Lessons Learned

From the Fairytale Tarot, the Page of Swords:

The Russian fairytale associated with this card includes a falcon/prince, jealous sisters, a misunderstanding and a journey to make amends. All Pages are in the learning stage, and the education of the Page of Swords includes logic and reason, truthful communication, and a tenacity for justice. The delicious secret of the young daughter's nightly meetings with the prince sets into motion the actions of her curious sisters who resent being left out of the loop. Had she only been honest with them, she might never have had to go through the trials she endured. Yet I would guess most of us have learned our greatest lessons from the mistakes we've made. And so today, I will take a cue from this Page to clear up any fuzzy communications or mistaken ideas that I might knowingly or unknowingly have created.

From the Tree Affirmations Cards comes the "Winter Maple:"

I have the time I need to reflect.

The bare branches of a maple in winter encourage me to slow down and take an objective look at myself. Lewis asks what I notice about my mind and thoughts when I take the time to pause. Her question made me think of the term kleshas introduced by Pema Chodron in her book No Time to Lose. Chodron defines a klesha as a strong emotion that causes us to act or speak in unintelligent ways and leads to our suffering. I was barely out of bed this morning when I bumped into one while reading through posts on a forum. One fellow there (who is obviously very intelligent) makes posts that I find condescending and arrogant, and my initial (mental) reaction was "What an asshole!" The lesson is in learning to recognize these emotional thoughts for what they are instead of aggressively expressing or guiltily repressing them.