May 16

Who you are

You are the one who knows how your grandmother actually said it, which cousin fell out with whom in 1994, and why the family does the thing it does every December. Nobody appointed you. You simply paid attention when other people were busy, and now you are the only one left who can settle an argument about the past.

Your loyalty works the same way. You stay with people through the years when they are not interesting, not successful and not much fun, and you never present this as a favour. Friends from school still call you. So do the ones who behaved badly and expected to be dropped. Being unforgettable to you is not always comfortable, but it is real.

Your gifts

• Long memory. You hold the details of a family or a friendship that everyone else has let slip.
• Devotion through dull years. You stay close to people during the stretches when there is nothing in it for you.
• Respect for what came before. You can explain why a tradition exists instead of just defending it.

Your shadow

Loyalty with no cut off keeps bad things in the room. You are still close to the person who takes from you, still hosting the relative who insults your partner every year, because leaving would break a run you have kept going since childhood. And you hold on to slights just as carefully as you hold on to the good years.

Your soul work

Your soul work is handing things forward. Tell the stories to somebody younger who will get them slightly wrong, and let them. What lasts is never the perfect account. It is the version repeated badly and warmly in a kitchen by someone who learned it from you.

Days you get along with

Your sign

The second sign turns the spark into something that lasts. Taurus carries the gift of steadiness, the love of the senses, and the lesson of letting go.

Someone else

Look up another birthday

Check a friend's day, or your partner's, and send it to them.