Tag: pandemic

Conspicuous In Its Absence

When I do a reading, the first thing is to talk with you about your question, topic of concern, or you OK for an open reading. Then we shuffle the cards, put them into the layout you ordered (by email, you get a photo of the actual real life cards, by phone I’ll list them out for you, or whenever in-person readings come back, you can see them for your self.

Once the cards are ready, the first part in all formats bigger than a one-card, is what I call the “general pattern” where we look for any clues from the patter of cards taken as a whole. One of the things we look at is the number of major vs minor arcana cards. Of the minor arcana cards, we look at what suits are showing and how many of each suit are there.

“Negative space” is an idea from art and sculpture. The art-thing itself sets shapes and boundaries in and around the space it occupies. Kind of like a paper snowflake where the cut out parts are shapes too. Like the hearts in this one (Found this on a Google search. you can get the pattern at papersnowflakeart.com)

Sometimes, if three of the four minor arcana suits are showing, intuition will pull toward the suit that is missing as if it is being conspicuous in it’s absence and is sending a message by not showing up.

2020 has been a heck of a decade, and hindsight is 20/20 too. When we look back what can we learn? Surprisingly, I found one of those negative space, conspicuous in its absence kinds of messages when I looked back at the broad swath of cards that have shown up in the past year, a couple of patterns emerge. Early in the year, there was a preponderance of Pentacle cards, with their earthy, practical, pragmatic advice. The message was to not judge ourselves too harshly as we did what needed done during the early days of the covid pandemic. If it took pajama days and pandemic snacks to cope, so be it. If it took nuts-and-bolts, one foot in front of the other suiting up and masking up and putting food on the shelves….well, let’s just say the rest of us are very grateful. Then things shifted. Later in the Summer and Fall Cups cards stepped forward with a shift toward the intuitive and the spiritual. Wheels and worlds, Towers and Magicians, even the Devil card (Shadow Side in the Witches Tarot deck) put in an appearance.

But no Death card.

At least not in any prominent, repeating, attention-getting way. Given the profound tragedy the pandemic has brought and continues to bring, it is a wonder that the card didn’t show up every other day. With so many lost, this year has brought profound and permanent change to so, so many families.

Early in the year, there was a lot of zeitgiest, general-culture, general-society energies. If we look at the Death card from that perspective, then its absence makes more sense. Not intending to be callous toward the worst that has happened, if we remove tragedy from the card (as is its actual use and meaning….we all know the card actually isn’t a harbinger of literal death)

The Death card is about permanent change. When permenant change is conspicuously absent, maybe the big scary change isn’t so permenant on a large scale cultural level.

We’ll never regain and never forget those who were lost. There may be permanent scars from all of this. But in the end, in the very very long run, life just might get back to OK.

Today’s Tarot: Emphasis, Not Error

Earlier this week (in other words, yesterday) the four of pentacles was one of the cards in the YouChoose Interactive reading. The boilerplate interpretation of repeating cards is that we aren’t learning the lesson that the card is bringing. It’s too soon for that to make any sense, especially in a general audience reading like this. One to one, private, individual readings are very different. In an individual session, I dial in to your specific message within the energy at large and translate that into ideas directed toward you as an idividual. These blog readings are like looking at the energy of a flock of birds or a school of fish all moving roughly together but with scattered individual for whom none of this will make any sense at all.

In this situation, we can’t consider a repeating card, especially one that comes two days in a row, to be an unlearned lesson. Humans just don’t learn or integrate the kind of life-lessons associated with Tarot in that amount of time.

In my minds eye I see the red light emoji, and hear almost a video game sort of alert signal, a little like the ‘time is almost up’ sound they make on American Ninja Warrior. I can also mentally ‘see’ a yellow highlighter marker.

For those of you who chose the Four of Pentacles yesterday, this is a double dose. Having the card appear both yesterday and today makes the message all the more important for you. The way the card moved from an option to a full on general audience hints that the message is growing in importnance and urgency, not fading. The message is for everyone now, but with an extra dose for the folks who chose the card yesterday.

The Four of Pentacles can be associated with greed and stinginess. That isn’t the thread of meaning that is so urgent right now. It speaks more to care, carefulness with budget and money. This is not a good time for impulse buys and self indulgence. Practical, low key, stock the pantry kind of energy is around. Think squirrels gathering walnuts for the winter.

Winter, as they say, is coming.

