Happy birthday to me…in 6 days.

Technically five, actually, since it’s almost 2am on Wednesday as I am writing this, but let’s just pretend it’s still Tuesday, okay? I actually remembered to do this, then got busy with work, then looked up at the clock and realized that a whole two hours had gone by and…oops? So here we are. Almost 2am on Wednesday-pretend-it’s-Tuesday. Sooooo my birthday is March 27th (in case the math didn’t make that clear enough). Smack between winter and spring. the weather is usually crappy, but the one year it was nice, I was unable to walk due to the Great Surgery Adventure of 2019. Hoping for good weather this year! I will be forty-seven years old. Three years away from a half a century on this lovely planet. Seventeen thousand one hundred fifty five days old, not quite exactly, because I don’t feel like figuring for leap years. I just looked it up, actually. It’s 17, 165 days, just ten more. Wow. And 564 months. There are a bunch of other figures, which I won’t bore you with, but I liked this one: 15.7 years sleeping (approximately). Seriously? Wow. That’s seriously mind-blowing. So I was thinking back to my childhood. I’m sure you’re all aware that my generation is the last that never had cell phones, or internet, or any of the technology that we enjoy today. Cell phones came around — well, technically in the 80s because I remembered a friend of mine in middle school, her dad had one…

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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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Birthday Celebrations: Yay or Nay?

Today — well, yesterday, as it’s now midnight — was my husband’s birthday. I once wrote a blog about how awesome he is, so I won’t repeat that — although he is still awesome, and he just gets more awesome by the year. 🙂 We’ll be having a family party in a few weeks, but today we had a nice dinner (take out, of course, because of COVID. We do this every year for the birthday person as per tradition). Then his parents surprised us by stopping by, which is always nice. All in all, it was a great day. And he was very happy. But recently, I was shocked to learn that some people don’t celebrate birthdays. I understand the idea of an adult not having a party — maybe he or she feels like that’s more of a thing for when you’re younger — and when you’re older, it’s not really a big deal. But in my family? We make a big deal out of birthdays and holidays. For life. The family parties have it all — the dinner, the gifts, the cake (or desserts, in some cases), and ice cream. (Now some are gluten free to accommodate my diet, which is awesome). Is that childish? I dunno, to be honest. It’s always been this way. We’re firm believers in celebrating every year. I believe that you should celebrate each trip around the sun. Especially in these times, with COVID, because let’s face it — we’re never guaranteed…

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Lessons from The Tarot: Empress

So, if you’ve been hanging around here awhile, you know that I’ve been reading Tarot since I was sixteen (thirty years!) and Lenormand for the past two years. And while I originally, as a kid, used it “to tell my future” LOL, I now use it mostly for guidance. And writing, but that’s another post. Today I’d like to talk about the Empress card and the lessons it has taught me. First of all, the Empress is Key 3 (of 21) – Major Arcana (major life themes/karma/big things) and she represents creativity, abundance, nurturing, motherhood, a mother figure, home and hearth, and, in some contexts, pregnancy. (She’s actually HUGE for pregnancy if the question is about that). The interesting thing about the Empress is that she is my personal significator card. See, the Tarot selects a card for you when you start reading. And that card will show up in a lot of your readings. And the Empress is totally interesting as my card because, well, I’m not really maternal, and I’m not a mother (except to a cat), but I am creative and I am all about home and hearth and I can be very nurturing. So it’s kinda like an inside joke. Here’s me, the woman the least likely to pop out kids, and I’m the Empress. Ha, ha. But there’s another aspect to her. She’s also the Divine Feminine, counterpart to The Emperor, Key 4, the Divine Masculine. The Divine Feminine what, you say? Well…that’s all about…

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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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Forty-two: the answer to life, the universe, and everything

So, next Tuesday, March 27th, I will be forty-two years old. To this I say: Wut is this madness? I was JUST twenty last year! No, I haven’t done any time travel shenanigans. I just can’t believe how much time has passed since my twenties. When I was twenty, forty seemed decades away. Millions of years, really. A really long time. When I was thirty, I was definitely creeping up there. But it still felt like an eternity. When I turned forty, I really didn’t feel any different. Forty is the new thirty and all that. But now…I must confess…I feel older. It could be that I have been coping with chronic illness for many years. It could be that I divorced my ex-husband when I was thirty (how’s that for a birthday pressie?). Or it just could be the realization that gee, I graduated college TWENTY YEARS AGO. Gulp. Yep. I have done a lot, though. No doubts there. But when I think of my life then and my life now, it’s eerie because I have completely changed in almost every way since my twenties (except my hair. That hasn’t changed at all). For example, in my twenties, I didn’t really care about health stuff. I was thin, I could eat anything I wanted, and health problems were clearly for older people. But then I was hit with severe anemia (the worst my doctor had EVER seen) when I was twenty-two and I also was in a car accident…

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