Friday, September 28, 2012

9/29/12-9/30/12—Giving Yourself Props

Weekend Reading: Seven of Pentacles from the Tea Tarot by Marcia McCord. (Marble chose tonight's deck with her mouth and warped a few cards in the process. *heavy sigh*) Give yourself the chance this weekend to take time out and give yourself appreciation for your hard work. Enjoy a relaxing cup of tea. A long bath. A night out. Reward yourself for all you do. Acknowledge all you do. That last point is key. Too often we just toil and toil and feel like we're not making progress...or like we're not doing enough. Take time this weekend to really assess all you DO do in a day. Sometimes it helps me to compare my life to when I was a teenager and slept all the time. I do tons more now and am not nearly so young and energetic. You work hard to keep your life in line. Give yourself the props you deserve. 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

9/28/12—Communicating With Your Pet

Today's Draw: The Gypsy Oracle from the Sideshow Tarot. Do you have good communication with your pet? Do you "hear" them say things...or "see" their messages? What kinds of things do they tell you?

Yesterday I said it was going to be Marble Week at the Daily Draw. So today's card is about the psychic communication dogs use to communicate with their people.  

In short, dogs put images in your head. Like you're sitting there and you suddenly think of that really cool park down by the river and think "geez, I haven't been there in a while. Perhaps it's time to go. I think I'll take the mutts with me." And you, innocent that you are, think YOU thought of that park, when really your dog implanted that visual in your brain using their special telekinetic mojo. Happens all the time. They let you think it's all your idea. 

It's just like when I saw Marble's picture online a week ago. I had all sorts of images of this pathetic, needy animal that could learn so much from Kizzie and Magick. For all I know, the little vagabond planted those images in my head so I would be the one to foster her. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I'm a total gravy train for dogs. I mean, really, where do you get it better? I'm home all the time. I've got scheduled kibble and treat times. You get the run of the property. I have a lot of patience. I'm a total pushover. It's a wonder I haven't already bought her an entire wardrobe of winter sweaters yet. 

The more I think of it, maybe Marble is a Gypsy Oracle. I was out talking to the back yard neighbor today...a single lady and mother of two dogs, much like myself. And I told her that Marble keeps jumping up and nipping at my nipple. Really. She's done it, like, four times in the past two days. And it hurts! So my neighbor was telling me how to train the nipping out of her and, just then, her dog jumps up and bites HER in the nipple! The dog had never done it before! And she does it the moment I'm talking about Marble doing it. We concluded that Marble planted the image in the innocent pup's brain!

So today's entry is about her. And about dogs in general. I swear they do the visual implants all the time. And you can do it back to them. You do create a language with your dog over time...one that transcends simple commands. They're extremely intuitive. I think this is how they know you're coming home. You're on your way home and you picture home. They're so attuned to your frequency that they pick the message up and walk over to the window. 

So if you've never tried this intentionally before, just try showing them a visual of what you want and see how it goes. And pay attention the visuals you receive that have to do with dog things. From their perspective they've been trying to communicate with you FOREVER and maybe you've just been too dense to notice. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

9/27/12—Meeting Your Perfect Match

Today's Draw: Two of Cups from Tarot of the Absurd by Jessica Rose Shanahan. Do you choose partners based on your heart, your head or both? When you look back over your relationships, have you always followed the same formula? When did you know (or will you know) you'd met your perfect match?

OK. I might as well declare it Marble week at the Daily Draw. I've had my little foster girlfriend for three days and she's popped up in the cards three times. Wednesday night was her first meeting with potential parents, so if that's not a Two of Cups moment, I don't know what is. 

The Two of Cups is about meeting a soulmate, finding a partner, sparking up a romance and other such things. To Marble that means finding the right forever parents. She's already got a couple of families interested in her. And those families are looking at other dogs. And somewhere in all of that, stars collide and hearts beat faster and both sides find their home. 

Tonight's potential parents were a really cute, young urban couple from Capitol Hill. They were "smart" with a soupcon of hip, the likes of which would bring Marble to dog parks and outdoor cafes and concerts at the Mall. I could see Miss Marble with them, but I think they would be good parents for any dog. They mentioned taking their new dog to training before I even had the opportunity to suggest it. I know it was a really good bonding thing for me and Magick when I first got her and she certainly needed some lessons. 

Anyway, they had other dogs to meet before they made their decision. If they don't work out, maybe she'll meet a beefy young man who's training for a marathon and needs a joggy dog. Or maybe she'll meet a mommy who has another dog with whom she can continue the WWE Wrestlemania Smackdowns she's started with Magick. Marble is that kind of gal. You can dress her up for a fete on the Mall or dress her down for some roller derby action. She's comfortable either way. 