Pragmatic planning is your friend today. Slow and steady very much wins the race. This isn’t a full energy all out emergency. It isn’t a time of euphoria or dysphoria either one. Plodding, methodical, planning, budgeting are all words that come to mind today.

It’s that time of year. Taking the Four of Coins/Pentacles advice, I’m trying to get organized for Fall. Forgive the repetition, but it helps me to triage and prepare if I organize a few basic announcements for you.

First, there won’t be a premium blog after all. All of the blog, all of the YouTube channel is free and open. I haven’t monetized either one. Both the blog and the channel take some time and effort to do, especially since I’m a great Tarot reader but not such a great video media personality. The steep learning curve continues. If you like what you read in the blog, and use it oftern, please consider getting a peronal reading. One card readings are the cost of a coffeehouse latte. Although I wouldn’t object to being paid in my favorite drink, you can’t send coconut vanilla flat whites  through email. If you are so inclined, distance readings are available for order 24/7 no appointment needed on the home page.

Second, I hope you’ll consider following the blog by email along with your favorite social media (say hi on Instagram and Twitter, I actually interact with those) If you follow the blog, you’ll get all of the content. There will be print only posts that do not appear on the YouTube channel.

Third, due to the ongoing pandemic and the oncoming flu season, in-person readings and party Tarot readings are still closed. If you want a live, real-time reading, phone readings are available by appointment with prepayment. Order a phone session just like you would order anything online using the secure paypal button HERE then contact me at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com to schedule your session.

Fourth, ask me anything! The comments are back open and you are welcome to tell me the kind of content you want to see, or ask any questions you like. I won’t promise an individual reply, but I will answer everything that I can in the blog itself. Any spam or anything inappropriate will be thrown into an active volcano and never heard from again.

Thank you all. Best Wishes – R.

Today’s Tarot: Moon Companion

Thumbnail created with free Picsart app

Just like in the video – I want to start today with a big thank you. Thank you to everyone who reads the blog, watches on YouTube, or follows on social media. A big thank you to everyone who subscribes to the channel or follows the blog (you can do that by email or in WordPress reader. The buttons are in the right hand column in landscape view or scroll WAY down on mobile)

I want to give an extra big thank you to everyone who leaves comments in either place. It is especially helpful on the video side. If you let me know the kind of Tarot content you want to see, then I can learn how to create it. I’ve been reading Tarot for 27 years and writing a blog about it for over 17 of those years. I’m really, really good at that part of it. There is, however, a learning curve to the video side of things. They don’t cover YouTube in B.S. Med. Sci or Ph.D. Natural Health degrees, so my GenX geezer brain is learning that part on the fly.

Most videos will be pretty short. They were never intended to be more than a companion piece for the blog, just like this post today. The videos enhance the blog by showing the daily readings are generated by a real person with a real Tarot deck doing a real card draw. The blog enhances the video with in depth card interpretations. Intuition communicates differently than how-tos, recipes, and game play-through. I often stop and listen to intuition during a reading in order to do the best possible job for you. That pause is invisible in print, barely noticeable in person, but a small eternity on YouTube. The pause in today’s video was a grand total of six seconds. I allow short pauses on private reading videos, but nobody likes any amount of dead air on YouTube. There are lots of talented speech-to-camera readers out there, but its not my specialty. I’m a distance for individuals specialist, but not a media maven for the masses. Cue the Dr. McCoy voice: Dammit Jim, I’m a writer, not a yootoober!

The pandemic is preventing face to face readings and that whole Stripe debacle is preventing you from a blog subscription that includes individual readings. Screw-em. Let’s do this another way. Let’s use comment questions and blog answers like a giant, slow-motion, ongoing AMA. You ask. I answer. The down side is that the answer is in a public space, with NO expectation of privacy. The up side is that it’s FREE. I benefit from the creative inspiration that your questions bring AND I hope that, once you get a taste of what TaoCraft Tarot readings are like, you’ll want to purchase a private reading or two.

Use the comments below to submit your questions about, well, anything. Comments are moderated, so anything inappropriate or spam will be cursed and obliterated. So just don’t.

Today’s card gives us a good example of the difference between a personalized private reading and the general card readings online. We all look up at the same moon even though our individual thoughts under that shared moonlight are an intensely personal thing. Moonlight carries both a shared and individual experience. Tarot questions can do the same. Your public answer might seem superficial, but it helps other people – you all see the same moon, metaphorically speaking. A private session is more specialized and detailed, just for you like your unique inner experience of looking at the moon, that doesn’t involve anyone else at all.

