At times I stop dreaming of the house and the pine trees of my childhood around it. Then I get depressed. And I can’t wait to see this dream in which I’ll be a child again and feel happy again because everything will still be ahead, everything will be possible. Mirror (Зеркало, 1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
Aries~ onism (n.) ~ the frustration of being stuck in just one body that inhabits only one place at a time; possessing the ability to live many unique lives, but limited to this one.
Taurus~ pauciloquent (adj.) ~ one who utters few words but offers great depths; divulging the essence of one’s thoughts without superfluous speech.
Gemini~ cosmogyral (adj.) ~ whirling around the universe; spiraling through the galaxies in a playful freefall.
Cancer~ quaintrelle (n.) ~ one who emphasizes a life of passion, expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation of life’s pleasures.
Leo~ coruscate (v.) ~ to reflect brilliantly; to sparkle, glimmer, or gleam; to have a flashy or showy technique or style.
Virgo~ sapiosexual (n.) ~ one who is attracted to intelligence in others; one who falls in love with the beauty of the human mind.
Libra~ aesthete (n.) ~ a person with a special appreciation for art, beauty, & aesthetics; who takes time to set and enjoy a particular mood.
Scorpio~ opia (n.) ~ the intensity of looking someone in the eye who is staring straight back into you, their eyes glittering and bottomless, which can leave you feeling vulnerable.
Sagittarius~ degrassé (adj.) ~ simultaneously entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the universe, causing a desire for both reverence and wanderlust.
Capricorn~ sprezzatura (n.) ~ the ability to make one’s actions seem effortless, to carefully and cleverly hide suffering, to disguise one’s true desire, feeling, or meaning, either to help others or protect oneself.
Aquarius~ ambeddo (n.) ~ a melancholic trance in which you become absorbed in sensory details— clouds of cream swirling in your coffee, drops of dew on the window— reawakening awareness of the haunting, ephemeral beauty of life.
Pisces~ nefelibata (n.) ~ “cloudwalker”; one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams, or one who does not obey the conventions of art, literature, or society.
“Late last year, in a small, windowless microscope room, she pulled out slides from a thin black box, one by one. On them were slices of hearts, no bigger than pumpkin seeds, from mice that had experienced heart attacks. Under a microscope, some of the samples were clearly marred by scars left in the aftermath of the infarction. Others showed mere speckles of damage visible among streaks of healthy, red-stained cells.
The difference in the hearts’ appearance originated in the brain, Haykin explains. The healthier-looking samples came from mice that had received stimulation of a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Those marked with scars were from unstimulated mice.”
