Begin Again

From the Delta Enduring Tarot, the Seven of Oaks (Wands); from the Southernisms Oracle, "You've got gumption:"

A young hunter, looking to bring home some venison for supper's stew, finds herself the hunted. She knows a wild boar (made huge through her fear) is an aggressive animal prone to viciously attack humans or other animals. Egan relates this Seven of Wands to those who were previously considered skilled in an area and now have some severe competition. It can be difficult to be good at a job or have talents in certain areas and then suddenly find that others with newer skills are more sought after. At my age, I find it easier to learn informative knowledge than to learn procedural knowledge (how to do something). Yet the Southernisms phrase seems to cheer us on with "You've got gumption." Gumption was a term borrowed from Scotland that in the South came to mean boldness, resourcefulness and having initiative. If we enough curiosity, courage and commitment, we can learn new skills, even if it takes us a little longer. As Rich Karlgaard, author of Late Bloomers wrote, "Our brains are constantly forming neural networks and pattern-recognition capabilities that we didn’t have in our youth when we had blazing synaptic horsepower."

Try recalling what it felt like to learn how to do something new when you didn’t really care what your performance of it said about your place in the world, when you didn’t know what you didn’t know. It might feel like a whole new beginning. ~Margaret Talbot