11/8/12—Learning Something New

Today's Draw: The Hermit from the Collective Tarot. What new thing did you learn about life today? What did you learn about yourself? And what did you intuit today?

The Hermit is a solitary seeker of inner truth, introspective and wise. She learns something new from every interaction and every experience in her life. She sees more than is evident, noticing the subtleties of life. 

I've always felt a particular connection to the Hermit. I'm a lone wolf, after all. And an inner journeyer. I like to look for the lessons of life. 

I believe that every day we learn something new....not just about life in general, but about ourselves as well. Today one of my life lessons was that it takes a lot more roux to thicken a cream soup than I had imagined. I read a recipe for a rule of thumb, then doubted what I read and ended up with thin soup. 

I've also recently learned that people from your past that you're curious about will somehow pop back into your life in the most interesting and surprising ways. In the past week or so, four people from my past have either resurfaced in my life personally or through the words of someone else. It's interesting how you can go years without "bumping into" someone from the past and then, BAM, they're on you like flies. :D

About myself, I learned a few things. I learned where I was on the whole "caring what others think" thing. And I'm still not as far along as I'd like to be. And I realized really how persistent I can be about something I want. There's something I've been pursuing for years without any discernible progress, yet I keep attacking it in new ways hoping for a breakthrough. What I've learned/realized is that I'll never give up, even the battle I'm waging is against myself. 

Because The Hermit sheds light on dark or unseen things, I'm also going to comment on a psychic thing that happened today. I pre-ordered something months ago and had no way of knowing when the package would ship or arrive at my house. But today I was thinking to myself, "it seems about time I should get that package." And the mailman came and went and I thought, "odd, for some reason I though I'd get that today." Then a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and the mailman had the package. I mean, of course I was "expecting" a package...sometime, like, in November or so. But like I said, I had no idea it even shipped, much less would arrive today. So I was pretty proud of that spark of intuition. 

So what about you? What did you learn today?

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. 

9/15/12-9/16/12—Finding Your Voice

Weekend Reading: Ace of Feathers (Swords) from the Collective Tarot. Somewhere, sometime over the course of this weekend, something is either going to spark you to speak up, or you'll finally find your voice about something. The Ace of Feathers says you should go ahead and comment. Your opinions, experiences, boundaries and beliefs are important. Don't be shy to voice them. Trust that the words will come out the way they need to in order to get your message across. If the person you're talking to doesn't appreciate your truth, assuming you've been respectful in delivering it, then you may want to note their response. You have a unique voice to add to the conversation and it deserves to be heard.