Turn back or turtle on

This morning I decided to try throwing all the Rory's Story Cubes out at once, and use a kind of near/far technique with a significator to stand for myself. I didn't have a topic in mind as a question, but I have been thinking about a particular thing a lot in the last 24 hours. My jewelry box was handy so I used a pendant of the Sun card for the significator. I threw the cubes across the spread cloth, then just turned the images in their place so they'd be right side up to make it easier to look at them. The cubes nearest me are Turtle, Bridge, Tower, Comedy/Tragedy Masks. Then continuing on that line but further away, Shooting Star. Far below me, Alien Face and Padlock. Very far above me, House and Happy Face with Eyebrows.

Throw of Rory's Story Cubes with Significator

The first thing that comes to mind with this throw is my recent experience with NaNoWriMo, because that is what I've been thinking about a lot for the last day or so. I often find myself setting a goal without really examining my motives for setting it--which I suppose makes it little more than an idle whim, really. NaNoWriMo was a whim, one I took up because a friend of mine does it every year and I admire that. Reading the line that runs closest to me, I see 'Steady patience is the bridge to overcome blockages to creative expression.'  Underneath, perhaps the underlying cause of my anxiety is that fiction writing is alien to me, and thus locked from me. And above me, though far away, happiness in the familiar and comfortable (which for me is reading other people's fiction and writing a blog). The message of the reading tells me that I could write fiction, with steady determination and endurance. It also reminds me of why I find it difficult and would so quickly give up.



The cube closest to me is Turtle, which I am seeing as patience. Turtle, Bridge and Happy Face , with Alien Face at the bottom, are closest to me if you look for the cubes all around me like a clockface. 'Patience is the bridge to happiness, even if it is alien to me!' It isn't only patience that I see in the Turtle, though, but also the slow, steady pace. He just keeps going. He will get there eventually. Can't be rushed. He will stop and rest when needed. He is not on anyone's time clock. He just keeps going at his own slow pace.

This is my lesson. Before I start a journey of any kind, make sure I really want to go on it. Because getting to the destination is nothing compared to the journey itself. The journey is all. And if you start out on a journey you don't want to be on, you are in for a long, unpleasant experience. Unless you have the option of just stopping in your tracks and turning back, which I find myself doing a lot. But let's look at that. Because if you spend all your time starting down roads that then freak you out so you turn and go back to the starting point -- you never really leave the starting point. And eventually you run out of time altogether, game over. So it's really important to choose goals that you will feel happy working toward. And then,  don't be in a rush to complete the journey. Slow and steady wins the race. If you're enjoying the journey, you won't want to rush, anyway.

These aren't new messages here, but they're true. I need to take a good look at some of these ideas and goals and projects I've been toying with and decide what roads I really want to travel.