Reassess

Daily Draw: Margarete Petersen Tarot ~ 4 of Coins

"You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run" Kenny Rogers/Don Schlitz 1978

Times have been good-ish, and forgetting how to be stewards of what is valuable or precious is one of the early signs. What  should we keep, what should we step back from, and how do we envision our future, based on our own actions?

This 4 asks us to reflect on guardianship and reality.

I expected to go through the winter without using electric heat. I clearly underestimated how much wood that would take. We are already looking for a wood seller, but also walking our woods and figuring out what trees can go next spring, what to allow to grow into more firewood later.

Droopy

Daily Draw: Margarete Petersen Tarot ~ 6 of Swords/Feathers

Petersen sees this six as networking. Using our mental strength to get us past a mistake, error in judgement, a bigger bite than we can chew on our own.

I spent the last five years struggling with depression, struggling to get through the day alive. I am well now, but ever alert for the signs I'm slipping backwards. I was weeping last Friday, so I did something I've never done before. Called and invited ourselves  to Yule dinner. She is excited! How easy was that to do. I quit weeping.

Because that weeping worried me, I put a note on my regional quilt list last night, asking if anyone wanted to meet and create barn quilts after the holidays. While I was sleeping 36 people want to sign up for something I was only contemplating as medicine, something to look forward to. Pull yourself together Sharyn, don't get droopy, there is no reason for it. Life is good.

Magician, Rebirthed

Daily Draw: Margarete Petersen Tarot ~ Magician/Magic

Recycling is magic to me. Send off the rinsed packaging, and wow, it comes back, rebirthed clean and new. It feels good to do, like one person can  make a difference. Ever wonder how that works? Sorted in the US, bundled, shipped off to China to be broken down and resold back to us.

I'm reminded by this card China is starting a shiny new 2018 by refusing to take most of the world's waste because it isn't cleaned and sorted well enough. Our paper mills are excited because right now they can't afford to buy junk paper to make recycled paper items, China outbids them.

Where will the rest go? Landfill fodder.
But beyond that, I wonder why milk and detergent bottles are recyclable and yogurt and cottage cheese aren't?

Cultural Conditioning

Daily Draw: Margarete Petersen Tarot ~ Son/Knight of Cups

"I rest at the sea bottom where armor softens and cultural conditioning fades away." Margarete Petersen

What a world that would be,
wished for, never realized.
No one wants to be assimilated,
But to be the assimilators.

Unless a rich white man.
We'll take all of those we can get.
Damn refugees, gave no pre-thought about where to be born,
tough luck wrong skin wrong name wrong thoughts wrong world

"I rest at the sea bottom where armor softens and cultural conditioning fades away." Margarete Petersen

Recalcitrant Haunches

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 7 of Wands/Flames

The full spectrum of color bundled. And left to hang there, kept back by the plank flooring, the concrete wall. Life beyond if we could get around, break through, pass beyond.

I look at this card and the colors, and wonder why we so seldom realize, the bundle can't all get past whole but there is plenty at the top, we could just drop the baggage and get on with it, leave the blockages behind.

Because sometimes we think the blockages are all we have? We've built them up, cossetted and polished them, and bundled them whole, and we can't figure out how to let go. Still on the outside, taking comfort in our pain and anger. Pretty silly, daylight is burnin', hunkered and still on our recalcitrant haunches, that is our Life burnin'...

Black Friday

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 4 of Cups

Thoth based decks offer this card as Luxury. Ananda says abundance can be overwhelming as our expectations get higher and higher, and can to turn to dissipation, disappointment, dissolution. In short speak, the tarot fives.

Good to remember this on the biggest shopping day of the year.
My favorite Black Friday things?
#1, not shopping for more stuff for people who say they have too much stuff already.
#2, Today starts my sixth annual participation in a  Bonnie Hunter mystery
#3, Today I'm meeting a quilter to barter a trunk of dolls for a box of 1930's fabrics. Win Win Win!

Periwinkle

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ King of Wands/Flames

If we trust our inner power, our outer power will manifest.

Sometimes. But other than water and air nothing is one size fits all . And if we choose to be the big fish in the small pond over small fish in big pond. I'm probably the periwinkle working my way around the edge...their shells are so much prettier. Pretty wet post for a king of fire.

Cut Me Some Slack

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 10 of Swords

Mad Monkey Mind.
This isn't the end of thought, but the beginning.

To me, to have gotten to this point, means I've ditched compassion of Cups, the determination of the Wands, the appreciation of the Coins. We are a package deal...

Aced It

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 3 of Coins/Spheres

Our creativity needs to adjust to personal requirements and current conditions. There is a duh statement I've never thought through.

I'm reminded by this card the current quilt I'm working on is made up of men's cotton shirts garnered at Goodwill Outlet Store, $1.00 a pound. Worked out to 12 pounds which worked out to about 30 yards of fabric.

Retail fabric is $10-15.00 a yard now. To go out and buy fabric for a quilt can run $200-300.00  today. Personal requirements/current conditions. Aced it.

