Benefactor or Consumer?

From the Millennium 2000 Tarot, the Ten of Pentacles:

A family gathers under an archway; from their clothes and health, it is easy to surmise they don't lack any physical necessities.  It is interesting to note that instead of the "tree of life" design used to arrange the coins (as in the traditional RWS), this card does something a bit different.  Four pentacles overlay the chair where the elder sits, a clue that the financial security and stability this family enjoys has come from him.  Like a tree rising from its roots, six more pentacles form a "trunk" and a "branch" that seems to shelter the couple.  Yet the child is outside its overhang, suggesting his parents must in time develop their own legacy for him.  This card makes me reflect on what my generation has done and is doing to the environment.  What will we leave to the later generations - a mess to clean up or an example of being a good steward of our resources?

From the Success Cards this morning comes "Mystic Woman:"

"The valley spirit never dies;
It is called the mysterious female.
The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth.
It is like a veil barely seen,
But if you use it, it never fails."

~ Lao Tzu

A valley supports life by providing fertile ground, a low place for the river to run through it, and an open area allowing the sun to fill it.  In these verses, Lao Tzu explains to us the feminine principles of yin: support and sustenance, humility and receptiveness.  In many Western cultures, these traits would be seen as weaknesses, and rarely would anyone accept them willingly.  But it is here, "the root," where things never die and never get used up.  It is from this place where I can be a benefactor rather than just a consumer.