As most of you know by now, cleaning is not one of the things I “do” -much like fear, jealousy, or toilets. I completely avoid, and stay well away from, all of those. (Right, so I make an exception for the potty situation.) We’ve been getting these renewal messages and signs that it’s time for some psychic housekeeping (which often accompanies actual real live housekeeping, blech). Your comments have been nothing short of inspirational too, I must say. So thanks for that.
Over at Melissa’s place, she’s recently been on a similar tidy-fest. It was not at all suprising when I saw that today’s card went right along with this same (seemingly every damn where) attitude. As did the chores/projects that Daniel and I spent the afternoon working on. When The Merry stopped by we chatted about my “confused” living room furniture. There was an extra large chair and love seat-like item, in the middle of the room, blocking the couches we sit on in there. These were graciously donated by Empress and Honey Graham because they received a generous donation of a sofa from Charles (J.D.’s room mate).
Yesterday Dan started the redecorating transition. The goal was to replace an ancient hide-a-bed in the downstairs family room with this new-to-us seating arrangement. It’s a massive undertaking and technically challenging process, let me tell you. It still isn’t done, but hey, we made a wonderful start the past few days. We’ve also been talking about how we perceive what is right in front of us.
My natural inclination is to complain. (Duh.) So then he reminds me that what I really want to be saying is something totally different. (He’s right. Also duh.) And on a deeper level, when we need to remove things, tidy up, clean crap that has somehow become in the way, I (and many other people) begin with an emotional reaction. This is another topic of our daily conversations. The combination of all this, is precisely what our card it about right now.
I will be going about this a wee bit differently tonight, so hang in there with me. Yes, it’s the Five of Pentacles reversed. But its message is better in this direction. Here’s what it looks like, the other way around, even though we are going to focus on it with the tweak.
First of all I want to talk a tiny bit about Pentacles, in case not everyone has memorized all the words under the Pentacle People tab, or you’ve forgotten that this suit is of the physical realm. It’s made of matter, it is items that can be bought, sold, traded, and created with our own hands. It evolved into the suit of Diamonds in our modern poker deck. It embodies that which is of great value, and it is also the symbol OF our bodies.
Fives are of the person too. So when we get this card it’s really just a Five of Fives, or an extreme focus on the physicality of who we are, as people, and as our own unique individual selves; very much about touching, seeing, tasting, sensing all the tactile levels possible. It is all about the body, the person, the physical situation we find ourselves in.
Look at the picture and you can see two individuals. One cowering under a ratty blanket and one up on his good leg wearing rags. They are in the worst weather imaginable, and they seem to be without hope. And yet, they are on the outside of what appears to be a sanctuary of some type. So, there IS hope, it’s just near-by, not RIGHT there where they are.
When we get this one upside down it can mean several things, but in the case of today’s draw, and in relation to what we’ve been getting in our past few cards, it is telling us that the hope we know is NEAR is actually even closer than we first thought. We’ve already begun the cycle of moving in that direction. Our hope, our redemption, or renewal-and-new-direction may be SO close, that we can physically reach out and touch it.
We have hopped up and set off, staying on our path and heading in the right direction. Sure we have battle scars and wounds, but we are moving ahead in the way we know we need to, and in the way that will serve us best, in the way we feel is the most absolutely perfect route to travel for our highest good.
Here’s one of the things that I think is so valuable about this card, when we get up, and hobble off, even if we only have one leg, barely a working arm, and can only see out of one eye, we are better off than that other character in the illustration. There on the ground is a being who won’t even try. She sits huddling against the wall with her hand out. Waiting for someone to come along and help her, give to her, HAND her the answer.
This is what it’s like to fight your destiny, to ignore your messages, to constantly NOT do the right thing. She is gonna freeze her ass off. And she’ll be miserable all the while. We never want to be her. This is what my Beloved and I discussed earlier. We look around and are grateful that we have a used chair and tattered old love seat in a shitty family room. Because the alternative is NOT having a chair, or even a house to put it in at all.
I complain about my legs hurting, but the reality is that I’m grateful for having two legs. Fat legs that are old, you bet, but those legs get me around the neighborhood, and they get me up and down the stairs. Those pudgy legs show my beautiful tattoos and move my ass from one room to another all day long. Those legs (and my two fully functioning arms) helped to move several pieces of furniture today, in and out of the house, up and down stairways, through doors and over uneven flooring.
Yes some of us do need to whine a bit, we need to feel our emotions, and THEN we can move on. Once we’ve experienced that feeling of being fully human and flawed, we can let those emotions (and some bags of trash/recycling/donate-ables) go and thank the Universe that we CAN bitch and moan, then finally… just enjoy the blessings we are so lucky to have been given.