Creepy

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ Tower

Ananda's viewpoint of the Tower is as an opportunity to reach deep within ourselves and work to reach better understanding of our own spiritual dictates and options. And learn from history.

A pretty big price tag... when the bedrock of what we were taught to believe as children is in conflict with hundreds of other belief systems.
Speaking for myself I had blinders thinking what I was taught was the only way.
Then I got older and thought they all have the same story with different name for the hero.
Then I got older and developed a total aversion to religion and its ludicrousity.
Forgive my sins rather than face the consequences? The consequences of our actions is the biggest life lesson there is.
Say prayers to get us out of life's jams?
Maybe someday I'll make full circle but it will never be to clasp religion to my bosom.

I wonder if vacation bible school still allows adults to take six year olds out to the backseat of a car to mumble acceptance to gods? Creepy; and rude and unfair to children who don't know enough to make that kind of life decision. Weird and creepy.

In A Pickle

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 6 of Cups

Are we seeking and drawing in the beautiful and useful best for our life or are we choosing dregs, settling for a vinegary subsistence?

I'm reminded by this card sometimes it is hard to know the difference, pleasure can be disguised until we are knee deep already and our bits are turning into pickles. Would that our foresight was as keen as hindsight. 

Ox and Cart

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~Strength

Starting all over. Takes strength to make that decision, strength to stay firm, strength to carry it though, physical and mental.

I'm reminded by this image one good thing if moving household, it becomes miraculously easy to get rid of stuff you were clinging to the week before.

And personally embarrassing to find boxes still packed from the last move...that must really be necessary and important 'stuff'.

Cross The Line

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~Knight of Coins

Know who is for and who is against you, protect your borders and boundaries.

Seems common sense but easier to read it than do it. The prairie dog families are communal, like a business or apartment or planned community; drawing a line in the dirt requires some diplomacy.

Dithering

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~ 2 of Swords

Plover. Proactive or procrastive? At what peril do we dither  over decisions?

How often do we say "I should have"? Probably not very often, too  much introspective navel time would be involved. It is what it is as my dear brother in law says.

The one I can think of is my vehicle. I traded in my Pacifica for a Jeep three weeks before I got the MacTel diagnosis. If I allowed myself to think about it I'd be really cross. But it is what it is.

I know what I don't want on my tombstone though...I wish I hadda. Fear and procrastination can doom a life to neutral. Where us the fun in that?

The Larder

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~ 5 of Swords

The little echidna. Making good out of bad.
The pantry is decreasing, he is concentrating on what is left,
not what is gone.

I'm reminded by this card of my own pantry. We grew a big garden and I always had a pantry full of the most beautiful jars of veg and fruit. Midway through the season I'd start casting my eye over the remaining stock for what might run out and what was in overabundance, and use accordingly.

By late spring it would mostly be gone, to be replaced by clean shiny jars. But it was Spring! The time of tilling the warmed soil, sowing all the potential treasure. Not what was gone but what was still to come.

Believe it or not over the past ten years or so, it is cheaper to watch the sales and stock the pantry via the grocery stores. The larder never ends up empty but cans and paper labels don't make the heart sing.

Pelts

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~ 5 of Coins

Raccoon Dog pelts. Pretty grim for the animals; the catch and sale means food and shelter for the hunter.

I'm reminded by this card to wonder if my lean times served the purpose of anyone else? I can't think how other than the usual 'keep the people hungry, they won't notice what the politicians are doing'.

Lean times do serve a lesson though, if we wake up and listen.

Taz

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~ King of Wands

A Tasmanian Devil.  The companion book and National Geographic would have us know this King has a short fuse and it is all about him 24/7. Minions get no slack because the King is in a good mood, good moods don't happen.

I'm reminded by this creature I've had a boss or co-worker or two with this attitude. Consistently in a bad mood and on the prod for the first thing they can strike out at.

I think there was that  one day, the King was me...

Cooping

Daily Draw: Animal Totem Tarot ~ Wheel

The blue chicken coop started life in Woodinville, was moved to Plain, then to Chehalis, then home with my father-in-laws chickens after he passed.  It shows its age and wear.  It is also in the way when we want to bring in a load of gravel etc.

A new tight and dry home is a most welcome turn of the Wheel for my little girls.

"Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” ~  Frank Lloyd Wright 1867-1959

Women Are Complicated

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ Queen of Cups

Passionate and loyal. Perverse game player. Serene drama queen.

Women.  Complicated.  Surprise! We all have good and bad judgement and personality traits and little tics that might drive our loved ones batty.

We are also united by a culture and world that allows abuse, turns a blind eye... I'm so proud of the girls and women that have come forward to tell their story. And better yet, it is creating consequences.

My grandfather was a pedophile. He started on his own kids, then plowed through their children. No one ever raised a hand to stop it. The older I get the more that amazes me. He's been dead and gone 30+ years and the after effects still ring on.

Used Ideas

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ Ace of Swords

Hey! I've got an idea!

