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Tag: Lenormand

The Hailey Chronicles: Saying Goodbye

Get ready to cry, y’all, because this story is a sad one. 🙁 (TW: pet death) One week ago, we had to say goodbye to our sweet furbaby Hailey. I’ve talked about her before. She had kidney disease. We were taking her to the vet three times a week for fluids and had her on a regimen of medication to keep her comfortable and functioning well, as she was nearing nineteen and a half. We knew her time was coming to an end — but by the beginning of this year, she was still mostly stable. Her bloodwork looked okay — not fantastic, because kidney disease, but not horrendous, either — and she still had fight in her. She’d still play, get on my mother’s lap, eat, drink, get on our kitchen table when we cooked to try to get scraps (or, spend time with her favorite humans), and hung out with me when I worked at night, often battling me to be allowed to walk on my keyboard. Damn, she loved it. It’s backlit in a rainbow of colors, which I think was the attraction. I have several Google Sheets that she’d completely bork if she did her little stroll across it, so there was always this panicked, “No, Hailey, no!” thing with me grabbing her gently and placing her next to my computer, encouraging her to just sit there and let me pet her instead. Sometimes it worked, and I’d work one handed, petting her with my free…

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Writer’s Block Sucks

Man, I haven’t been this blocked in years. Usually, it’s when I’ve taken a bad turn in the plot somewhere, and I need to start over from that point and figure out what happened and how to fix it. Usually, I’ll use a few different methods such as Tarot cards, freewriting, brainstorming, and even playing various writerly “games” to get at my subconscious and the answer—or, at least the beginning of the answer and over the hump so I can start writing again and in the right direction. (The writerly “games” are courtesy of Holly Lisle’s Create a Plot Clinic – an amazing book that I highly recommend — and I do not make any money from this; I am just a huge fan of her fiction and nonfiction). However, I’ve had a fair amount of upheaval in the past few years. We’ve got the pandemic, of course. My ongoing sleep issues, which are getting better, but aren’t perfect yet. We’ve got my usual chronic illness stuff. My business, which is thriving, but also takes a lot of time and energy. I’m still working on that part. I think a lot of this is effecting my creativity. I wrote 6,000 words in 2021. Abysmal, but things were crap that year. Last year was much better at 20,000 words. Yay! I’d said at least double 6,000, and I’d made that and a bit more. This year? I’m at about 2,000. Granted, we’re only into April, so there’s time. And I’ve been…

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What are you manifesting?

So, if you’ve been around for awhile, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Law of Attraction. Well, I’m not talking about that. Not exactly. See, a year ago, I took a “bootcamp” in a manifestation technique through author Heather Hildenbrand that is similar, but is quite different, too. Actually, I have yet to totally finish it, as I got super busy during that period. She is running the bootcamp for a second time, and I am an alumna, so I get to take it again (and again and again…) if I want to. So I will probably do that. But the parts I did take were extremely helpful. But I’m not really talking about that, either. It’s the backstory. See, I’ve always been curious about it. Can you really manifest anything your heart desires? The one thing they say is that you have to put the work into it — you can’t just say, okay, I’m going to be a millionaire by next week and wait for the dollar bills to fall from the sky. We and the universe are co-creators — we work together. You gotta do something to help that come together. The universe does its part; you do yours. So in my Lenormand class, we touched on a manifestation technique with the cards that I tried recently with a duplicate deck I kept just for this purpose. It’s basically waiting for the right moon phase (for setting intentions and manifestation – the new moon) and laying out…

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When I’m Not Writing I’m…Thinking About Art

So, due to some health stuff, writing has had to take a back burner and it totally sucks. I expect this to be temporary, and I fully plan on being back at it as soon as my fingers can get typing. But in the meantime, I’ve been doing some serious contemplation about art. Specifically, Tarot and Lenormand decks. For those who don’t know, I started on a dog deck for my sister about twenty-five years ago but never finished it. So that’s on my list of things to do. I’d like to expand the subjects to include other dogs and our cat, Hailey, as the only subject at the time was our dog, Emmy, who is of course now deceased. So that’s a thing. But lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about life in general and healing, affirmations, self-care, and other self-empowering type stuff. I just turned forty-six last month, and it dawned on me that I could use a bit of healing, being that I had been bullied and made fun of as a child and was in an abusive marriage. And I thought a healing/self-empowerment type Tarot deck would be so cool. There are so many out there, you can’t even believe. Kickstarter is literally my Kryptonite — I got turned on to it last year and went on a bit of a backing spree on Tarot decks. Of course I stopped before things got out of hand, and I backed them with the idea that…

