Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ El Diablo

Le Diable, Der Teufel, Il Diavolo. Any way you pronounce it, it is still The Devil. Faith is such a personal thing. All our life experiences come together in a mishmash of ideas; I know it was far easier to believe in Heaven and Hell as a seven year old in Bible School that is is now, I have tons of info-junkie questions that I didn't have then. On the other hand I do hold the simple belief that God and the Devil take a big interest in us. Miracles happen every day and you've only to look around you to see the Devil is still hard at work.

I'm reminded by this card that the Devil loves his job but I possess free will and choice and the part of me that judges others is mine to control. I hate that trait and struggle with it daily. It is none of my business what you do, and it is none of my business what you think of me, so why persist in judging? Here I am with another new day, and this card cues me to fight the battle afresh and know the Devil didn't make me do it. I have no grounds for blaming my bad behavior on someone or something else when I have the mental capacity to choose.

"None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the Devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much." ~ Lydia M. Child 1802-1880

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ Hanged Man

I drew my card and started my post a few hours ago, but here I am still thinking about this card and how it applies to my life. I've been feeling like I'm in this position about my income since I gave up one of my income streams a few months ago. I'm not sorry I did that, it simply wasn't working to my benefit anymore, but I just haven't hit on the right thing to replace it. The Hanged Man says I'm pausing for a reason, that something important is coming. It isn't laziness, I enjoy all my work, one of the benefits of being an entrepreneur. So here I hang, waiting, for me to move on or for the world to move on, either way I'll get something lined up in my sights.

I'm reminded by this card of some of the poor choices I've made in my life because I let my perception of what the world expected of me to rule my decisions. One of the benefits of being 50-something is I no longer give a fig what the world thinks of me and what I do. I only care is it good for Rob and myself, and does it enrich my life on some level. Oh, I still get anxious sometimes, but now I can ignore it rather than let it rule my life.

"He who hesitates is sometimes saved." ~ James Thurber 1894-1961

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ Strength

A lady alligator wrestler, now there is an example of strength you don't see every day. What immediately popped into my mind when I drew this card was the pill box I've been carrying in my purse for years. Most of you have probably had one like it in your hand at one time. You
squeeze the sides while pushing forward on the bottom. This morning it worked like a charm. Mostly it doesn't. I squeeze and push, grimace, pinch and pull, perspire, grip and pry with a fingernail file. And sometimes it opens and sometimes it doesn't.

I'm reminded by this card that there are a lot of shades to strength vs. brute force. When my little box is opened correctly it doesn't take any strength at all. My impatience makes the problem. My stubbornness makes me still carry the container. How many times could I have applied patience to my life and avoided the need for strength at all?

"We waste power in impatience which, if, otherwise employed, might remedy the problem." ~ Robert Aris Willmott 1809-1863

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ Ace of Coins

This is a very yellow deck isn't it? In symbology black leads to yellow leads to white or a series of deaths and rebirths. This Ace is the birth and rebirth of business affairs which just about anyone who is involved in commerce knows can be a common cycle. Many wealthy successful business people tell stories of making millions, losing it all, and starting all over again, only to make millions more. On a smaller scale our home finances are much the same. We've been up, we've been down and as noted on the 6 of Coins last Wednesday, up is better.

I'm reminded by this card there are really important lessons to be learned from down. Many years ago Rob took a 2/3 cut in pay in order to do a 3 year apprentice program. We figured we'd be fine, I was working, we didn't even own a credit card, no biggie. Well it was a biggie, and you know what nearly killed us? Not the house and car payment, we were used to planning for those. It was the little things like the newspaper bill, the $10.00 monthly bill to Levitz (yes, when the world was black and white and dirt was new, you could buy furniture at $10.00 a month), the collection plate at church commitment. It was a good lesson, our budget was being nibbled to death by a velvet mouse. Unnoticeable in good times, elephant-sized in slim times. Since then I've always considered small expenses carefully as they are the ones that can sink the ship.

"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something." ~ Jackie Mason 1931-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 8 of Swords

I'm doing this deck a second week as I find the cards so entertaining and diverse. Where else would you find the 8 of Swords alluding to training and exercise? The Swords are still a dark suit of discovery, but the Gnomes are doing something about it, as opposed to the normal Rider-Waite pictures of people bound and beset by their problems and submitting. Go Gnomes!

