Mercury retrograde, again — and why we miss the gift each time.

Mercury retrograde has become shorthand for everything going wrong — the missed email, the travel snag, the misunderstanding. There's some truth in the jokes. But I think the dread makes us miss what the cycle is quietly offering.

Retrograde is a turning inward. The prefix of its words points the same direction: re-view, re-consider, re-pair, re-turn — back, and in. It is less an obstacle than an invitation to slow down and revisit what we rushed past.

You don't have to rearrange your life around it. But if things feel a little sticky, you might treat it as permission rather than punishment — to finish the half-done thing, reread the old note, and listen for what you missed the first time.