No Escape

From the Margarete Petersen Tarot, the Four of Flames (Wands); from the Elemental Dice, Light + Water (Rainbow):

          When I drew the Four of Wands card and rolled the Rainbow with the dice, I wanted to laugh hysterically and make some cynical post. The last few days have been filled with trying to take care of people - a daughter who collapsed at work, a MIL who is slowly dying, and a husband (who had what was supposed to be a simple surgery yesterday that got complicated). This morning I don't feel like sunshine and rainbows, I feel like I got hit by a train. But Petersen's words in her booklet cut short my whining when she described this card as the "fire of shaping." Conditions in our lives are always shaping us in one way or another. I can look at circumstances with contempt and armor my heart, or I can stay open and move through it with grace (knowing it will change). Pema Chodron wrote a book called The Wisdom of No Escape in which she suggests we stop running from what is uncomfortable and embrace all of life with a sense of inquisitiveness. "This is the process of making friends with ourselves and with our world. It involves not just the parts we like, but the whole picture, because it all has a lot to teach us." And maybe it is in the wonder of learning where that rainbow will be found.