It's All the Same Stuff

in different packages

I was reading Pema this morning:

“That’s the answer to how to enjoy your life.  It’s to show up and have a sense of curiosity about whatever might appear that day, including it all in your sense of appreciation of this precious human birth, which is so short.”

The Wisdom of No Escape

It occurred to me as I round the year on these weekly musings, and was thinking about how I want to make year two a little different, that this newsletter is what my friend Tammi Salas calls a “proof of life” exercise. Every week I sit down, often with no clue what will come out, and when I’m done and have pushed the publish button, I’ve somehow said “Hi. I’m here.”

I sit with a group of women every week who use their tools. Keeping gratitude lists and log books, creating art, writing poems, taking photos, reading tarot, making sigils. It’s all the same stuff in different packages. It is our way of documenting this day, this life, showing curiosity and amazement in what is right now, here, this. It is the same and it is miraculous because it is what Pema prescribes, and it works. It is a way of taking note of this “precious human birth.”

I sit with a second group of women every week who use their tools a little differently. Our primary tool is talk. Honest talk that stays in the vault. Some of the same human struggles are shared, but we eight have vastly different lives. We meet on zoom and I’ve only met two of the eight in person. What these two groups have in common is a curiosity about what is happening, and a desire to document these precious lives, even though they are often marked with pain. We keep showing up.

If I think about what keeps my ninety-three year old father going it is first and foremost curiosity. That and yoga and good genes and a healthy diet of course. But it is this curiosity about the moment, the sense of amazement that this is the day he has been given and it really is an absolute miracle, based upon all the other possible days. He’ll stop someone on the street (or the subway, or a doctor’s office or restaurant) and ask them a question because he is actually curious about what is going on with them, wanting access somehow to their thoughts or motivations for behavior. When we are curious about other people, there is both less of us and more of us. I think when we get out of our own heads enough to consider the other, maybe we enjoy life more.

I received a tarot reading the other day from Laurie Blackwell, friend, mentor, colleague, and I got both the Ten and the Ace of Swords. It was a five card reading, so each card spoke a little louder than in a larger reading. The Ten was reversed. I don’t usually read reversals but Laurie does. Rachel Pollack, in Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom, points out that when you turn this card upside down the swords are falling out of the figure’s back. I like this image, especially as tens denote the end of a cycle. It’s over, time to get up and start again with the Ace of Swords. For me, the Ten of Swords is such a wonderful reminder to wake up and get out of my own head. It is a reminder of the miracle which happens when we are able to unclutter our brains. Some of the exercises above, including this writing is an uncluttering. It works.

The Ace of Swords is all about fresh mental energy, a blessing, the a gift. Clarity doesn’t come from clutter. The clarity of the sword can be sharp, and it is double edged, but the crown and wreath atop the sword show success and victory, emerging through the clouds of a cluttered mind. And perhaps all these thoughts come together, Pema, Tammi, Laurie, my dad and me in the idea that curiosity leads to clarity. The curiosity which leads to an expression, whether it’s speaking, writing, drawing, or just considering the other for a moment.

Lots of love and gratitude always.

xo Hanna

Note:

We will start up Monthly Tarot Circle for paid subscribers in October. I will launch a poll to determine the best time for maximum attendance.

Also if you are a paid subscriber remember to contact me for a free reading at hanna@hannamcelroy.com