the wind and sky and weather for only seven percent of their time. I think you’re going to have to do better than that in the coming week, Libra. To ensure your mental hygiene stays robust, you should try to expose yourself to the natural elements at least nine percent of the time. If you manage to hike that rate up to 10 percent or higher, you stand a good chance of achieving a spiritual epiphany that will fuel you for months.
That perfectly timed advice is good for us all. Dear reader, it’s time for you and me to switch our allegiance to the sign of Libra. In fact, it’s our duty as patriotic Marylanders.
June is Great Outdoors Month by proclamation of Gov. Martin O’Malley, and surely we can agree in bipartisan consensus that there’s no month more deserving of such a designation. What’s more, Maryland Outdoors Days run from June 8 to 22.
I’m rising to that challenge, accepting that invitation, climbing aboard that bandwagon.
In honor of those days, I’m coming to work late and leaving early not only June 8 to 22 but the whole month of June; maybe the rest of the summer, as well. All those delicious extra hours I’m devoting to being outdoors. Breszny’s 10 percent and spiritual epiphany is my goal.
During working hours, in the heat of the day, I’ll be filling Bay Weekly pages with outdoors attractions. I enlisted writer Michelle Steel to begin Great Outdoors Month by guiding you to Chesapeake beaches in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. Dennis Doyle has you on the water too, as usual, devoting this week’s Sporting Life to advice on catching rockfish in early June.
In earth, Bay Gardener Frank Gouin, now home and speedily recovering from his unplanned ladder descent, is urging you outdoors to prune and to give your poison ivy a taste of its own medicine. If you prefer other people’s gardens, join Eastport’s Home and Garden Tour this Sunday.
Alex Knoll takes you outdoors, as well, to see June’s short-night planets.
You’ll find many more choices in our Summer Guide supplement (if you don’t have yours yet, you’ll have to stop by our office) regularly refreshed by 8 Days a Week.
With those resources at hand, I’ve already filled my outdoors calendar for the week of June 6 to 13. Many days, I’m torn between two or six possibilities. Other days I’m reserving for personal outdoors time.
• Thursday, June 6: Discovery Kayaking on the West River.
• Friday, June 7: First Free Friday at Calvert Marine. Museum or Jazz in the Garden at Greenstreet Garden.
• Saturday, June 8: Boating on the Bay followed by Star Gazing at Jefferson Patterson Park.
• Sunday, June 9: Bernie Fowler’s Patuxent River Wade-in and Eastport Home and Garden Tour by day, followed by Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre by night.
• Monday, June 10: Beachcombing before work and gardening after.
• Tuesday, June 11: Getting cool in the pool, followed by dinner al fresco on our boat.
• Wednesday, June 12: Music under the Bandshell at Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa.
• Thursday, June 12: Orchid Hike at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
I hope you’ll join me in filling your outdoor calendar from our pages. See you in the natural elements!
Sandra Olivetti Martin
Editor and publisher; [email protected]