I took this picture a little more than 8 years ago and posted it with the caption “waiting is tough.” I was in a liminal space in my life and I was impatient for things to happen.

What I got instead was a lot more stalemate than I bargained for, but that extended holding pattern I was in was directly responsible for some unexpected choices I made down the road.

Today, Mars and Saturn perfect their first exact square, but this is not a one-and-done event. This gridlock is gonna feel especially grindy for the next month and a half or so, and it remains in play for as long as Mars and Saturn are in a sign-based square.

with the exception of a very brief break we get in late December, that’s until early March of next year. Mars is turning retrograde in Aries now, and Saturn is pumping the brakes on its impatience even harder.

Straining to budge a lead wall can lead to injury or premature burnout under these conditions — sometimes, the only way to make a dent in something is to gradually chip away at it bit by bit.

I wonder if the waiting would have felt as bad if I’d known going into it that 6 weeks would turn into 6 months. Or that it’s okay for some things to take seemingly forever? Waiting is tough, but waiting also toughens. Some things can’t ripen properly without a good dose of time.

For now, go with a gradual and steady clip, and give yourself plenty of grace to accommodate your own very real limits. An effort sustained over time brings the most sustainable victories.