The moon card is about deep inner spirituality, listening to deeper intuition…which also fits this. Spirit messages are all whispers and moonbeams. A genuine intuitive reading for you as an individual doesn’t make for great social media. I hope you’ll use the AMA, the videos and the website to all decide if I’m the right Tarot reader for you, but I also hope you’ll respect yourself and your inner voice enough to purchase a private session if you think you we are a good match. I can do so much more for you in a private reading than in these media snippets show.

The Times in a Tarot Card

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I don’t claim to have prescient vision, but I have been reading a lot of Dune lately (the whole enchilada, actually, including the Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson prequels, in chronological order) This card draw reminds me a little of that scene in the original Dune novel where Paul first sees the future in the desert after the large intake of spice, and describes it at waves. Some parts clear, some parts hidden, like the peaks and valleys of the sand dunes. 

The big, cultural, gestalt, zeitgeist energy in 2020 has been like that too. It is so strong, that I see that general energy (what I look to see when I write these general audience blog posts) echoed in individual energies more than ever before. 

I associate the Justice card with the second wave of the 2020 zeitgeist. I’m really starting to like that word zeitgeist. It has a nice ring for this ghastly year in American public life. Happy 4th of July btw. Although in my mind, this year it feels more like the U-day episode of Firefly, but that is another unrelated story. 

First, it was the unease, worry, physical realm focus and hatch-battening energy of stay at home orders and the early days of the pandemic. The Justice card turned up before and again now in the context of the second wave, the black lives matter, George Floyd, anti-racism, anti-brutality protests. The justice card is just as obvious and face-value as it seems in this context. It is the right energy time for speech and action for justice, as if there was a a collective intuition that outdoor, spread-out, majority mask wearing protests were relatively safe, especially when compared to crowded, unmasked indoor political rallies.

Justice is giving both a validation and advice message. There is that sense of validation that the energies are right, this is the time for these protests. The advice is don’t stop. I can attest that the so-called maga movement has been simmering for 50 years under various names – tea party, silent majority, moral majority and a disturbingly large number of others. They won’t give up…they haven’t stopped, ever. The injustice, racism and hatreds were always there, the only thing that has changed is how well camouflaged or how open and overt those sentiments have been. They haven’t stopped so neither can we. Whether it is actively marching or simply taking a moment to spare a compassionate thought for your fellow man, don’t give up and never stop. Injustice never sleeps, so justice can not slumber. People of compassion and decency can’t slow up or give up. The racists and facists won’t. Over two hundred years of American history has proven that.

Reason with heart, impassioned wisdom, and fierce compassion must lead the way.

 

Today’s Tarot: Now Is The Time

Writing a blog and doing a general audience Tarot reading is both challenging and interesting. I’m sure the process is different for everyone who takes on Tarot blogging and YouTubing. For me, it starts with a general intent that the card (or whatever topic) post is helpful to somebody, somewhere, sometime. Once a post is chucked out there into cyberspace to drift forever “today” or “the week of” can become any day or any week. You have to start someplace. Even though I do the reading looking at a particular day or week, there is a background energy that knows the ideas in the post can cross paths with anyone browsing around at any time. The algorithms work in mysterious ways. The best way I’ve found to work with that baseline, background energy is to let it be, and trust that people and ideas, internet readers and internet readings when the time is right. Trusting that the message will get where it needs to go whenever it needs to be there is at the core all genuine readings, regardless of format. Readings are a leap of faith in both your intuition and the message it relays.

2020 has been a challenging energy environment to say the least. It has required a whole new level of awareness when it comes to background energies, boundary lines and the general shape of things. This year has forced a greater awareness of that boundary line between internal emotions and external energies. It has forced a time and place awareness that has never really been needed before. It’s fascinating to be aware of where an energy is coming from and where it is directed, all against the backdrop of trusting the message to get where it needs to be in all of cyberspace and forward looking time.

For this card and this moment, here, now, with you reading this, the message is exactly that…”now is the time.”

That is the global anyone anytime message. If something has been on your mind, this is the “ready, steady” with “go” on the near horizon. This is the time to take your place on the starting line and take your stance. The race begins momentarily.

Layer one is the most vague general intent. The next layer is the sense of final preparation and a sense of urgency to watch and listen for an emminant signal to begin. Why not the Fool card you ask? This has an air of seriousness that the Fool card does not. Also this us an embedded beginning. This feels like a beginning of a new phase within a larger process.

