Dolphin Returns Home

In September, our daughter, Megan, had her first art exhibit.  Our friend, Nancy Atkinson, whom we met through blogging and actually met in person in Oregon several years ago, bought one of the paintings. She asked Megan to ship it to Hawaii, where she and her family own a condo. She thought the dolphin would fit perfectly there.

However, Mercury was retrograde from October 21 to November 10 and I had reservations about mailing the painting during that time. In astrology, the planet Mercury rules travel and communication. Three times each year it turns retrograde – and appears to move backward through the zodiac. During Mercury retrogrades,  there are often travel snafus, communication goes haywire, computers misbehave. It’s wise not to sign contracts during a retrograde period unless you don’t mind re-negotiating when Mercury has turned direct.  It’s a good time to review and revise and re-think plans.

But Nancy was going to be in Hawaii only during the retro period, so Megan went ahead and mailed it in late October.  She was told the painting would arrive at Nancy’s place around November 2 or 3. When the 3^rd passed and the painting hadn’t arrived, Nancy emailed me and I asked Megan to check with UPS. They said the painting was still en route.

On the 9^th Nancy and her husband flew back home. The painting had never arrived, even though UPS indicated it had been delivered. She called the concierge of their condo in Hawaii, who hadn’t yet seen it but said he would keep an eye out for it.

On January 6, Megan called and said, “Mom, you aren’t going to believe what I got in the mail. The dolphin painting! UPS said it was returned because it was never picked up!”

Mercury retro in action. The dolphin had returned home.  The painting traveled more than 9,000 miles from Orlando, Florida to Maui, Hawaii, and will now travel another 2,500 miles plus to Nevada.  May its journey come to a peaceful end!