One Last LateNight Gratitude: thank you, again, Emmy for that wonderfully orange and useful Tupperware pitcher you gave me for Solstice last year. It came in so handy tonight, when I almost died of scurvy.
REALLY Last Thing: Google fu masters, JulieLander Ridiculous Research Team, any and all who want to be of assistance, go help Barb!!! She has an eye question and can use some info.
Oh, moving an ancient hide-a-bed will be an adventure of the worst kind. One needs lots of help to move those suckers. We tied the bed frame together so it would not flip out during a move. Thankfully Mom’s couch/bed was moved a few years ago and I never have to move it again. Thank you! Have fun moving stuff around. When it feels right just plop down and admire your work.
I’ve been tidying up too. September is sort of like January, as in a new year, new beginning, and time to throw away the crap.
We call it the cast iron couch…. and yes, the bed kept trying to pop out.
Well done on the furniture re-arranging, moving stuff around always gets a bit stressful!
I really like this post, it feels so hopeful and i’m a big fan of hope (i’d wanna be since it’s tattooed into my skin haha)
Hope is a huge thing for me too!
What a lovely deck.
Thank you, and welcome!
Oh yes it’s definitely in the ether. We have spent the last week groveling in the lofts getting rid of tons of hoarded stuff. It’s mostly going to new homes – but it’s no longer in my home!! I can’t tell you how much lighter I feel. If only that feeling transferred into the fleshly domain
Now things are beginning to clear on one plane, I’m hoping things can see to clear on the other psychic and emotional planes too.
I’m really trying to take Fokker’s comment on board about slow progress being just as good!
What is that coming out of the backpack on the floor in the pentacle card? It looks like a small arm waving – or drowning under all the rubbish!
“…the fleshy domain.” Yep, I know exactly what you mean. THAT situation is NOT very hopeful nor promising right now.
There are two figures in this illustration, one standing with a crutch and the other down on the ground, kind of slumped over with an outreaching, uplifted arm. No backpack, that’s the person we don’t want to be.
In my deck this card often means the querant is feeling impoverished, or worried about money. This can be real, in terms of normal people trying to make ends meet who get suddenly hit with an unexpected expense or job loss, but it can also mean just a “feeling” of poverty — like when someone makes $600,000 a year but gripes he has to “feed his family” and has very little left over once he has done that, as a recent politician just moaned. I agree whole heartedly that counting your blessings is a good way to understand what “poverty” is being talked about, and appreciation of material goods you already have is a good way to avoid mammon worship.
Thank you! I always look forward to hearing what your interpretation/definition is when we come around to this deck.
Oy vey, sleeper couches? Them suckers are heavy. I expect we’ll see pics when this is all done, yes? (Or, y’know, pictures of your non-progress.
)
p.s. and by the way, my duty is done at Barbara’s. Alas, I’m afraid I wasn’t much help.
Speaking of pictures, what is so funny about you mentioning this is that as I was typing that post out, I was looking across my horrifically messy desk/table thinking “hell, I should SO take a picture to show our partial progress.” Maybe I can figure out how to pose Dan in his new crafting station without frightening all who tune in here with my hoarding habits (that which will surely be viewable in the background).
And hey, your assvice couldn’t have been much worse than his, he joked about how she needed to maybe cut down on her mach 2 racing hobbies.
Hide a beds are tough; I remember an old “Rescue 911″ show where a woman who was moving a hideabed got trapped by hers in a doorway, and an apartment neighbor called 911 thinking there was a horrible dispute in progress. Much laughter from the responding Beaverton cops, and a gale from my livingroom (non hideabed thankyouverymuch) couch.
Mrs. Denial’s recent office move (where she lost 50% in floor space) has been a great excercise in this very thing. We had a couch (not a hideabed), a coumputer armoire and a small refrigerator that there was no room for. One of the people helping us was delighted to help, so they could get rid of “the bachlor couch” (no clue about its hideabed status) and an ugly dresser. AND he is a home brewer, so the fridge will be put to very good use. They also took a solid Shaker table (no chairs) as they are gamers and it is the perfect size.
I have to say that the LAST thing I wanted to be doing the past 4 days was anything associated with this move…and the ONLY thing I wanted to do was help my wife through a very difficult time (which isn’t done yet, but I digress) so I spent a lot of energy focused on being happy with where I was and what I was doing. I have done some of that at work this week, too…and I am delighted in the assignment I have and the job that I do. Good reminder card.
Okay, well those damn sleeper sofas are killer dangerous!!! Lol, nice story, and I can totally see how a person could DIE from one of those bastards.
Great “counting your blessings” update. And nice job being there for your Mrs.
