2008 Calendar

I suffer from a peculiar form of commitment-phobia: I am terrified of choosing a calendar. I'm going to be stuck with it on my wall for an entire year - what if I hate it? What if the picture for July is terrible? What if it doesn't give the exact time of the full moon?

Yeah, I have issues.

Because of this bizarre indecisiveness I have bought the same calendar for the last several years. I find the nearest calendar retailer, purchase The Witches Calendar, and go home again. I like the pictures, the essays can be interesting, and it's nice to know exactly what sign the moon is in.

None of this stops me from looking at other calendars, however. There are so many of them out there, and all of them so lovely! One year (was it 2003?) I got daring. I saw a calendar themed around my favorite graphic novel (The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman) and couldn't resist. The pictures were lovely, but I suffered terrible withdrawal from my usual source of detailed astrological information, interesting tidbits, and the all important daily color. The next year, I returned to The Witches Calendar, humbled and contrite.

(Now might be the time to admit that I can't even read the astrological information. I only recognize the symbols for a handful of zodiac signs and none of the planets. Take away my witching license if you must, but never let it be said that I mislead you!)

Thus I was in the grocery store yesterday morning and found myself browsing the calendar racks, admiring the pretty pictures but not planning to buy. I looked over and saw one called "Lunaria 2008: Lunar Almanac." My curiosity piqued, I picked it up. Lo and behold, this calendar is divided into lunar cycles. Each page begins with a new moon, but the traditional dates are still listed. Not only does it include more astrological information than the Witches Calendar, it even summarizes it briefly (ex: "expression enhances change"). It tells what time the moon sets and rises, and includes sunrise and sunset on Sundays, quarter, and cross-quarter days. It is printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink. The only way this calendar could be made better is if the times were in Eastern instead of Mountain, and the sunrise/sunset times weren't calculated for CO, but that is a small, niggling complaint.

I very nearly squee-ed in the grocery store.

I will miss the colorful pictures and (occasionally) nifty essays, but this calendar is so much more interesting. I can't wait to live a whole year so deeply in tune with the moon! As a very moon-oriented person, this can only be a good thing.