Astrograph - Monday

Your insight will be enhanced. Gather information, participate in open discussions and collaborate with people who can offer different perspectives. Making changes that add to your appeal will also give you incentive to keep up with current trends. Romance will improve your life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Make things happen. Aim to improve your life. Alter your living quarters or lifestyle to suit your current needs and projects. Personal changes and romance are favored.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Rethink your next move. Something or someone will lead you astray. Resist temptation, and concentrate on what you can accomplish. Arguing will not bring the results you want.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Your suggestions will be well received and will put you in the running to advance or make personal gains. Partnerships are favored, and expanding ideas, making plans or broadening your surroundings will improve your life.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

You desire change, but will face opposition if you are too blatant about what you want to do. Putting everything in its place before you share your plans will give you an advantage.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Engage in discussions that will increase your knowledge and help you gain respect from the people you deal with regularly. Short business trips will give you an opportunity to promote your ideas.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23):

Don’t let a challenge stop you from doing your own thing. Find a space that allows you peace of mind and provides the right setting to develop something spectacular.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22):

Sort out personal affairs and discuss your plans with an important person in your life. It’s OK to do things differently. Someone with interesting ideas will help you reach your destination.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21):

You are best off making some hands-on changes to your residence. Physically moving things around or renovating a space to help carry out one of your dreams will be your best outlet.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

You can reap the rewards for smart moves you have made in the past. Financial gains, settlements and canny negotiations are all favored. Celebrate with someone you love.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19):

Do your best to bring about changes that will make others notice you. Children or an older friend or relative will support your efforts and decisions.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20):

Say less and do more. You’ll have outstanding ideas that can help you bypass anyone trying to make you look bad. A partnership is favored, as is romance.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Don’t be daunted by the changes going on around you. Turn any negative you encounter into a positive. Strive for perfection and detail, and focus on getting things done. Work independently. DEARJANICE>> Readers often ask us to repeat this particular poem and we are happy to do so:

“If You’re Ever Going To Love Me” (Author Unknown)

If you’re ever going to love me, love me now, while I can know

All the sweet and tender feelings which from real affection flow.

Love me now, while I am living; do not wait til I am gone

And then chisel it in marble — warm love words on ice-cold stone.

If you’ve dear, sweet thoughts about me, why not whisper them to me?

Don’t you know ‘twould make me happy and as glad as glad could be?

If you wait til I am sleeping, ne’er to waken here again,

There’ll be walls of earth between us and I couldn’t hear you then.

If you knew someone was thirsting for a drop of water sweet

Would you be so slow to bring it? Would you step with laggard feet?

There are tender hearts all round us who are thirsting for our love;

Why withhold from them what nature makes them crave all else above?

I won’t need your kind caresses when the grass grows o’er my face;

I won’t crave your love or kisses in my last low resting place.

So, then, if you love me any, if it’s but a little bit,

Let me know it now while living; I can own and treasure it. DEARREADERS>> Here is one more that appeared in our column several years back, but we know it will be appreciated by many:

Prayer for My Mother (author unknown)

Dear God: How does a daughter begin to thank her mother for life itself? For the love, patience and just plain hard work that go into raising a child? For running after a toddler, for understanding a moody teenager, for tolerating a college student who knows everything? For waiting for the day when a daughter realizes how wise her mother really is?

How does a grown woman thank a mother for continuing to mother? For being ready with advice (when asked) or remaining silent when it is most appreciated? For not saying, “I told you so,” when she could have uttered those words dozens of times? For being essentially herself — loving, thoughtful, patient and forgiving?

I don’t know how, dear God, except to ask you to bless her as richly as she deserves — and to help me live up to the example she has set.

I pray that I will look as good in the eyes of my children as my mother looks in mine. — A Daughter DEARANNIE>> May I use your column to defend our beautiful state of West Virginia? For the umpteenth time, I’ve heard someone comment that people here have no teeth and marry their siblings.

While most of us take this with a smile and a shrug, I want to tell people that if you think our governor wears bib overalls and smokes a corncob pipe, then you are showing YOUR ignorance.

West Virginians are wonderful, smart, decent, hardworking people with great senses of humor. We invite everyone to come see our beautiful seasons, and our mountains, parks, forests, rivers and streams — but most of all, to experience our small-town hospitality. Thanks for letting me vent. DEARGRAMMIE>> Feeling better? We’re happy to give tourism a boost. As anyone who has visited knows, West Virginia is a beautiful state with lovely scenery and a gracious population. All stereotypes show is the speaker’s ignorance, but they are hard to eradicate, so it’s a good thing you also have such a great sense of humor.