Sticky Human Dilemmas

From the Victorian Fairy Tarot, the Hanging Fairy; from the Haindl Rune Oracle, Man (Mannaz):

          A young fairy has gotten caught in a spider web among a field of poppies. He seems to have ceased his struggle and appears to be listening intently. The opium poppies remind me of how tempting it is to numb myself to avoid thinking about what I can't control. But that will only make me miss the message. Pema Chodron wrote:
Maybe the only enemy is that we don’t like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. But what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. It just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves.
          The painting for Man (Mannaz) gives me the impression of two trees saluting each other. This rune speaks of the human dilemma found in families and societies. We depend on each other for survival and a sense of belonging, yet we also have a tendency to rip each other apart because of our obsession with "I, me, and mine." Rarely does positive change happen when individuals are self-absorbed; as Gandhi suggested, such change starts within the individual. Reality is what it is, and while I may not be able to rewrite the script, I can choose whether I respond with an open or closed heart and mind. In the VF companion book Weatherstone writes, "Your spiritual growth demands a new vision. Release your hold on what you thought was true..." That just might be the solution for getting unstuck from that web.