Embracing Change?

Part of my daily practice is to write. I like to pull a card (Lenormand, Tarot, Oracle) then write about what it brings up in me. In our current climate, change has been a topic seemingly from everyone.

  • What do we do about change?
  • How do we create change?
  • How do we change things that are changing?
  • Can we change ourselves to adapt to our new climate?

And so it goes. I don’t think the discussion is new. I do think it is louder, more vociferous, more in-my-face than it has been. I also think it is showing me things that I cannot condone.

Violence in thought, word and/or deed is a big one for me.

All of that was on my mind when I wrote down the question for the day.

How can I embrace change more effectively?

If I am honest, I can admit that I was pretty sure I knew what my answer was. I would just have to embrace change as it came.

But the card I pulled forced me into a deeper way of looking at thing. A more profound yet far simpler answer was waiting for me in the turn of a card.

Using the Housewives Tarot (Quirk Books 2004), I flipped over the Three of Pentacles. And here is part of my journal entry.


Housewives Tarot Three of Pentacles
Housewives Tarot

Interesting. She’s doing the work to reinforce the shelf while the other three look on. Why are they not helping?

And that’s it in a small, encapsulated natural holder: nutshell. She doesn’t care that they are not helping. That they seem to be judging her work. She’s doing the work that needs to be done.

Her arms/hands are the tools. Left hand is a hammer. Right hand is a screwdriver. She didn’t have to stop to grab tools. She is Tools.

The work doesn’t scare her. She is as cheerful as a robin greeting spring. This isn’t about her. It isn’t about them. It isn’t even about the shelf.

It’s about the work itself.

She would be fixing something else if not this shelf. She’d be creating more plates. She’d be inventorying her environment to see what needed doing.

She would just do. It is where her joy is. In the doing.

Not the doing for others.
Just the very act of doing.

Today I do what needs to be done.


I end each journal entry with an affirmation. I tell my clients that affirmations are best said out-loud. I advocate that they are done three times three. By that I mean, say the affirmation three times. Do that three times a day so that you have a total of nine. Bare minimum!

And say them out loud. Look yourself in the eye in the mirror when you do this. Our brains process what we hear differently than when we read the same thing.

So what will you do about change? My answer turned out to be to just do the work that needs to be done. I guess the Universe is kicking me in the rump telling me to stop worrying about the efficacy of what I do and worry about the DO part of what I do.

Today I do what needs to be done. I know what I see that needs doing, but I don’t want to put words into your mouths. Instead please let me know in the comments what you will be doing.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Humor, Fear + Joy

I try. I fail. What piece of me still laughs when I see something bad happen like a kid running to dive into the water but they trip on the pier. I have to admit that…

Today’s card is from my ongoing Tangled Tarot project. As this came to life for me, I could already see the card it would be. With the swoops and swirls, it made me (and others) think of a ship.Zentangle050

Here is the Three of Wands–the quintessential card of wait and see. What you’ve sent out will return but you may not get what you expect. You will need to make sure you have sent out as much good as you expect back.

That’s not always easy in our negativity-driven world. Oh, don’t get me wrong, y’all. There are those who fight for a positive outlook. There are those who are careful not to share mean things–even funny mean things.

I try. I fail. What piece of me still laughs when I see something bad happen like a kid running to dive into the water but they trip on the pier. I have to admit that I’m hard on myself there. I force myself to think about the pain and the embarrassment. I make myself become that person.

Yeah, the whole mile in the moccasins thing.

I don’t think we will slide our pendulum from negativity-based thinking to positivity in day. Maybe not even in a year.

But I believe wholeheartedly that I can gather up a tribe of people who share that belief.

That there can be funny, humorous things that don’t involve mocking someone’s pain. That don’t involve shaming someone. That don’t use religious or racial slams to create a laugh. Here’s a test for you. Take a religious or racial joke. Remove the race and religion from it. Is it still funny? No? Then replace it with your race or your religion. Still not funny? What does that mean to you?

Politics? Yeah, about that…I have to work a lot harder there because I get angry. More than angry, I get scared. And then I lash out in fear.