I intend to keep saying this to myself today, until I actually have one! Too beautiful of a card to waste on used ideas.

Why?

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ Strength

Is Strength about pushing back or an amicable coming together? Probably depends totally on what outlook or goal we have.

"if you can't beat them join them" leaves me skeptical there ever was a real division. But compromise is good. Isn't it? I'm wondering the why of my compromises today. Did I ever, or did I just shut up about it?

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised." ~ Chinua Achebe 1930-2013  Things Fall Apart

Can't Stop

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ 9 of Wands

Repair and prepare, order and control. The melee has passed, now comes clean up and assessment with kudos and corrections.

I'm reminded by this card of the small inner voice and the raucous outer noise. I don't want to know but I can't stop looking...pass the bandages please. (doesn't can't stop mean won't stop?)

La-La-Land

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ Temperance

The story of Cardigan Bay has several versions, as most myths do, but long story short, the ocean crashed through the stone and sluice barrier, and sixteen villages were inundated by the resulting lake.

Underlying the big story is the small story of the man in charge who left the jetty in charge of others who left the jetty to take care of itself.

I'm guessing there are a lot of true stories on the same theme, and in many of them the little people, the front line, saved the day.

Therein lies Temperance, one foot in current events, the other in La-la-land. As always, we come back to balance...

Boot Camp

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ Page of Cups

Even in stormy times our Page keeps a grasp on the small things. The big lessons come when his trusting and naive nature meet duplicity and misunderstandings.

I'm reminded by this card, our childhood creates the basic Page foundation. Actual Page boot camp makes the foundation of our adult character. Would we think a little more if we'd known this? Probably not, like most advice, in one ear and out the other.

Seems a rather haphazard way to build an adult. How many things will we do today that are a reflection of our Pageiness?

Becky

Daily Draw: Llewellyn Tarot ~ 6 of Cups

Friendship. My first best friend was Becky Firth.
We would comb the woods for that first  Easter lily. Whoever presented one to Mrs. Jones the school bus driver got a quarter.

Mother collected post cards and we used them as mystery props, so many clues, such complicated plots! We would also use those packets of stamps the comics advertised on the back page, X number for a dime, on approval. Whatever that meant.

I thought she lived in a mansion because there were front stairs and back stairs and five bedrooms up there.
They moved to town when we were in the third grade, but we occasionally got to spend weekends, I was there when the Alaskan Easter earthquake happened.
Why do I remember? I cut my foot, Mrs. Firth, a nurse, wanted to take me to get stitches, my mother via the telephone said no. I got stitches...too exciting!

I'm reminded by this card of memories. We can keep ourselves occupied for ages.

Comfort

Daily Draw: Ostara Tarot ~ 7 of Coins

Comfort.
Certainly this word has a sliding scale. If life dwindled to living in a knothole, warmth would be comfort.
If you had everything in the world buying a new gimcrack might bring comfort.

I'm reminded by this card everything in life has a comfort scale.
And it depends on the moment and mental outlook.  My life has navigable options, I can live with that.

Dolphin

Daily Draw: Ostara Tarot ~ 10 of Wands

Stress. Never thought of this card as that conclusion although it speaks of overwork, overburden, overtired, sadness and neglect,  much of it self-directed.

I'm reminded by this card, the problem is there is no line in the sand, no whistle that goes off, before we go too far. We can't tell a boss if I do this project I'll get too tired. Can't tell our family we need a break from them. Can't tell the bank we need some breathing room.

On the other hand stress can be a good thing, the adrenaline that gets our mind/heart/feet moving thereby bringing us back to balance.

Epilogue: I wanted to write about dolphins and elephants and extinction. But I'd start my day stressed and I'm not going there. My long years of depression are over. I'd not self-direct myself back.

Knight Bus

Daily Draw: Ostara Tarot ~ Ace of Coins

Focus.

I'm reminded by this card of a Fool card. The weight of the coin will surely pull the field  mouse over the bank. But focus. Maybe he has a plan. Keep hold and let go of fear of finishing? Those look like straw flowers, not very soft to land on. Perhaps swing it over his head and back, thereby pulling himself away from the edge and keeping his find? Does a field mouse need a coin? Does he  need it for a field mouse bus going to town?

Which makes me think of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter. The bus changes shape and speed depending on current traffic needs. Relying on the focus of the driver. Which brings me back to the key to the Ace of Coins.

Harry Potter: "How come the Muggles don’t hear the bus?"
Stan Shunpike: "Them! Don’ listen properly, do they? Don’ look properly either. Never notice nuffink, they don’" ~ Harry talking to Stan the Knight Bus Conductor/

It's Worrisome

Daily Draw: Ostara Tarot ~ Sun

If you were having a reading, this is probably the best card to be drawn. Good fortune, success, victory.

I'm reminded by this card to spare a thought for the bees. World wide hive failure/colony collapse has put bees near to the point of being on the Endangered List. Wherever we are on earth/sky/water ecology, diminishing honey bees are right there at the top. No buckwheat flapjacks, no applesauce, no winter squash.