Life...is just a bowl of cherries...

Do this. Don't do this. Outcome. (Touchstone, 2009)

I've been stressed lately, for various reasons, but when you add them all up, it's a lot to take in! I've got redundancy worries, joined a new union, switched my gas and electric supplier, taken on a tarot project with Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), I've stepped up my exercise regime, and I'm reading a book about meditation practice that is, as it says in the title, 'Unusally Hardcore'. So I asked the Touchstone Tarot, how should I deal with all this? And I drew 3 cards: Do this. Don't do this. Outcome.

So I'm supposed to 'do' 9 of Cups. Strangely enough, the first thing I notice about this card, other than the fact the chap in it looks like he's had a good sip from each of those nine cups, is that there is a bowl of cherries on the table. Which instantly brings to mind the song: 'Life is just a bowl of cherries. Don't take it serious...

Life's too mysterious

You work,

You save,

You worry so

But you can't take your dough

When you go, go, go

So keep repeating "It's the berries."

The strongest oak must fall

The sweet things in life

To you were just loaned

So how can you lose

What you've never owned

Life is just a bowl of cherries

So live and laugh, aha!

Laugh and love

Live and laugh,

Laugh and love,

Live and laugh at it all!'

~by Ray Henderson, 1931 

Message received! Lighten up, the tarot's telling me. Take it easy. Find something about the situation to enjoy. Or just find something, somewhere, anywhere,  to enjoy. At the end of the day, what will most of it even matter?

Billy the Kid

Then ... what should I NOT do? Page of Swords. Just look at that guy. He reminds me so much of the famous photo of Billy the Kid. He's just so cocky! He's got his head tilted to the side with that 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' expression on his face. Don't mess with me, he's saying. But bring it on!, he's also saying. I can take you. I think the message here is, don't fight it. Don't defy the universe. Don't be belligerent. Don't have an attitude. Don't think you can outsmart the situation you're in. No mental fisticuffs or even full-on gun fights of the mind will help you in the situation you're in. Nope, surrender is best.

And what will be the outcome if I stop fighting it and learn to enjoy the journey? Seven of Coins. What a lovely maiden, like something out of a Vermeer painting. (Actually, she's by Raffaello, from a painting called 'Portrait of a Woman', 1507. I looked it up in the handy Touchstone Tarot companion book. ) Doesn't she look placid, though. She's patient. She's waiting for the plants to grow, and come to fruition, and that's all I can do, as well. That's all any of us can do, really, in any situation. Be patient. 

So okay! I get it. Chill out, don't fight it, be patient. 

I can do that. (She says.)