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COVID Christmas, Year 2

Things are a bit different than they were last year. For one, we’ve gotten vaccines and boosters, whereas last year we did not. We’d had a full lockdown in March, and this year, we didn’t. Masks are not required now in Michigan but are “recommended.” And yet, COVID-19, the “virus in Seattle” from December 2019, is still very much with us. We’re on our, what, twelth variant now (second Variant of Concern) with omicron? There was a tweet the other day from a doctor about not wanting to learn the entire Greek alphabet due to the virus. I don’t mind that. I find it kind of interesting; kind of like the tropical storm/hurricane naming. I just want it gone. Last year, my family made the heartbreaking decision to not see my in-laws for the holidays. They’re elderly, and we were concerned about them catching the virus. We did a FaceTime thing on Christmas Day to open gifts and that was okay…and we made the best of it….but let’s be real. It just wasn’t the same. They were missed. Terribly. This year, we’re all vaccinated and boostered, so we’re going for it. We’re seeing them both days, actually. It is great to go back to some measure of normalcy, although the specter of this thing is still hanging in the background, always there. Siri Paulson, my fellow Turtleducker, posted on Facebook a meme about in the future, how we’ll be going through old stuff and run across a mask and it’ll…

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Vacation Time!

So, I did it! As I mentioned in my last post, I was in dire need of a break, so I found some time to take a week off. It was particularly tough because there still were a few odds and ends to take care of, but those weren’t really too big a deal. My clients were good with it, so I went for it. It feels a bit odd, to be honest. I’m one of those people that can’t relax well. I need to “be productive” constantly, so relaxing or resting or whatever is like a foreign concept. This time, I made a to-do list. I know that is probably the opposite of “relaxing” and “resting,” but I always like to have some kind of plan…even if I blow it three days in. It includes writing, relaxation, reading…some cleaning, since my office is in dire need of it, and some serious catch up stuff. I’m also participating in a self-care challenge, which is just the thing I need to get myself out of this funk and maybe into a situation where I am feeling better on a regular basis. Because for me it’s been, “Self care? What’s that?” Terrible, I know. My only excuse is that in the midst of a health crisis, long work hours, life in general, the pandemic, sleep apnea crap, and general madness, it was way down on the list of priorities. And I know that is bad. So that’s why I am doing it.…

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Lessons from the Lenormand Scythe Card

First of all, eagle-eyed readers will notice that this post is up on Saturday instead of the usual Tuesday. Yeah. It’s the usual problem. I got busy again. Two huge projects. Two tight deadlines. I actually remembered, guys. Then I freaking forgot. We had a Turtleduck meeting this afternoon and I had a brainwave. “Wait…is this third week of the month? Did I do my blog post? I DIDN’T DO MY FREAKING BLOG POST! CRAP!” So here we are, 7:35 pm on Saturday, with my blog post. At least I didn’t skip it altogether, I guess. And you aren’t missing the knowledge I am about to impart to you today. So I’m pretty deep into Lenormand. If you recall from previous blog posts, it’s similar (and quite different) to Tarot in that they’re cards with pictures on them that you read. Thirty-six of them. The pictures are more simplistic and the method is completely different and quite complex. So I’ve been learning it now for almost six months. (Has it been that long? It feels longer). So anyway, there’s this one card that’s scary as hell: The Scythe. In some decks, like my first deck, it’s pictured with the Grim Reaper (pictured at left – small so no one has a heart attack). Yikes! The meanings are pretty scary too: a cutting, an ending, swift, quick decision, harvesting, final. So predictably, most readers, including me, get really jacked up when this card comes up in their spreads. I’ve gotten it…

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Why Lenormand is Like Esperanto

Hi, guys. I’m a day late, and I am so sorry. Yesterday I felt something gnawing on the back of my brain, something I was forgetting, but I was so busy, and I just couldn’t remember…I’ve been so incredibly busy with work that I literally haven’t done anything else. I mean, literally. Oh, I wrote 181 words one Wednesday in January only because my fellow Turtleduckers forced me to. (And it was GLORIOUS). But that’s it. Anyway, I was washing dishes today when it hit me like a lightning strike: I’d forgotten to blog here. AGAIN. <facepalm> So…life has changed a bit since we last “talked.” I’ve started learning Lenormand, which is similar to Tarot, and it’s been really interesting. And challenging. And frankly a bit frustrating. I guess it stems from knowing Tarot so well, and it being like an extension of myself that I literally don’t remember my struggles with it — it’s been years, folks. I mean, I started learning when I was sixteen, almost thirty years ago. And then in my twenties I continued on several non-standard decks, a big no-no, as there are no pictures to help make associations with the meanings, and I honestly don’t know how I managed that, as there weren’t the zillion Tarot groups or Facebook groups there are now, or websites that teach you meanings. It’s actually quite amazing. Anyway, Lenormand’s imagery is very simple, but its method of reading is more complex because you’re combining cards and meanings to…

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