eight years of starting over: but what about the people who were left behind?
There is an astrological perspective making the rounds about Uranus leaving Taurus and entering Gemini on April 25, 2026.
According to astrology, Uranus spent nearly eight years moving through Taurus, a period associated with disruption, unexpected change, financial security, stability and the foundations upon which we build our lives.
The suggestion is that people who have spent these years starting over are finally entering a new chapter.
I hope that's true.
But I think there is a much bigger conversation we need to have.
What about the people who never got the opportunity to start over?
Between 2018 and 2026, an awful lot happened. People lost jobs, homes, businesses, relationships, families and their sense of security. COVID accelerated existing problems, but it also exposed just how fragile many people's lives had become.
Some people recovered. Some reinvented themselves. Some found new opportunities.
Others lost everything.
And some never made it through.
We have to acknowledge the human cost of these years. Homelessness, substance-use poisonings, untreated mental health struggles, family breakdown, domestic violence and intergenerational trauma aren't just statistics. They represent actual people, families and children.
When parents are overwhelmed by financial pressure, housing insecurity and their own unresolved trauma, families can fracture. Children grow up surrounded by stress and instability. Sometimes the cycle of abuse continues. Sometimes children are taken into care. Sometimes people turn to substances because they cannot see another way to cope.
And sometimes people die.
There is a terrible disconnect between the numbers we celebrate in economic reports and the lives being lived on the streets.
Walk through a city in winter. Look at the tent encampments. Look at the people trying to keep their belongings dry, find food, stay warm and make it through another night.
Cold, dark, wet and frightening.
Now imagine that being your reality.
the uncomfortable divide
Some families are doing exceptionally well. They have secure homes, investments, good jobs and enough money to plan their futures.
Good for them. Truly.
But there is something deeply disturbing when people who are doing well look down on those who are struggling, as though poverty is a personal failure rather than something influenced by housing costs, economic conditions, health, circumstances and opportunities.
We are becoming increasingly comfortable with inequality.
A billionaire can lose millions on paper and remain extraordinarily wealthy. Someone living paycheque to paycheque can lose one job and lose their home.
And if the stock market crashes, the consequences won't stay on Wall Street or in the financial pages. Ordinary people can lose retirement savings, employment, businesses and whatever financial security they have managed to build.
Meanwhile, we watch extraordinary amounts of money being spent on billionaire ambitions, rockets and technological competition while children are hungry and families cannot afford basic necessities.
What exactly are we measuring when we call this progress?
what happened to community?
There is another part of this conversation that deserves attention.
Before colonization, Indigenous peoples had their own systems of caring for families, sharing resources, maintaining relationships with the land and looking after their communities.
Colonization disrupted and deliberately attacked those systems. Land, resources, languages, traditions and family structures were taken or undermined.
Of course people have always needed help. No society has ever been made up entirely of independent individuals who never rely on anyone else.
But there is a difference between needing one another and having the ability to care for one another taken away.
Perhaps some of what we need to rediscover is the importance of community, belonging, shared responsibility and dignity.
We cannot keep dismantling the foundations of people's lives and then blame them for struggling.
a new chapter, but for whom?
Perhaps Uranus moving into Gemini represents a new chapter in the astrological imagination. Perhaps the coming years will bring new ideas, new ways of thinking and unexpected opportunities.
I hope so.
But I don't want a new chapter that only benefits people who already have security.
I want a new chapter where people can afford a home, where children have enough to eat, where parents aren't pushed beyond their limits, where older people can retire without fear and where nobody has to sleep outside because they cannot afford a roof.
I want a society that understands prevention is better than crisis management.
Feed people. House people. Support families. Make mental health and addiction services accessible. Give children a chance to grow up without carrying the weight of adult struggles.
These aren't radical ideas. They are the foundations of a functioning society.
And as winter approaches, there are people wondering where they will sleep, how they will stay warm and whether they will make it through.
Some of us are still running. Some are still rebuilding. Some are still grieving everything that changed.
Some are wondering whether their pensions will be enough, whether they will ever feel financially secure again, or whether the next unexpected event will knock them down once more.
Perhaps the greatest measure of whether we have entered a better chapter isn't how well the stock market performs, how many billionaires we create or how much wealth accumulates at the top.
Perhaps it's whether the people who have spent the last eight years losing everything finally have somewhere safe to land.
Because nobody should have to become wealthy to deserve a little security, warmth, food and human kindness.
And nobody should be left behind.
That's the new chapter I'd like to see.
Homelessness, economic inequality, housing crisis, poverty, social justice, Indigenous community, intergenerational trauma, family breakdown, financial insecurity, rebuilding lives.
#NobodyLeftBehind
#HousingIsAHumanRight
#EndHomelessness
#EconomicJustice
#FightPoverty
#CommunityMatters
#SocialJustice
#IndigenousResilience
#HumanDignity
#A NewChapter