I'm reminded by this card that our day to day life is what we make it. We can lie down and be steamrolled or we can stand up and do something for ourselves. Each day is full of options, I choose to make the effort to make mine better. And some red shoelaces might be just the thing to help me remember that. Isn't he just stylin'?

"Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still?" ~ J. Paul Getty 1892-1976

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 4 of Coins

This card is titled La Vanita, the image of the magpie sitting on a nest of hoarded shiny bits tells a clear tale in the regular RWS tradition of greed even to the point of holding things that are no earthly use to us. I used to be this way, which is a mindset based on growing up with parents and grandparents who lived through the great depression of the 1930's. "I don't need it right now, but I might, hang on to it". "I don't know what it's used for but I might figure it out one day, hold on to it". "I hate this but so-and-so gave it to me", "I already have 2 but I might run out some day so hold on to it." And on the story and storing goes. It is a form of vanity (my needs are greater than yours) and hoarding (maybe 1 in 100 of those items may come of use) and stinginess (I know someone who could use this but its mine all mine). None of these traits are attractive, and all of them weigh us down with stuff...crapola...junk. Do you know what is the number one growth industry in America? U-Store-It units. And trust me, once something goes into storage the chances of it coming to use again are slim to none. So then we have 3 unattractive personality traits followed by the 4th, wastrel. Spending good hard-earned money on storing excess who knows what...certainly not needed what.

I used to be this way, stuff-rich, space-poor, riding the $$-go-round. Then I met Flylady. It changed my life, all for the better. It took me 9 months to go through every drawer, cupboard, shelf, crevice, tabletop, counter, and door sill in my home, 15 minutes a day, on the timer, but when I was finished I'd sorted out all those spaces into Keep, Fling, Donate. Every item I owned got the once over, and by the 2nd month I'd had an epiphany. Stuff no long had a hold on me because I'd had a rapid lesson in just how much I had I didn't need/want/use and how much money I'd wasted over the years in so many different ways. 4 of Coins is a great card to remind me of vanity and greed and letting go....it's just stuff after all. And it gives me great pleasure and a spiritual uplift now, to let something fly free to someone else who needs it more than I. And the lesson of want vs. need.

Letting cars pass by,
magpies wait on barbed wire
eyeing the red roadkill. ~ Michael P. Garofalo 1946-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 9 of Wands

This little fellow has had a big wand busted over his head and he is wrapping it with gauze. When dealing with your significant other how do you administer punishment? Physically or verbally or mentally? Do you play mind games with them? Do you turn into a shrieking shrew, or make a million tiny cuts with a sharp tongue? Do you just haul off and lambaste them, or cut them off from physical contact?

It is a part of my personality I absolutely detest, and I've been working on stopping it for the last 20 years or so but I'm a verbal punisher. Not how you'd think...I'm crazy about Rob and even in the height of anger I don't shout mean things at him. But I will not drop a subject, or cannot, either way it comes to the same thing, a pain in the ass for both of us. An example? About a year ago I was driving us somewhere and ran over a curb. Rob saw it coming, shouted "curb, curb!" and I didn't know what he was talking about and kept going. He was exasperated, I was embarrassed. Did I get over it? Not on your life. To this day, any time there is imminent danger like head banging cupboard door open, cat laying on the steps in the dark, shoestring untied, there I am, shouting "Curb, Curb!". We laugh because it is funny, but part of me knows it is punishment for being embarassed...a year ago. Ridiculous. Infantile. Will I get an opportunity to stop saying it this weekend? Probably. Will I say it anyway? I hope not, but I bet I do. It's in me nature, Mate.

“Verily your deeds will be brought back to you, as if you yourself were the creator of your own punishment." ~ Muhammad 570-632

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ King of Cups

My mind is a blank. Maybe it is the red and purple outfit which reminds me of the ladies in the Red Hat Society. I have plenty to say about that but it has nothing to do with the King of Cups...Maybe it is because I'm full of meds because my back is out of whack...

