Well another month is almost over, and the moon has moved from Sagittarius (the last full moon), through Gemini (the last new moon) and will now be entering Capricorn (the latest full moon).

If I look back to the book Moonology: working with the magic of lunar cycles” by Yasmin Boland, I’d find that there are another series of questions one can ask themselves during the Capricorn full moon:

Have I been ambitious to the point of ruthlessness?

Have I been obsessed with work to the detriment of my personal life?

Have I been hard-headed, hard-nosed, or just too hard on others?

Have I allowed my head to overrule my heart?

Have I been planning my life enough? Or too much?

This is yet another time to try to find balance between work and home.

So if I were to answer the above questions (again, numbering them 1-5), I think my answers would be as following:

• I don’t think I’ve been ambitious to the point of ruthlessness. If nothing else I’m sure that there are people who would say that I’m not ambitious enough (i.e. not striving for an faculty position; or trying to climb any ladders). My main goal is to get a job that I’m happy in—climb the ladder a little and then just chill. I don’t want to necessarily be at the top of a ladder—I’ll be happy being upper middle.
• I think here it is more being slightly obsessed with the job search—trying to figure out how to transition into industry from academia—but I don’t think it has had too much of an impact on my personal life—I do try to keep a boundary on “me time”. Also it is hard to have an impact when you don’t really have a social life either.
• I don’t think that I’ve been too hard on other people (currently I don’t have that much contact with other people in the job). I’m trying to be less judgemental of people and more understanding that everyone has their own opinions. I think the only way I would be “hard” on someone is if they told me that they were in support of the current immigration policy.
• I probably have let my head overrule my heart on a few things over the years (namely on what I really wanted to major in during college [but that degree didn’t have a good starting out salary after college so I went with something different]). I probably do try to be more logical than necessary with life, but I “blame” that on being a scientist and liking everything working the first time [try to minimize risks and failures].
• This is a yes and no question. Yes I’ve probably been trying to plan my life a little too much, but at the same time not enough. With trying to figure out a transition plan into industry, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to determine what direction I want to go in, but at the same time being afraid a little to take the leap and try something new. But I do know that I’m going to be turning 38 in a few months & I really do need to figure out what I’m going to be doing with the rest of my life.

So in addition to thinking on those topics, this full moon is also within my third house or zone of communications, but can also be about short trips. The main focus of this zone of communications is with siblings, friends, coworkers, basically people you see on a day-to-day basis (more or less), but don’t live with (family is a different zone). The idea is to try to repair any relationships that could be strained during this time, and to make sure that one isn’t sending an email/text/tweet or posting something in the heat of a moment. Another thing to take into consideration that while it would be nice to just set off on an vacation or trip, there could be things that one needs to deal with closer to home.

So my goals for this period are:

Start reorganizing my storage unit. While I don’t have any job prospects lined up, I don’t want to be dealing with my obnoxious, boxes falling apart, storage unit.

Again, continue working on my transition plan for moving from academia to industry (narrowing down the jobs/areas, networking & trying to set up informational interviews).

Remembering to stop and smell the roses, that there is a time for work and a time to play. While I’m starting to maintain the rule of not checking my work email after hours or on the weekend, I also need to remember that I don’t have to spend all the time being an adult—there are crafts that I can also be working on.

While I can usually find a balance between work and home (especially since I’m in an non-specific research related role)—it is trying to find the balance between job searching/transitioning and home life that I’m currently finding difficulty with. I think with trying to startup another photography challenge, I will be able to find a little bit of that balance.