We're happy to keep Marble until she finds her perfect match.
Whatever happens, Marble is playing it smart. She's not going to fall in love just because someone is falling in love with her. She's not going to hop into a relationship, leading with her heart. And she's not going to get lost in the romantic nonsense of a white knight riding in and saving her from her lonely orphanhood. She's happy to go solo until the kind of parents come along that appeal to both the heart and the head. 

For her, that means adequate cash flow to get the GOOD kibble, a bed big enough for a much larger dog so she can spread out, plenty of walkies, parents who are trained to discipline without spanking, a dedicated spot on the sofa for cuddletimes, treats that don't come from toxic factories in China and enough empathy and patience to understand that perfect dogs don't happen overnight. Oh, and unconditional love. Lots and lots of that. 

So what appeals to both your heart and head? Are you with that person now? And if not, can you see where you might have comprised your head for your heart in the past? What's your sad dog story?

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

9/26/12—Seeking Abundance

Today's Draw: The Ten of Pentacles from the Art of Life Tarot. Are your time and energy eaten by things you don't enjoy? Do have enough time to do the things you enjoy? Is it time for a priority makeover?


The quote on this card from John Petit Senn reads, "Not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance." This quote is accompanied (haha) by a Renoir of two girls playing the piano, just living life. 

We're raised and socialized to work hard so that we'll have "enough". And as soon as we have enough, we see a different "enough" that we need to have. And so on. We don't even think about it. Our quest is automatic. Either that, or we're afraid we won't have enough "if"...if we lose our jobs, if the stock market crashes, whatever. So we hoard and always feel we need more. It's like we've been programmed to think of abundance in terms of money and things, when it's really about experiences and feelings. 

Today I was thinking about how I have "enough" to take care of this third dog for as long as I'm fostering her. I have enough money, patience, love. And I was also thinking about what I gotten in return. I get to a hero in this little girl's life. And I get to be her surrogate until her real mommy comes along. PLUS I get Kizzie and Magick. And my Best Clients Ever™ and Best Job Ever®. AND I got a really special email from a friend today. 

And the literal icing on the cake was that I saw these Pillsbury orange sweet rolls at the Safeway. I NEVER buy stuff like that, but I decided to today. I checked the date on the can and I had until late November to eat them. So I figured I'd save them for just the right craving. And you know what? I dropped them on the ground getting them out of my car and the tube ever so slightly popped. They would have to be baked pronto or rot!

Is my life great or what??! But it's not like I'm being showered with money while in a hot tub with a nekkid Gilles Marini or anything like that. It's just a normal, ordinary day. No windfalls or surprise packages in the mail. Just the stuff I love all around me. 

I remember when I first moved into my house. I was really good at keeping everything neat, clean and trim. But then I realized, I hated being neat, clean and trim. I'd rather be doing something else. This was a case of putting what I had in front of what I enjoy. This house? It's just a thing. A really ADORABLE thing that I love, but just a thing. If I had to choose between this house and my dogs...this house and my career...this house and my hobbies....this house and my spirituality...this house would lose. 

So, assuming I do the needed upkeep, who cares if the windows need washing? Who cares if the bushes out front are a little bushy? I realized one day that I never even look at my house from the outside...haha. My neighbors do, but I don't. So I should be breaking my back for THEIR view? I hired yard dudes. I do the gardening once or twice a year...enough to keep me from being the scourge of the neighborhood. I fix what's broken. Replace what's old. And let perfection slide....so I can focus on what I enjoy. The people across the street? They enjoy their yardwork. So they're out there every weekend doing it. And I get a good view of their yard while I'm in here enjoying all manner of writing, crafting and whatnot. 

So think about some of the things that are eating your time and energy. Do you enjoy them? Or is there something you'd rather be doing? Trust me, you don't HAVE to clean the house this weekend. Just don't invite anyone over next week and no one will be the wiser. Fill yourself with the abundance of enjoying what you and I'll bet you won't even care. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

9/24/12—Seeing the Light

Today's Draw: The Ten of Feathers from the Collective Tarot. Does everything seem hopeless right now? Have you been out of sorts for so long that you don't even know what normal feels like? Does there seem to be no light at the end of the tunnel?


Last Friday night the picture of a redheaded girl dog popped up on my Facebook feed. It said she'd just been rescued from a high kill shelter. She'd been shot three times. And she was now living in daycare until they found someone to foster her. She had the SADDEST eyes. 

I started thinking about how my boy Kizzie was abused before he was rescued. And how he could tell her his story about how he found a safe place, and maybe make her feel safe herself. And I thought my girl Magick could help brighten her spirits as she does for everyone she meets. So I put in an application to foster her. And she came home with me today. 