From the Writer's Block site you'll be fascinated to know my writing style has a name. Cliff-hanger.
The Cliff-Hanger must have suffered some period-related trauma as a child because he avoids it at all costs. While the Rambler meanders around endlessly in comma-land, he at least arrives at the period eventually. The Cliff-Hanger’s psychosis is far more advanced. Nothing can force the Cliff-Hanger into asking a direct question or making a clear-cut statement. "I’m thinking of heading up to the cottage on the weekend … so if you know the directions … " What? Does he need directions? Does he want us to join him? It’s all a big mystery... Tune in next week …

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

Homer: "Marge, is this a happy ending or a sad ending?
"Marge: "It's an ending. That's enough." ~ The Simpson's

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 4 of Cups

Traditions. We can allow traditions to bring us joy, continuity, roots. We can also allow them to make us inflexible, hidebound, miserable. What most folks seem to miss is it only takes once to make or break a tradition. So instead of making a change and saying tough cheese to the moaners that first time, they just go on and on in the same old rut, good or bad.

I'm reminded by this card that change and flexibility are a good thing, they make us grow emotionally. For the traditions we enjoy...if it ain't broke don't fix it.

"Tradition should be a guide, not a jailer." ~ W. Somerset Maugham 1874-1965

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 8 of Coins

Poverty sounds better in Italian...La Miseria. Bet it doesn't feel any better. We've been broke, not a nickle to our names, but we've always had jobs so it was a relative term. Saltines with syrup on them will keep you alive until payday whether you enjoy the meal or not. I would guess most of the middle class can say the same. We've been broke, we've been not broke...and we can understand poverty.

You have to be a millionaire to run for president in this country. At the early stages you basically run on your own dime. It is only later that the campaign contributions start rolling in. I don't believe we've had a president since Harry Truman who really understood life at the poverty level. Maybe it is important that they understand the world of finance from the top, but they surely do not understand hunger and cold. Anyone who thinks $600.00 is going to fix broke has no concept of real poverty.

I'm reminded by this card that I have my cupboards stocked with food, I can afford my electric bill, there is a roof over my head, I have a paid for vehicle and cash for gas, I have a great job...what I lack in my life that money can buy isn't worth thinking about or moaning over.

"The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing." ~ John Berger 1926-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Gnomes ~ 6 of Cups

How much did your wedding cost? How long has the marriage lasted? I'll bet somewhere there is a study on that subject, no doubt government funded. We've been married 38 years the 27th of this month. I didn't keep track of my expenses but let's see if I can remember.

• License: $17.00
• My ring set: $200.00
• Fuel to ceremony-10 miles @ .27 cents per gallon
• Forgot to pay the Justice of Peace in our excitement
• 2 Hamburger baskets @ Westport $5.00
• Red Lion motel room $35.00 (paid by my folks)
• Results? Priceless

I'm reminded by this card of how lucky and fortunate we've been. Like I mentioned in the Fool card the other day, so many of the decisions we've made had no forethought at all, we just did things by the seat of our pants. I wouldn't recommend that, but only from the distance and wisdom hindsight gives me. I would recommend elopement for anyone. Ignore the glossy ads. Your wedding is not the most important day in your life. Each day that follows with your life partner is the most important.

"Rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night followed by the father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks." ~ Emma Goldman 1869-1940

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Gnomes ~ Fool

Ah, the Fool, let me count the ways.

• Back when I was a kid, cutting my nose off to spite my face. I was in my 20's before I realized what I was doing. Handy for my folks though.
• Fooling around with no protection.
• Driving Drunk
• Working with pneumonia
• Buying a new car every 2 years well into my 30's
• Not starting saving in my youth
• Wasting time trying to fix 'broken bird' friends who preferred drama and crisis
• Over eating
• Smoking 2-2.5 packs of cigarettes for 30 years

I could go on and on beating myself up, but why bother; no doubt today I'll do something foolish deliberately or accidentally and I can beat myself up about that.