[Tweet “No, it isn’t okay because others do it too. That’s actually one of the best reasons not to do it.”]

Their level and all that.

So from this Three of Wands energy, I will send out boatloads of positive thinking. I will share funny things that don’t put another person down or call them a name. I will channel my fear into joy. I will remain hopeful.

Your journal prompt today is “What is something I find funny that is actually hurtful? How can I change that?”

Three of Wands, Tangled Tarot, not published, Arwen Lynch

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

And if you are a writer, let plot, write and finish your book.

God, Rescues + Help

God shows up in some pretty different ways,y’all. I’m just sayin’…

TotOP_3WandsToday’s card is from another of my retired reading decks. I fell in love with this one so many years ago. One of the cards is dedicated to Barbara Cartland (of prolific romance writing fame) for her work with the gypsies in England.

What drew me to this card was the idea of unasked for help. Here a young man is putting something together. Hard to tell what that is but he needs help.

He’s not paying attention to the man above him but he reaches up anyway. I think he’s just asked for help from the Universe. He’s smart enough to know he needs to do his part but the Universe will pitch in.

How often have you asked for help and then just stopped doing?

Right?

It’s like that old tale about the guy on the roof of his house. The river was flooding so he prayed to God to rescue him.

A boat goes by with a man who offers to help him down. The man refuses. “God is going to help me.”

A helicopter hovers over offering to pull him to safety. The man refuses. “God is going to help me.”

Another boat comes by again trying to rescue him. Again, the man refuses. “God is going to help me.”

Well the man drowns. When he gets to heaven, he asks God why he didn’t rescue him.

God says, “What? You want that I should come down there myself? You refused all three rescues that I sent to you.”

So yeah…we need to make sure that when we ask for help, we accept it.

[Tweet “God shows up in some pretty different ways,y’all. I’m just sayin’…”]

So today’s journal prompt is, “What help do I need? How can I ask for it? How can I accept it?”

Three of Wands, Tarot of the Old Path, U.S. Games

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Sad, Angry Humans

Goddess_3WandsToday’s card reminds me that sometimes the only thing you can do to grow is to turn your back on things and people. Not all people are in our lives to help us grow. Well, maybe that’s not quite true. There are those people who exist to be examples of what not to do. So I guess they are in our lives for that reason.

We all have detractors. We all deal with those who just don’t want us to succeed. Generally that’s because they live in fear, y’all. You have to take just a moment to feel so very sorry for them. How awful it must be to live a life so full of negativity that nothing is shiny unless it’s focused on you. No one is worth a damned unless they are putting you above all others.

Sad, yes.

But if I’m going to be as authentic as possible, it also makes me mad. Mad because I see these people tear down others in order to build themselves up. I don’t want people like that in my world. I don’t want the sad,angry, narcissistic parasites. They suck me dry.

Just like with people who are never happy about anything, these fear-dwellers suck the life out of things.

Don’t suck the life out of things, darlings. Agree to disagree with people you love. Agree that sometimes they are going to tell you that you are being a dirtbag.

My sister did that for me today. And I threw it back in her face.

Oh. Yes. I. Did.

Then I apologized a few hours later.

Why? Because I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d said. Not what she’d said, but what I’d said. It came from a place of fear. I was afraid she was right. I was afraid she’d found a hole in my joyful life.

Then I realized that she had and that it was okay. I’m not perfect. And, thank the Gods, I never will be.

I promise to be as authentic as possible.
I promise to turn my back to those detractors who are fear-dwellers and attention-seekers.
I promise to pay attention when my trusted circle tells me I’m being an ass.
I promise to work at learning to listen and think before I respond from fear.
I promise to focus outward rather than listen to the negativity around me.

This beautiful Three of Staves is from Kris Waldherr’s Goddess Tarot by U.S. Games.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

And are you ready to stop living in fear? Are you ready to let your own creative goddess out? Come join me in an online course. I’m retaking it because it blew my doors open last year. (aff) and so worth it! You can take just the class or the join the full academy. Up to you. I did the full academy because I saw three classes I wanted to take right off the bat. 😀