I’m not usually a fan of Rob Brezsny, but this week’s horoscope for Virgo strongly resonated with me:

“The more beautiful the bird, the poorer the singer,” wrote L. M. Boyd. “Peacocks scream, macaws screech. Birds of Paradise croak.” Among the most interesting singers, on the other hand, are birds that are far less spectacular in appearance: the Black-capped Chickadee, the Willow Thrush, and the White-throated Sparrow. Keep that in mind as you navigate your way through the coming week’s dilemmas. My personal inclination is to favor inspiring singing over comely appearance, but you may have a different bias. The important thing is to recognize the nature of the options before you. Halloween costume suggestion: Incorporate the themes of plain beauty, secret genius, disguised power, and open secrets.

Today I met with a therapist and talked about me, how I feel, what is happening, and who I am. In no particular order. It was (no, I will not pun!) very good for me to have done this. Strengthening. Healing, even. Because I know myself well enough to know that I’m not that great at emotional situations and I am great at making expedient decisions that are good choices 95% of the time. Having a mastectomy and deciding about reconstruction/reduction surgery is not an expedient decision to make.

This is an issue of vanity and I am struggling with that.

I’m not the kind of woman who spends a lot of time on her appearance. I forget my earrings most days. I rarely wear makeup. I dress for comfort much more than style. People do not look at me and say ‘Sexy!’. I have never had a strange man (or woman) buy me a drink.

How much trouble do I want to go through to physically look like I do right now?

Here’s a call to everyone — and feel free to pass the request along.

I am looking for gorgeous images of women with only one breast. Classical images of Amazons come to mind. ‘Art’ photo portraits of post-mastectomy women. Things like that. I’m afraid to do a search myself, quite frankly; I don’t want to be scared by horrible images of gouged chests and fierce scars.

Oh! And post-mastectomy tattoos would be really interesting to see.