As a final overlay, there is a regional variant. There is a sense of the card coming through that is specific to the pandemic, specific to the United States. That energy can be described as “hearts are laid bare”.

It reminds me of a scene from the book and movie Dune. “Our test is crisis and observation.” The past three months have been, to one extent or another, crisis. Now observe. Hearts are laid bare. We have shown who we truely are. All of us. Including you. Some are affible and adaptable, making jokes about pets and pajamas and zoom meetings. Others are heroic, doing both the extraordinary and the commonplace to keep the rest of us safe and alive.

Still others are angry, bile-spewing, self involved, arrogant and callous.

Now is the time for all to see. There is no pretending. There is no hiding. There is no middle ground.

People wear their heart … or abject lack of it … literally on their face.

The past months of the pandemic were not a time for big decisions, not a time for spiritual deep dives. We needed to take care of the basics first. Energies have shifted. Something has changed.

Now is the time. Now is the time for introspection and spiritual deep diving. Now is the time for the path-defining choices. Now is when we must stare ourselves straight in our soul and decide who we are and who we are going to be from this time on.

Timeflow

Blursday. The 98th day of Maraprilay in the fifth year of the great quarantine of 2020.

I dunno who came up with the “Blursday” thing on the interwebs, but they deserve a pulitzer or something for capturing the flavor of this whole thing in one word. 

It’s not a negative thing to my mind. I like Blursday. It’s my new favorite day, mostly because I was trying to freelance from home long before all of this started. I don’t mind having my all adult fam here. Free pickup at the grocery store is frosting on the 24/7 comfy pants cake. 

No great cloud is without its silver lining, and not great benefit is without its minor asspains. When I was working, even short handed and on call, time management wasn’t that big of a deal. You work your hours, execute some sort of basic hygiene, and if there was any time left there were plenty of things to do. Pick one. Sleep when you can. Easy.

Creative and freelance work is the exact opposite. Following the white rabbit of inspiration when it comes along is part of the job description. With greater flexibility means more effort is needed to manage time, even before Blursday came along.  I’m not super neat or organized in the first place, but I do like to contemplate plans for the day over morning coffee. How else can plans get blown to heck and force a person to adapt if you don’t make some semblance of a plan in the first place?

Even now, in my completely not humble opinion, the five card Modern Oracle card layout is the best all-purpose layout. I designed it to empower choices with a side of validating the path you are on. I wrote it mainly because I couldn’t find another layout that did quite that thing. No one layout can do everything. How do you make a choice when you aren’t sure what the choices are? How do you start down a path when you aren’t sure which direction to take the first step?

I’ve been looking for a good get-organized card layout. Owl and Bones Tarot had one that was close with their “embrace – face – erase” layout. They are brilliant at creating layouts (check out their Instagram feed) Triage is a lot to ask of any Tarot reading. Necessity being the mother of invention, it seemed time to write another one. The “TimeFlow” layout is simply this:

  • Let It Rest: This points to something that may have been getting a lot of your time, energy and attention that needs some space and rest. This isn’t to say that you should ignore it entirely, but maybe dial back the intensity. I want to compare it to a good southern brisket or pulled pork. You season it, then there is nothing more to do for it except low heat and plenty of time. You’ll know when it is time to bring it back out and get it ready to serve.
  • Let It Go: Some things are just plain over. Done. It no longer serves you. It it fresh out of joy to spark. Maybe this is a thought, habit, or thought habit that has grown stagnant if not outright unhealthy. This is something to consider sweeping out the door entirely.
  • Que It Up: This is about preparation and timing. It is the “on deck” circle to borrow from baseball. This is the next issue or idea to come into the spotlight. This is like the brisket in the first card that needs prepared to serve because it is almost dinner time. Think in terms of “not yet, but soon”
  • Let it Roll: Go! This card is the starter’s gun in track meet. This is number 1 on the list. This is where energy is already flowing in your favor. Don’t let the window of opportunity close on this one.

I’ve been working with this layout for a short time. I’ve already learned a few key points about it. First, it isn’t something to do often. Nothing other than a one card daily meditation should be done too often.  Follow your instinct, but don’t second guess, don’t keep asking again and again. As with any Tarot layout, the message gets muddled and confusing if it is over done.