"It is freeing to become aware that we do not have to be victims of our past and can learn new ways of responding. But there is a step beyond this recognition. It is the step of forgiveness. It sets us free. ~ Carolyn Osiek 1939-

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Gnomes ~ 9 of Swords

What a great 9 of Swords interpretation. Two fight, one wins. And there are so many shades of winning and losing but today I'm laughing. My father-in-law is the most stubborn man I know, and at 89 he isn't likely to change. He still wants things done his way on his schedule...well last summer his TV died, so he brought out a smaller one he had and has been watching that one. Fine, right? Erm, no...he absolutely refused to admit he couldn't carry the big TV out so all this time it has been tied into the easy chair by the TV stand. As far as I know every single person that has been in the house since that time has offered to move it. And he has refused point blank, that would be admitting something got the better of him. My husband has offered to move it at least 15 times. And on they dueled.

Yesterday Rob had enough, went to the store bought him a new twice-as-big flat screen and while his dad was feeding the cows he took it in, installed and set it up, hauled out both the old ones which won't work after next February anyway, and stuck them in the back of the pick-up. Neither one of them have said a word to the other about it. So did Gene win or did Rob win? I think they both won, as much as two stubborn men are able.

I'm reminded that it is less stressful to chose my battles. I can lose any number of small ones to get leverage for a big one. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone but it works for me.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him." ~ Mark Twain 1835-1910

Tarot of the Gnomes from Lo Scarabeo, art by Antionio Lupatelli, published in 2000. The full size of this deck has been out of print for some time, but the mini-decks can still be found.

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ Gli Amanti

Simply put, a choice between loves. Looks like this lady chose money over her heart. Marry for money, you pay every day. A day without real love will be the longest day of your life, followed on by many more equally long and lonely. But there are lots of kinds of love; we love our work, hobbies, animals, kids and grandkids, travel, friends...life is a great place to be when we fill it with love.

I'm reminded by this card to put people first, give love to get love, and appreciate the love that surrounds me today.

"I tell thee Love is Nature's second sun, Causing a spring of virtues where he shines." ~ George Chapman 1559-1634

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ 5 of Cups

Here sit our cups, chalices, vessels, containers...but that is all they do. Just sit until we choose to do something with them. Like our spirit and body, until we kick-start ourselves and begin to fill our hearts and mind, we too just sit. Oh, we might be walking and talking, but until we animate ourselves with a passion we are just shells, barely alive. It knocks my socks off when I hear someone say "I'm so bored".

I'm reminded by this card of the potentials and possibilities life offers us all; things to do, places to go, people yet to meet. The options to fill our personal cups are endless, limited only by our own lethargy, apathy, and lack of courage.

"By changing the inner attitudes of our minds, we can change the outer aspects of our lives." ~ Marilyn Ferguson 1938-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ 9 of Wands

For having started this at 1 AM-ish I haven't gotten far, as it is now 3 PM-ish. But that is sort of a 9 of Wands day. We can be beset from all sides, but we just keep going because that is life...keep moving or get run over.

As I've traveled through my day I've been thinking of this card and the Hollies 1969 song "He ain't heavy, he's my brother". I know I'm not alone in having family members with body/mind/spirit problems. But he will always be my brother. There might be lots of days when I don't like him very much but I'll always love him with all my heart. We see this played out daily on the news. A terrible situation revealed and the news leeches go straight for the family's throat, sure they will get a tear jerker comment, because they DO love the person, just not the deed. We just keep trucking on, loving and worrying, and trying to do the right thing. Gordie? Be my Valentine please?

"The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where

But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy,
he's my brother..." ~ Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright 1973-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ 9 of Cups

Pessimism and optimism. By the time we've reached the stage of life where daily dramas are a thing of the past, you know for better or worse the path your life has taken in family, employment, and personal satisfaction. You know where your place in life is for better or worse...and you have the personality you will die with, one you've molded yourself. Do you see the cups half empty or half full? Are you happy where you are or do you curse the day you were born? Do you miss the cups completely and still think a miracle will happen, some rich unknown uncle will leave you a pile of money and then you'll be where you think you should be? Miracles are thin on the ground although denial is in strong supply...

I'm reminded by this card that my life satisfaction is a personal choice, made each day.

"I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist." ~Max Lerner 1902-1992

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ Emperor

The Emperor gives law and order, often to the point of repression, seldom tempered with justice. The Emperor figure sees in black and white, no grey. For the person on the other side of the picture this can be terrifying. There are no qualifiers, no extenuating circumstances. I suppose that is why most Emperors are overthrown. In their need to keep order they suppress their humanity and in the end chaos rules anyway.

