UPDATE: The winner is…Liz!
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It’s Sunday. The day I review my plans for the week, and I always start by first drawing a card from my favorite Tarot deck.
This morning’s card is the Four of Swords. Not pentacles for once. Something changed, hmm? Well, I’ll start by examining the card and trying to figure out some personal message the card has for me. I don’t recognize this mythological character, so that’s not helpful. He is sitting on a flat desert plain. Sitting cross-legged, like he’s meditating. His swords are lying on the ground. The meaning I pull from the image is that he may be tired of the battle and in need of some introspection. The sky is blue and the overall ambiance restful but lonely. So, I’m thinking this card is telling me I need to take time this week, away from my usual frenetic pace of work and family, to contemplate where I am and what I want. Let’s see what my little book says…
This is Orestes. I don’t know who he is, so I’m going to Google him. Orestes is the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon (of Trojan War fame). There’s a long story about his father returning home after the war with Cassandra, the seer, as his concubine. His mother conspires with her lover to murder Agamemnon, and Orestes, along with his sister, Electra, flee. He ends up living in exile (this desert plain) until he returns to avenge his father’s murder by killing his mom and her lover. He goes mad after that and is tried by the gods for the crime of killing his mother, but is acquitted. That’s who Orestes was. A son avenging his father and who goes mad. But this card depicts him when he was in exile, awaiting his chance to exact revenge. Interesting.
Back to the book (The Mythic Tarot), it says simply, that this is a time for “quiet recuperation and introversion” while I “build up strength in preparation for further efforts.” So, am I supposed to stay off the Internet? Keep my door closed to family while I contemplate my life? The recuperation of my hand continues. That fits. Keeping my head down, focusing on what I need to do while ignoring the “noise” around me? I can make that fit. The meditation and contemplation? Well, I do kind of go inside myself when I’m writing, so I can make that work, too.
For a chance to win your choice of one of my downloadable stories, tell me whether you ever take time away from “the noise” and what that looks like for you.
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I use to take time away from everything. I would go for walks to get time to myself and to clear my mind. Now I don’t get much time to myself so I find a spot either in the house or outside to take a few minutes to myself. I will also sometimes use the time while doing housework or working outside to do some thinking or just to relax and clear my mind depending on what I’m doing at that moment.
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Reading. It has been my escape since I was old enough to pick up a book. If I am awakened by thoughts and worries carried over from the day I read and it quietens the noise in my headup. Please keep writing so I can keep reading!
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I find it the most difficult to get away from the noise. But when I can muster up the strength to do so, I go to hand crafts. I knit, I crochet, I bead, etc. I find that although I am still busy, it is a meditative busy, where I am just going with the flow, but still accomplishing something. Wishing you much joy in finding your own pace.
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Reading for me!
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Today is my husband and my 57th anniversary. We’ve been together for 60 years. Looking back through the years we have had some very big humps to get over…but we are here today and love is the biggest glue that has kept us together. Reading is the other….I read everything, “the good, the bad and the downright stupid” while he still loves tales of the ships he helped build before the shipyard closed after 100 years where he and all his family were employed. That was really hard for him! We got by and here we are! When things were tough and I couldn’t sleep I escaped for an hour or whatever and reading kept me sane! He turned 80 last month and my greatest happiness is he is still with me. I am so lucky!
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My time away from noise involves noise. I like to turn on my playlist and headbang until I can say it’s all okay.
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reading
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I read but al so take a walk around the lake.
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I feel I have always been able to balance the good and the bad, you know like yin and yang. Sometimes planning ahead for evenings and weekends would get me through work. Now that I have been laid off, I have all the time in the world. What I actually miss is the structure that kept life orderly. I read and I write, but mostly I am trying to adjust.