Also like every other Tarot reading, it is more about ideas than concrete physical details. It won’t tell which project to pick up neck. It is better with intangibles. It seems to excel at pointing to the area of life or to the broad topic that most warrants your attention (or needs to be set aside.) For example if someone is frustrated at work, a coins card might say to let career rest, a swords card might ask them to let go of the idea of impressing a certain boss, cups might direct their attention toward a relationship whose time has not quite come, and finally, a wands card might point out the urgency of managing stress and feeding the inner spiritual world right now. It seems to organize within a single topic, too, when the topic is intangible.

So far, I’ve only read for myself with this card pattern, but I’m hoping you will help me change that. If you are interested in a FREE TimeFlow reading by email, please visit the special offers page and use the contact form there. That form is the only place that the free reading is available. I hope you will be patient…I don’t yet know how fast these will turn around or what the interest will be. I also hope you will send your feedback about the reading. I’d love to hear what you think! Don’t wait…the offer expires Blursday, the 98th day of Maraprilay in the fifth year of the great 2020 quarantine…

PeaceTarot: Introduction to the Second Edition

From PeaceTarot copyright 2013 Ronda Snow all rights reserved. Used with permission.

The First Edition of PeaceTarot is available both on amazon.com for kindle and in the the TaoCraft Tarot Shop on Etsy.

In 2012 the mass shooting of children in a Newtown, Connecticut school shook the souls of the nation’s parents. For those of us who had young children it was an emotionally charged and terrifying event, even if we were geographically far removed from Newtown. It was followed over the next several years by the Boston Marathon bombing, the Mother Emanuel shooting, Orlando, Las Vegas, Stoneman Douglas High School and our hometown in 2018 with the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. The litany of violence and political inaction continues here in the United States. We can never forget that war and violence have been with the human race across the globe throughout history. 

After many years of doing Tarot readings, I knew first hand the comfort the card’s ideas and symbolism could bring. I’ve seen a reading ease the tension in a person’s face and body language time and time and time again. The comfort I’d personally taken in the cards naturally found its way into “Tarotbytes,” my blog on the Modern Oracle Tarot website and again in this self published ebook.

Now here we are in 2020 experiencing a deadly global pandemic and the worst economic depression in nearly one hundred years. I had intended to use the great stay-at-home lockdown quarantine of 2020 to do other writing and other things. Catching up on some sleep was high on the list.

Yet, as is often the case, the cards have other ideas. Tarot has a role to play again. 

It wasn’t clear at first, but the readings since late February (both for individual clients and generally for the blog and social media) have been overwhelmingly focused on the pandemic. You don’t have to be intuitively sensitive for the feelings of these times to hit you like a tidal wave. Then and now, 2012 and 2020, the point of Tarot work is to help us to honor our true feelings. The process of doing a reading can help clear stress and find a path forward that may have otherwise been hidden behind turbulent times and equally turbulent emotions. One thing is clear. It’s time to bring PeaceTarot out of mothballs and let Tarot work its magic on our current challenges.

All of the original PeaceTarot material still exists in the second edition with two new features. PeaceTarot still begins by teaching you to do one card daily meditation style readings for yourself. It still gives the peace-minded card meanings from the 2010 – 2012 era. For each card, I’ve added the pandemic focused interpretations that have stepped forward in the early months of 2020. Next, the internet allows me to give you a brand new resource for choosing a daily card when you don’t have a Tarot deck on hand. The TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel has a growing number of videos that you can use to see a card being randomly drawn. You can then reference the reading for that card in the video description or coordinate it with the ones here in PeaceTarot as you build your daily Tarot meditation practice.

The one thing that never changes is that everything always changes.Despite those changes, peace of mind and a quiet Tarot moment are ideas that never go away. Through it all, I wish you health, happiness and many moments of peace.

Ronda Snow

Pittsburgh, 2020

Forget Tarot, Follow Science for This One

Just saw this….seems relavent in light of that 7 of pentacles reading earlier this morning.

Tarot can help cope with the stress of the pandemic, especially if your role is to simply stay the heck at home. For the rest of it, forget Tarot and follow science. Now go wash your hands.

Today’s Tarot: Worth the Wait

After 25…no, wait…more like 27 years of doing Tarot readings (good grief) if I’ve learned anything it’s been to honor the process. It is what it is…roll with it.

The energy is still focused on the Pandemic, rightfully so I supposed. Again with the pentacle cards. Personally I’ve got some other ideas brewing….stay tuned for that…but these daily readings are always intended for the highest and best message for the most people, or at least somebody somewhere out there in cyberspace. The “Today’s Tarot” readings go where the bulk of the energy is flowing right now, at least regionally here in the Eastern U.S. Sometimes these readings touch on universal truths, sometimes they are like the local weather forecast. Either way, Tarot readings are a little like Neo’s (Alice’s) White Rabbit. If you follow it, it will lead you someplace really interesting.