I'm reminded by this card to avoid the habit of prejudging. I'm no Emperor, and there is always more to the story, more to the person, that needs thoughtful questions and reflection on the whole. Prejudging is one of the reasons discussions of politics and religion get so heated. We each think we are the Emperor and no other opinion is necessary or even possible.

"Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me, or even to covet her." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821

Daily Draw: Tarot of Lombardy ~ 6 of Coins

Alpha Beta. Ever watch a group of dogs sort out who is the alpha and who is beta? This card often shows a form of generosity but the figures are never equal. It isn't sharing, which implies equality.

I'm reminded by this card of humility. If I give anything of myself or my worldly goods I must remember the position could be changed in an instant and I could be on the needy end. To give of myself freely and from the heart with no expectations or strings can renew flagging spirits far better than public acclaim and plaques and make the Omega all the sweeter.

"The world's wants and the individual's needs should be the Alpha and Omega of self-education." ~ Alice Foote MacDougall 1867–1945

Daily Draw: Ancient Tarots of Lombardy ~ La Luna

Sun and stars give their own light, but the moon is a reflection and reflections can be distorted. A flaw in the mirror, a ripple in the water and you no longer see the whole truth reflected back.

I'm reminded by this card to keep an open mind. If you've ever played the game of gossip, you know that by the third or fourth telling of the story, parts begin to be embellished, other parts are dropped off. I must be aware that 'word of mouth' and 'handed down through generations' is no more honest than the average newspaper is...the world runs on gossip and guesses and generally at the root is lucre.

“In our appetite for information, we tend to gobble down everything before us, only to find, too late, that it is our ideals we have consumed, and we have not been enlarged by the feasts but only diminished" ~ Pico Iyer 1957-

From Lo Scarabeo, a 2000 reproduction deck of Gumppemberg's 1810 Milano Tarot, based on the eariler Marseilles tarots.

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ King of Cups

John Dough was the King of the two Gingerbread kingdoms, Highland and Lowland. He was so caring he gave his own leg to restore a princess to health with his magic elixir. I've often enough said I'd throw myself in front of a train to save my husband...but would I? How much would I be willing to give if faced with the decision? I really could give the gift of life with a kidney, bone marrow, blood...and I'm signed up to do them all if needed. I've given over 8 gallons of blood in the last 20 years. They tell me each pint we give can save the life of 3 people. It doesn't get much easier than that to be King John Dough in the real world.

I'm reminded by this card of all the ways we can give on a daily basis to those we love. You don't have to jump in front of a train to do it...just jump in and do what needs done without being asked. It is one more way to say I Love You, and maybe the most important, far more so than flowers on a holiday.

“Opportunities? They are all around us. There is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it." ~ Orison Swett Marden 1850-1924

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ 7 of Swords

Whether the victim or the perpetrator, there are times in life when we have to be on our guard. Gossiping about someone and they overheard you? Ever been light fingered yourself and suddenly realize there is someone in your house with the same habit? Ever lied to secure a loan or a job or a place to live?

I'm reminded by this card that none of us are perfect, not one of us. When the shoe is on the other foot we need to make decisions with our head, not our heart, yet maintain our faith in humanity.

"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander." ~ Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ High Priestess

Ever just have a feeling you should call someone, drop by and check on someone? This type is intuition is represented by Glinda the Good and her book of knowledge. I think all of us are occasionally touched by this knowing and can tell a story associated with it.

I'm reminded by this card to follow the nudges I feel. Touching bases is a good enough reason in this busy world. And if they need us, well all the better, we've served a higher purpose.

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." ~ Alan Alda 1936-

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ Ace of Swords

Swords are knowledge. The Scarecrow wanted brains so he could be like other men, yet daily his quick thinking pulled Dorothy's bacon out of the fire. We all have most of the physical/mental/emotional characteristics we wish for, we just don't recognize, apply, and nurture them to our benefit. It is easier to wish than to work at something isn't it?

I'm reminded by this card of how many times I've wished I'd been able to go to college so I could BE something, DO something with my life. But I am someone, I have done something with my life, and I'm far from dead so there is still the option isn't there? Like the Scarecrow, I've brains and then some. I've made more money and done more things than a number of well educated people I'm acquainted with because common sense is my keystone.

"Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain... only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right." ~ L. Frank Baum 1856-1919

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ 10 Stones

Permanent security. As if there is such a thing, but what if there were. What would permanent security mean to you in specifics? There isn't a real answer because our needs change over time and along with those needs security takes on a different shade. At 20, tomorrow is the future. At 50-something, with retirement a big black unknown I can't envision what permanent security might entail. I see and know too many people in their 70's and 80's still working because they have to, who once thought they were permanently sitting pretty.

I'm reminded by this card to live as though this was my last day, and plan as though I were going to live forever. Make life rather than 'stuff' my daily focus and I suspect the rest will come right in the end.

"Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." ~ John Petit-Senn 1792-1870

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ Death

Yesterday we prepared the grave for our old dog Windsor. I talked about him recently in relation to the Strength card but we recognize that this week all the signs of being his last are there.

I'm reminded by Dr. Pipt that death has a magic of it's own in many cultures and is part of the journey, not the end of the journey. To that end, I have a sealed tin of Windsor's favorite good boy award, Danish Butter Cookies. I have his Tupperware traveling water bowl clean and full. Where he rests these last days his two favorite toys stand ready to travel - Hermie & Wonker. I've washed and mended his favorite blankie. As best we can do, when Windsor's next journey starts he will be outfitted like an Egyptian Pharaoh with food, drink, and companions and be sent off with love and hope that we will all meet again one day.

The really odd thing is we don't do this for our human companions. We stick 'em in a hard box covered with cold slick satin, dressed in clothes they seldom wore in life, drop the lid and shove 'em off. No book, no bit of stitchery, no doll, no fishing pole, no notes to carry to those that have gone before...what are we thinking to make burial the end of the journey?

"Who is the third who walks always beside you
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you "
T.S. Eliot 1888-1965

Daily Draw: Tarot of Oz ~ Prince of Stones

Prince Inga of Pingaree was a slogger in Oz. Not high enough on the ladder to accomplish his needs with power, he simply did his job well every day until he accomplished what he set out to do, displace 2 Kings and 1 Queen.

I'm reminded by this card of work smarter, not harder. He used his brain and time to do what 1000 swords couldn't do. I've been watching my father-in-law work this past year. 89 years old and he works a fully functioning farm. His way of getting 90 pound bales of hay off 20 foot stacks is an example of work smarter, not harder. We will all come to that point, why not start now?

"Tools were made and born with hands, Every farmer understands." ~ William Blake 1757-1827

The Tarot of Oz by David Sexton, 2002, from Llewellyn Publications is the deck of the week. L. Frank Baum wrote 15 Oz books between 1900-1920, the characters on these cards all come from those books.

Daily Draw: Marco Polo Tarot ~ Fool

When little I thought anyone over 12 was wise beyond belief. As a teenager anyone over 30 was ancient, might as well pull the sheet over their head. At 50-something I will admit what just about anyone over 40 knows. In our mind we can and are any age at all. We still do dumb things our folks would have rolled their eyes over and said "think a little bit...just think". We have thoughts that would have done our teen age proud, and while we carry in that bag on the stick all the experiences of our life-time, each and every day there is a new experience waiting to be added to the total.

I'm reminded by this card that each day dawns fresh and new, an opportunity to restart our life. To learn something new, to introduce ourself to a stranger and make a new friend, to try a different food, to read a new book, take a new class, plant a seed...to step outside the box some of us have made of our lives and fly free. Each and every day we have this chance; what an amazing gift life is.

"Old times" never come back and I suppose it's just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that's better." ~ George E. Woodberry 1855-1930

Daily Draw: Marco Polo Tarot ~ King of Cups

This King recognizes and accepts that success on any level comes from within. Doesn't mean he doesn't have dreams and desires, in spades...but if he wants a relationship to happen he lays the groundwork and accepts the responsibility of nurturing that relationship . He doesn't wait for outside forces to create the miracle of the perfect partner.

I'm reminded by this card of the downside of Tarot. There are so many people wanting the cards to tell a pretty future, in detail, that they can sit back and wait for. Life isn't like that, it is what we make it. Proactive is a million times better than reactive.