Tag: Two of Air

How Hard Is It To Listen?

What does it mean to really listen? To shut up?

[Tweet “What does it mean to really listen? To just shut up? #affirmation”]

Gaian Tarot Two of Air
Gaian Tarot

#affirmation Some days you just have to shut up. I’m a talker, you see. I tend to fill conversational spaces with anything. I’m learning to stop that. It’s a bad habit. How much have I missed in this world by doing that? I shudder to think!

Here is the Two of Air. A woman listens. It’s just that simple. She closes her eyes, tilts her head then listens. Those are cedar waxwings in the branches. I’ve seen them but couldn’t identify their song. I can identify some birdsong though easily.

Sometimes I think I would like to go back to the land as they say. Go off the grid. Get back to nature. Return to my roots.

Then I laugh. My roots? My roots are in Monroe, Louisiana in the middle of urban living. Well, it wasn’t a big city but it certainly wasn’t a small town either. We had four public high schools plus two private. Monroe is a great town but it’s not a “back to nature” situation.

I love to read books about people who have done that though. Do you? My friend, Joanna Powell Colbert, mentioned a book that I wanted to share with you as well. It is called Becoming Wild: Living the Primitive Life on a West Coast Island: Nikki van Schyndel. I’m going to get it for myself then it may also end up under the Christmas tree for someone else.

Here is a video interview of Nikki. It’s fascinating.

It’s not available on the Kindle (darn it), but it comes highly recommended.

Today’s card is the Two of Air from the Gaian Tarot which is by Joanna Powell Colbert. I’m using that image for today’s affirmation.

Today I shut up. Today I get quiet. Today I listen. I listen for and I listen to. For the messages in silence, I listen. To the song of nature, I listen. By embracing the quiet, I grow and I learn. Loved and loving, I love each of you.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

What Will You Hear Today?

Will you give your Higher Power just three minutes of attention? A mere 180 seconds?

WakingTheWildSpirit_2AirToday’s card brings me such joy. The elfin grin. The open mouths. The patient parent. All combined in Poppy Palin’s fanciful world of the Waking The Wild Spirit Tarot. It’s a joy.

It reminds me that sometimes we need to watch for signs. They really are everywhere. No, I’m not talking about that stop sign I almost ran yesterday.

I mean the things we need to pay attention to–listen for. When we get quiet with ourselves, then we can hear and learn. Have you ever actually heard baby birds in nest? Ever followed the sound of a babbling brook to find a quiet stream of contemplation?

How often do you turn off everything and sit in quiet?

I’ll tell y’all a secret.

I am never in silence.

Never.

I normally have the TV off unless I’m looking at it. I don’t run the radio much at all.

But it’s never utterly quiet.

I have tinnitis. Constant crickets in my cranium. Right now all I have on in my home is a ceiling fan. And I hear a consistent whining that follows me everywhere.

It’s one of the Suckies of my life.

So I have to really focus when I’m out listening for the small sounds. I actually can cover one ear and not hear certain pitches. This is useful sometimes…wicked grin. I can tune high pitched complainers out. snort

I compensate by sight. Which is really funny when you consider that I don’t have good eyesight either. But I see things. I recognize birds at a distance where others don’t. I’m constantly being told, “How did you see that?”

All I can answer is, “I paid attention.”

How will you pay attention today? What signs will you see? Write them down. See which ones keep coming up. What words or phrases or thoughts continually turn up in a pattern for you?

That’s the Universe (my word for the Higher Power) communicating with you.

Will you give your Higher Power just three minutes of attention? A mere 180 seconds?

By the way? Consider what happens when you turn 180 degrees.

Two of Air, Waking The Wild Spirit, Poppy Palin

Tomorrow is the last day to get the if you want to help me win the contest. Thanks if you can. If you already have the workbook+planner, pass this post along to someone you know who might like it. I appreciate it. Have you also checked out the you can snag?

Seek Joy, Y’all. Pass it on.