Things are happening, but not fast. Like yesterday, I get the sense we are in the second half or our little time in the hurricane’s eye, and are headed toward the second eyewall. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Dr. Fauchi and the public health folks that have been doing infectious disease longer than I’ve been doing Tarot. There is going to be a second wave, and it ain’t going to be pretty. Limit your time out, maintain your personal space, wear a mask in public, and wash your dang hands

Despite the dramatic change in pace from what we were accustomed to in the before-time, things ARE going to happen. In my mind’s eye, winds are blowing pretty hard on the other side of the storm, but that isn’t the energy for right now (meaning it may never happen – here and now is what counts)

Right now, we wait. If you are in an area that is re-opening, we wait to see what impact that has on public health and infection / death rates. If you are still in a locked down red zone, we wait. Today’s card begs the question…what seeds are you planting now that will be worth the wait later?

The Seven of Pentacles is typically associated with the idea of “you reap what you sow” which is both a threat and a promise. Do bad things, they come back to haunt you. What goes around will come around, yes, but it also gives the hope and promise that there will indeed be a harvest, and something will come of our better efforts too.

That’s the basics of what will happen and how it works, but rather than if and quantity, what about quality? What is it you can plant now that will be worth the wait later? What will your future-self thank you for starting now? THAT is the place to put your attention and intentions today.

If you are going to be waiting anyway, use today to start something that will, sooner or later, be worth that wait.

Today’s Tarot: Be The Stability

 

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Ghandi

So far, 2020 has been a helluva decade. 

We are all awash in change. If you look at Tarot as being predictive, then this is good news, an omen of increased stability on the horizon.

Nope.

I don’t see it that way in general principle or in this particular card on this particular day. In fact, if I listen with intuition to the general, zeitgeist, energy-at-large feelings then it feels opposite, well, actually kind of sideways from a return to stability or any sort of prior normalcy. It doesn’t feel like a hopeful, optimistic sunrise or a gentle stable reliability of the returning sun as is usually the connotation with this card. At the same time it isn’t a sense of decent into interminable darkness, either. 

The feeling is more akin to “Brace yourself for part 2. It’s gonna be a doozy.” Remember that eye of the hurricane turn in the energy last week? Or was it the week before…you know, last blursday the 77th….

It feels like the eye of the hurricane is about to pass by and we are facing the other side of the eyewall. In my minds eye I see black clouds blowing sideways in a circular wind, like farm soil picked up in a tornado. The biggest difference is this time we know what is in there. We know what we are in for. The sense of optimism that was there for a tiny bubble of time when New York City reported mitigation was working and the rate of increase was slowing down. 

Now is when the storm moves from New York City and spreads like a mud flow across the nation, at it thickest where partisanship reigns and mitigation / health science does not. Not pleasant, not neutral, but that’s the image, that is the facts of it. Tarot and science are not at odds…but are rather different windows into the same human experience.

So what does all of that have to do with the Sun card you are probably asking. It’s an advice card, not a predictive one. It is time to be your own stability. In chaotic times, the change you want to see in the world is a change toward more stability. We can’t count on that coming from the outside in. Just like we can rely on the outside world or other people for our happiness, we have to be our own stability right now. This isn’t a time for reaching, forcing, or inspirational charging ahead. This is a time for watching, prioritizing, doing what the present moment needs, preparing, being. Just be. That we can do with great consistency and stability. If you allow yourself to be, without expectation or goal or judgement, just as the sun simply IS in the sky, then that is both enough and as reliable as the sunrise.

Consider these two things:

First, a Zen parable, author unknown – 

A student asks the master “I want to be happy. How do I do that?” The master said “First, drop the ‘I’ because that is ego. Then drop the ‘want’ because that is desire. Then all that remains is ‘be happy’.”

Second, a quote from lovely Brea Fisher, Qi Gong instructor and vlogger (please support her on Patreaon www.kwanyinkungfu.com)

“Being is a current theme right now for me and many others. Beingness sends a pulse out into the world like the beating of a drum so continuous is drone. You are enough simply by existing. You don’t need to do anything more to be worthy of this life. You are whole in this moment no matter what” – Brea Fisher

That being said, being is enough. Being is your stability. Anything else is desire and perception. You can be the stability you want in this world.