Day 017 – Stress on Weekend Vacation?

Position one is Maturity.  In the Now spot it speaks to a coming to oneself.  With the experience is the reward of centred-ness and peace.  It is the last card in the suite and is about not finalizing a situation but more reaching a peak.  Just because you reach the top of a mountain ledge doesn’t mean the journey is over.  It is the point reached at a particular point on a path.   In the mountain analogy the next ledge will be it’s own journey and have different lessons to experience.

The Maturity is the weekend vacation.  Today it had reached its peak and tomorrow will be time for the weekend to change direction.

Position two is Stress.  Since yesterday, I’ve had the itching of a cold sore beginning.  Cold sores usually manifest in me when I’m feeling a little stressed.

It’s shown upon in position two as an Influencer because the cold sore and its cause subtly impact the mature point of the weekend.

I’m surprised that the cold sore hadn’t manifested earlier following the call from Betty.  However, up until yesterday afternoon I hadn’t really put much further thought into the situation.

The situation needed to cool down.  Now that it was starting to cool, it was a question of what to do next.

When the cold sore appeared – metaphysically representing holding back words that you’re boiling to say – it was no real surprise.

Oh yeah, if you’re not used to me, I tend to believe that, “the body cries the tears that you don’t” and the area that is stressed will manifest a reflection of the pain you’re feeling in some form.  It’s definitely along the lines of Louise Hays or Annette Noontil’s works on the same concept (both of which I’ve read).

Another subtle stress is that I need to go back to work soon.  The luxury of taking my time to write these posts will be over and I will need to establish a new routine that allows for the additional time.

Position three is Adventure.  Adventure is that sense of wonder and appreciating everything as if it were new.  To have this appear in the Goal position makes sense that the Goal would be to replicate where possible the experience of yesterday.  I’m talking about the energy of yesterday not necessarily the same activities.

Position four is Friendliness.  In the Distant Past is Friendliness and Friendliness is about companionship and being each comfortable within yourself but companionably so.  This has formed the foundations for the card of Maturity, and Adventure.

Position five is Politics and is the Recent Past.  This card typically portrays a discord between external actions and feelings felt.  It is sometimes necessary to play politics and have the duality to maintain the peace.

The only time in the day where it was necessary to be this kind of political was when we went for a gelato at Gelatissimo, Cooloongatta.

It was when a lady who had obviously arrived after we had, made out to be looking at the flavours on offer and then stepped up as if she were the next rightful person in line.

If there’s one thing most Australians don’t like are queue jumpers or people who cut in line ahead of others who had been waiting.

On a side note, for me personally, it was something I found bizarre when visiting Japan.  If I was the first in line at a bus stop or in front of a lift/ elevator I expected to be first on the bus – otherwise what was the point of getting there early?

Anyway, I frequently ended up last getting on or in whatever mode of transport on offer. This, to me, didn’t sit with the reputation of politeness for which Japan was/ is renowned It was the only discord.

On the other hand Australians are good at being amicable and not causing a fuss – most of the time.  Having to say something to a queue jumper is not something we like doing but it will happen.

Anyway, when she cut in line, I bristled and she ignored it – OMG!  Anyway, I turned to view the reactions of those behind me to gauge whether I should trigger a raucous. Fortunately, there was a resigned shrug by those that saw the action and for today, peace was had and politics played.  Let it be known that no-one was happy with what transpired.

Position six is Courage.  The Courage card is in the Future Energy position and given that this was this morning and I’m not looking back on the day, this could relate to the swim across the harbour.  Why was this courageous?  Mainly because not a lot of people brave the slightly deeper water.

From a personal perspective, I felt brave doing it, it was a reasonable distance.  Not having swum for some time wasn’t quite sure if I would be able to make it.  Upon successful completion of one way, a return swim boosted my confidence.

Position seven is Feelings and Postponement.  As I’ve said, this card played with my mind a little today.  Never really sure what it’s referring to.  The question was always, “to type or not to type?” or “if I do this am I ignoring that?”

To put it bluntly, there was always something being postponed as something else was being completed.  Postponing only seemed to cause more stress than needed.  Obviously, this is an area upon which I can improve.

That said there were certainly times when I “fluffed” about and stuff I needed to get done didn’t at the time activities.

The consequence of delaying things is that at some point you will miss at best fun at worst something crucial.  As the Osho book so succinctly points out, “postponement is stupid”.  Having said that there is an important lesson from looking at a card and not realising the position in the layout it is in.

For instance, today Postponement was in the Feelings position.  Feelings aren’t facts but they help point you in the direction in which you need to take action.

Position eight is Morality.  Morality in Other People’s Views or how other people see me.  This may once again relate to the gelato line incident.  Not making a fuss was the right thing to do, it kept the peace.  The look from those behind us absolved me of the responsibility to act – again I was doing the right thing, although it caused me anxiety.  Had those behind me shown more discontent my obligation would have been to say something, the social conditioning dilemma.  The Morality card on display at its finest pincer move.

Position nine is Harmony.  Harmony reflected in the Hopes & Fears position seems obvious with respect to the hope part.  Realistically the lack of harmony seems obvious to me as well.

The reason we, and I include the people in line at the Gelatissmo shop didn’t want to make a fuss was harmony.  The fear of disharmony on such a beautiful night would have ruined many people’s experience should the encounter have gotten a little tense or an exchange of rude words occurred. People don’t like being picked up when they’ve done something they know is wrong.  It tends to create an angry response at the person pointing it out, when they’re just mad at themselves for doing the “wrong” thing and being caught.

Position ten is Innocence.  The Outcome of today’s reason was Innocence. Innocence is depicted by an elderly gentleman simply enjoying the playful interaction with a praying mantis.  At his age, Innocence almost seems to be the wrong word how can he be innocent?

Innocent is that sense of wonder expressed by the Adventure card in the Goal position.  Obviously, when you have a goal and an outcome that align and there’s only one card reflecting the same thing, there needs to be a card that expresses something similar.

The next question to ask is, “why is it that the Innocence card is in the Outcome position and the Adventure is in the Goal position and not the other way around?”

Innocence represents a letting go or an end point where one has been on an adventure and come by innocence by letting go of negativity.  Where adventure is the start of the journey yet to begin. There is nothing to let go of as yet because the experience is still to happen.

For today, at least, this fittingly applies to the day and its outcome.