I’m horrible, terrible at getting rid of stuff. I blame those frugal New England yankee genes that leap up and tell me that thing, whatever it is, might come in useful someday. I have gotten rid of some stuff via Freecycle. You might have one in your area. You post stuff you either want or want to get rid of and others check in and see if there is something they want and they will come over and pick it up and take it away.
P.S. I hope you were wearing shoes for all this furniture moving!
“…frugal New England yankee genes…” See above remark re: my hoarding.
I will definitely look into this Freecycle thing (one of the kids has actually mentioned it I think, sounds familiar).
I was! In fact, I made a point of putting on my newest pair of hoof covers, the ones we bought in the sale room at Jerry’s last time. They worked great! And I even wore my wee work gloves too. (“Safety first, or at least in the top three.“)
Thanks for the reminder. Every fall I go through my closets and donate to the cancer society. We’re still in triple digits here so it doesn’t “feel” like fall…so I have not done that yet.
I’ll just crank up the AC and wear shorts as I work…that’s the trick. ; )
I have this great mental picture of you right now, dancing around in you shorts, with the AC blasting, as you gleefully toss garments into a box.
I go through cycles – I’m a complainer, then I’m full of sunshine and gratitude and then I swing back around. I prefer the sunshine / gratitude phase. I am happier and those around me have got to be too. Sometimes it just takes a conscious effort to remember to say thank you.
Thank you!!
Ugh, moving a hide-a-bed. Did you count that as your exercise?? I’m thinking it counts.
Perfect description of the cycles! Yes, me too, waxing and waning between the complain mode and the gratitude.
Well, I certainly got hot and sweaty from all the up and down-ing. And then the vacuuming as well. I reminded Dan that this was one of the (many) reasons I didn’t like cleaning, it makes me smell bad (worse). But then we cycled around to being grateful for just having a body that does all of this.
Before I returned to Oregon to help my mom, I had just enough with a tiny touch of too many clothes. When I came home, I brought more things, especially clothing. Every time I’ve returned to Oregon, I’ve brought more home. More is coming in the car my friends are driving here for me. I kind of have wayyyyy too much now. (Maybe I’ll send some to you, Julie, with the Subaru! Bwaa ha ha ha ha!) So it’s time to go thru and start giving. I already have a box full. I might need some more boxes.
Clearing my space will probably help my mental and emotional states. (Probably?!) And I finally accept that I have to do all of it by myself (altho’ I might still get in a house cleaner to do a major cleaning after everything is picked up and put away).
Hiring someone to do a major deep cleaning would be an ideal way to give yourself a lovely treat. After all of this “going it along” acknowledgment, you totally deserve the help.
I haven’t been here enough to say Thank you to you for these timely cards.
There’s pressure on me to clean up and organise and I’ve been digging in my heels. Time to cow-bettyup and get on it.
I wish I were less messy+ more organised but =\= neat freak. Just above average. I like the freedom that being a bit more organised gives me. When I’m organised, I can say “Yes” to a day at the beach or breakfast with a friend without worrying about work I left undone. It really is freeing.
And I’m grateful for my sore feet. ‘Cause it means they are working.
You are more than welcome. And I completely understand.
Five, count them, five large garbage bags of clothes to the boy child’s school today for their clothing drive! I deserve a gold star or something!
Wow! And a crown to go along with the star.
Oh, definitely needed the gratitude kick in the pants. Last couple of months have been seriously not fun around here. I have a Gratitude Journal I’m supposed to write in every day (Simple Abundance) to remember life really isn’t as bad as it could be. Funny how when things get bad that’s one of the first things I quit. It should be the first thing I run to. So it’s a good thing I stopped by tonight. I really need to get my sorry butt up and moving.
It is usually during our most challenging times when we need the poke with a pointy stick the most. That’s how we learn.
The pack-rat in me is constantly at war with my need for organization. But the move helped me get rid of a lot of stuff that I didn’t need/want/no longer fit into.
Physical injury?? Hell yeah. I pulled a muscle on Monday, made it worse last night (so I was in bed & asleep by 10, and missed the post), and now I’m limping around trying to pretend I’m ok. But the card grabs me in other ways too, I just can’t articulate them. Thank you, as always, for sharing your gift with us!
Oh no, another sympathy injury? You guys really need to stop being to empathic. Rest and heal.
And, you are most welcome, as always.
I’m a cyclical collector and purger. I keep things until I just can’t stand it anymore (usually clothes), and then a huge donation is made to Goodwill or a local shelter. At that point, it’s best to stay out of my way, or you might end up in the donation collection.
The purging part is where I run into difficulties. Although, I do love to share.
I would have described the decor as ‘comfortably eclectic’, myself
But then we know that you are extr-y kind and polite.
What are you doing up at three in the morning? Still with the fam or home now?