A day, a year

I love the "photo a day" challenges, and I sometimes start them, but don't usually finish them. I was going to do a "tarot card a day" one (no challenge, just for my own learning), and I did it for a few days, then something happened that destroyed my mood for a few days, and I couldn't go on. Isn't it silly how that happens? But it does. I have a really hard time bouncing back from from things sometimes--disappointment, a perceived insult, something that doesn't work out the way that I had hoped.

I'm going to try the card a day thing again for December, as well as doing Susannah Conway's December Reflections. I was going through my Day Timer, putting the prompts in for each day, and when I got to the last day, it asks for your word for 2016.

I can't remember for sure what my word for 2015 was, either "sparkle" or "shine." I got a manicure right after the first of the year, and my nail tech convinced me to do gold sparkles (I always get French manicures), and I thought, well, that fits in with my word of the year, so, okay. But then Bob went into the hospital on the 5th, and was away from home, either in the hospital or in rehab, for six weeks, and I didn't feel like I did much sparkling. It was much more like my word for 2014, which was "believe." I did a lot of that in 2015. Bob says that was what made the difference -- my belief that he would live, and maybe so.

I notice that the prompt for December 1 is "sparkle," so I guess that's appropriate. I'll have to think about what I want my word for 2016 to be while I take photos this month.

It seems like we sure spent a lot of money this year, from the mountain of medical bills following Bob's hospitalization, to having to have our trees pruned, to having to get an unexpected set of tires this weekend. But we will try to have a small Christmas this year, and it will be fine. I have a secret thing that I'm going to be saving money for, and I'm really hoping that I can make that work. I'm excited about it.

The photo above is a selfie that Bob took a couple of years ago. I posted it to my company's Slack channel saying, "This is the face of retail from now until the end of the year." It makes me laugh every time I see it, he's so serious. And I love the bent "antler."

Quiet Power

Okay, so . . . this is getting weird. For the third day in a row, I've drawn The Sun. Completely by accident. I've mixed the cards pretty well, although since I'm not actually doing a reading, but wanting to get familiar with these cards, I didn't actually shuffle them.

I recently read a book called "Getting Wilde," by Jenn Stark. The protagonist, Sara Wilde, is a professional thief and carries a pack of tarot cards in her pocket and pulls one from the deck when she needs guidance or inspiration. Occasionally one will fall out of the pack, and if that happens, it takes on even more significance. So that's basically what I'm trying to do. So I guess the cards are doing their best to tell me that everything is going to be okay.

So I pulled another card for today and got the Queen of Swords, "one who wields quiet power behind the scenes. May be more dangerous than is easily perceived." Perfect! That's me.

The Sun

This morning I drew a card and got The Sun again, which actually makes me very happy. I've been having a hard time of it over the last few days or weeks, for various reasons, but I've been trying hard to embrace joy and believe that everything will work out fine, and this card reinforces that.

So I drew another card, and got the Four of Swords. From the LWB:

"Quiet your swirling mind. It's time to rest and sort things through. Do not take any further action. Take care of your mental and physical health."

Key concepts: Recovery, meditation, a healing respite from troubles.

I love this. It's really good advice for me. I also like the aquarium imagery, given that I've been working on the aquarium at work. The fish is a cichlid. He has a lot of personality. He was given to me by a friend, along with several others, but he bullied and/or killed any other fish that I put in with him, so he is now alone. He is from Lake Malawi in Africa, as are many cichlids.

Cichlids are builders, and he has cleared all the gravel from underneath the little castle structure, causing it to fall over. I posted this picture on Instagram this morning with the caption, "This is why we can't have nice things." I tried to take a video of him moving the rocks, but every time I get up close to the aquarium, he stops and pretends he wasn't doing anything. I can hear him right now. He picks up a piece of gravel, takes it where he wants it, and spits it out. Maybe one of these days I can sneak up on him and take a video.

I said something yesterday to my coworker that I should get in there and set the castle upright, and he said, "no, he's made his bed, let him lie in it."

Everything is going to be okay

Today's card: The Sun.

From the LWB: "All good things are coming to you now. Open your hands to receive them. Sweet happiness is yours for the taking."

Key concepts: Joy, supreme success, health and wealth.

Basically, every little thing is gonna be all right.

Fall in love with as many things as possible

I plan to pull one card from the Ceccoli Tarot each day in November.

Today's card: VI The Lovers. "A choice is offered to you that could change everything. Listen to your heart's guidance. Follow the path of love."

Key concepts: Sacred or profane love, moral choices, soul mates.

(From the Ceccoli Tarot LWB.)

Generally, The Lovers card is not about romantic love per se, but about choices, or it could be about being in love with some*thing* rather than someone.

My theme for the holiday season is "Fall in love with as many things as possible," so it is apropos for the first card of the month.

This year has been really hard, starting with Bob's hospitalization in January, and since then it's just been one thing after another. This time of year is hard for me at the best of times, but lately it's seemed worse than usual. So I'm going to make a real effort to enjoy the holiday season, starting right now, with my birthday month. I'm going to take a lot of pictures, and hopefully blog every day. I guess we'll see. I've got a good start!

And I'm definitely in love with this deck. I had heard about it months ago, but since it wasn't out yet, I had forgotten about it. Then I saw someone else post something about it, and immediately went to Amazon and ordered one. There is a mini deck coming out in February, and I have already pre-ordered it. I prefer the mini decks, they're easier for me to shuffle and carry, but in this case, I will want both.