So, yes. Marble has three places where there are, I don't know, buckshot? in her body. You can feel the little metal balls. And one thing they didn't say...I'm pretty sure she's had babies not all that long ago because her nipples are very long and she's got a tiny pooch like Magick had when I met her. 

So put yourself in this girl's paws...She's been shot and they just left the shrapnel in her. She's just nursed babies. She lived a life of dangerous mirauding. She somehow made her way to a high kill shelter. Then, practically as they're putting the noose around her neck, two girls from the Bohemian Bow-Wow volunteered their time to drive through two states to pick her and bunch of others up, then bring them all back up here to City Dogs Rescue. Then she spent a few days in day care, with no mommy. And who knows if she ever had a mommy to begin with, because she seems to be in the habit of scavenging for food. 

And just when things calmed down enough for her to think, I go and pick her up, drive her into another state (well, from DC into VA...haha) and put her in a home with two snooty dogs who seem like they've probably never had to beg for food or defend their territory a day in their life! Life must just seem like it's spiraled crazy out of control for Marble. What next? More of the same kind of hellish life that leaves scars on beautiful girls? 


These are the sad eyes I was a sucker for. 
What Marble doesn't know—and what we often don't know when we feel like everything's gone to shizz—is that things are already looking up. That started the second the high kill shelter got in contact with City Dogs. Now Magick and Kizzie and I are there to love her until she finds a forever mommy. And her forever mommy is going to be a good one—one that doesn't want to trifle with pedigreed show dogs. One that wants a mutt with a history and scars and buckshot in her leg. 

When you've lived in stress and pain and disaster for a long time, it's really hard to know when things are going to start looking up. In a traditional deck, this card would deliver a lesson about how someone didn't "see the light" until it was too late. They weren't able to get out of the insanity inside their head—or out of the focus on negative things—in time to see the beauty that was all around them all along. 

That's the thing about Miss Marble. All those babies and buckshot...all that abandonment and abuse...all the stress and chaos in her routine...and she is still a loving girl. Came right up to me the second I met her and kissed me on my face, as she's done a hundred times today. She took a nap in my arms this afternoon, hanging half off the sofa, completely trusting a woman she'd just met. And right now she's zonked out on the carpet, legs splayed in a vulnerable position. Because she trusts. God only knows why. But she still does. 

Today's Ten of Feathers is about those times in our lives when our head is lost in depression, anxiety, chaos, confusion and/or feelings of hopelessness. Times when we're not sure what's down or up. If you're there, think of Marble. Think of how she needed help and got it. Think of how she's trusting the wisdom of life...the course of her path. And think about how all of it is leading toward her hitting the ultimate doggy jackpot—a safe, kibble-rich forever home where every delicious lick of sweet loving she gives is received with joy and returned with profound gratitude. 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

9/24/12—Thinking Like a Romantic

Today's Draw: Knight of Cups from the Infinite Visions tarot. Do you consider yourself romantic? What are some of the romantic things you've been known to do? And what are some romantic things others have done for you?

Tarot's knights are the crusaders of the deck. They're on a mission. And the Knight of Cups is on a mission for love. He's the deck's romantic. 

I have to admit I'm not terribly romantic myself. Or I should say I'm not prone to acting in romantic ways. I mean, in certain moods, I can talk some good romance. But even me saying that in that way kind of indicates that I'm not terribly romantic. :D

When I was trying to think of romantic things men have done for me, the first two that popped into my head were related to food. I had a boyfriend who would eat around the almonds in the Vanilla Swiss Almond, then pass the pint to me to eat the almonds he'd excavated. We'd pass back and forth like that until the pint was gone. That was romantic to me because I'm not terribly fond of vanilla ice cream, but I do like me some Swiss almonds. 

The other romantic food thing was a man who didn't like the skin on Peking Duck. Every woman should have a man like that...haha. Anyway, on Valentine's Day one year we ordered Peking Duck in and he made me my pancakes...heavy on the skin. It was very sweet. 

There have been many romantic things men have done that I haven't seen as such. I mean other women would find them romantic, but they go right over my head. Many women find it romantic when men do things for them...like open car doors or fix things around the house. I'm so self sufficient that it's hard for a man to reach me that way. It's hard for them to do anything I can't—and probably already haven't—done for myself. 

When it comes down to it, I'm really pretty much of a loner in life. I'm not in relationships frequently. I prefer being alone most of the time. Being that way makes me less willing to buy into the whole "falling in love with love" thing, primarily because I'm never quite convinced I want to be in a relationship in the first place. Then when I get in one, I'm so disoriented that I'm not even thinking of little extra things to make someone smile. 

So what's your romance story? What's the most romantic thing someone has done for you? What romantic things have you done for your partner? And if you're in a long-term relationship, has the romance died or is it still alive?