I use tarot and oracle cards as tools for reflection and contemplation. Rather than divining the future, they are a way for me to look more deeply at the "now."
"The goal isn't to arrive, but to meander, to saunter, to make your life a holy wandering." ~ Rami Shapiro

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Wake Up and Grab the Peanut

From the Shining Tribe Tarot, Awakening (Judgment); from the Animal Tiles, Woodpecker:
          Roshi Melissa Blacker described a riverboat trip in Costa Rican rainforest during which the tour guide stopped the boat and had them gaze at a large tree while being still and breathing deeply. After a few minutes, he said "Let me know when you see the iguana." Sure enough, as each passenger became relaxed, they were suddenly able to see the camouflaged lizard. This is what awakening is like - to encounter reality just as it is without preconception. When we drop our bias and assumptions, our hearts and minds open much wider. Our perspective completely changes.
          I've been putting raw peanuts mixed in with sunflower seeds in my feeders this year, mainly to attract several varieties of woodpeckers. But because these birds are built to grip tree bark so they can drill for insects, they don't have the ability to perch like songbirds. They first hang upside down from the feeder's ledge then sort of flop themselves ungracefully over and upright. Their babies first spend a lot of time just hanging on that ledge, unable to figure out how the parent gets to the food. Eventually through the effort of trial and error, they too figure out how to get to the peanuts. Like the woodpeckers, awakening to raw reality generally means I need to readjust my attitude and actions. Otherwise I'll keep hanging upside down, trying to convince myself (even though I've seen differently) that life is unfair.

6 comments:

  1. I like all that. We do miss so much when we are not totally present.

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    1. And to get to that present moment, I often need to get out of my head and back into my body! :)

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  2. "through trial and error" it is so important to get back again and again to the present moment, without punishing ourselves for doing it "wrong" when our mind wonders off for the trillionth time.

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    1. And then in that moment to realize the more spacious view without attaching our preferences! :)

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  3. that looks like a Northern Flicker, normally common visitors, this year zero. We've also had just one Golden Finch, normally here in herds. Worries me because of the hive fail in honey bees. Are the birds next?

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    1. Loss of habitat or food sources seems to be the biggest factor here. After a mega church bulldozed dozens of old trees in my neighborhood, it took 2 years before I saw the woodpeckers return.

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