14 February 2021
Context
Welcome to Day 45!
Just recapping my dilemma from yesterday, I had accidentally bought a pack of “Bone”, which is ground up gelatin and is 100% beef. This came as a shock when I got it home, because I thought the shop assistant had picked up on me being vegetarian. The focus of my request however, was on what would help best heal my broken ankle. The dilemma this morning ended when I asked my husband to open the pack, figuring that for some reason I was meant to wind up with this “stuff”. The tablespoon of gelatin was added to my Berocca and mineral mix and didn’t taste very nice.
Following consumption, my energy dropped and I went for a two hour nap. If you’ve been following the posts, you’ll know that napping is something that has only recently entered my life. Recently, being since my broken ankle, and definitely hasn’t happened in the late morning for ages. I came to realise that perhaps, this has come across my path because I was meant to become aware of my aversion to just a lump of gelatin.
In the early stages, this reaction could also be part of the detoxing process. Nonetheless, the dilemma of the day was what do I do with the product if I am not going to use it? Especially, since only yesterday I was trying to not have the animal die for nothing. What if I gave the pack to the lady at the store for her personal use, I could then buy a plant-based replacement and feel much better?
Anyway, I will find a use for it and honour the animal and myself somehow. It has started me thinking on other food stuffs to avoid that contain gelatin. The difference is that, in sweets or candies it’s not a tablespoon all at one time. Given that tomorrow is Monday, I’m unlikely to get any progress until next weekend – given the constraining factor of my broken ankle.
This afternoon, I intuited calling my friend Rita out of the blue. Rita and I spoke for a wonderful two hours. The conversation just drifted in and out of subjects with ease. Guess we both needed the interaction.
Following that conversation, my husband got a call advising him that his father had gone into hospital, with pain in his stomach radiating up toward his heart. A couple of hours later after a series of tests, father-in-law was cleared and allowed to go home. Fortunately, it was nothing serious.
With all that excitement, writing my post was put on the backburner.
So, let’s see what the cards have to say.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
The Creator is in the Now position. Given the situation I wound up in I am not going to use the Osho interpretation of the card but more it’s name. The Creator in the circumstance of the gelatin purchase, it me and the circumstance is of my own doing. The reason I am yet unclear about but feel there’s a subtle acorn of knowledge slowing coming to light around my vegetarian life choices.
Playfulness is the Influence card in position two. Playfulness is about owning your actions and enjoying the feeling of being alive. In a sense, follow your bliss. If Playfulness is the blocker, it would be preventing me from looking at my situation in possibly a slightly more meaningful way.
In the third position occupying the Goal is Ripeness. Ripeness is about being ready for a change, the situation or circumstance I have been in needs to shift. For those cheeky people, thinking it’s me needing to eat meat again; I’m sure that that’s not the case. If anything, there might be a greater push to be more aware of what I am purchasing on faith.
Courage sits in the Distant Past position. You know, Courage always seems to come up in the Distant Past spot, when I don’t ever remember being courageous. For me, it took Courage to try the bone mix. While I don’t regret the decision (except perhaps financially), I am sad that I have now supported the industry with a sale. This isn’t because I dislike any of the meat producing industries. But to try it, was akin to asking me to drink my own urine. You know that technically, it shouldn’t be too bad for you because anything coming out has already been in your body, it’s just a little off-putting.
The Recent Past position has Stress. There are no points for guessing what has been causing my stress – to consume the gelatin or not consume the gelatin? The appearance of the Stress card in this spot shows me that it’s caused me more stress than I’ve let on, even to myself. Oh, okay. There is the chance that it related to my father-in-law’s circumstance, since that was more recent that the silly gelatin situation.
Position six is the Future Energy spot and has the Patience card. Argh!!! Patience. This is where, I have spent money to help heal my foot and have tried the potion that is supposed to work, only to discover that it does not agree with any part of me. My guess is that this too could relate beyond the gelatin situation and to that of my father-in-law’s condition. It was quite concerning until we received communication that he was okay. The time until we knew the outcome, certainly required Patience.
My Feelings toward the Now situation are reflected in position seven with the Awareness card. Awareness card seems to indicate that I am slowing becoming aware at how strongly I like being vegetarian. The Awareness also prompts me to wonder how life should move forward. Living with regrets is not a good thing, my father-in-law’s situation reminded us/ me that, although not serious living with self-manufactured stress is just a waste of living time.
Exhaustion shows up in the Other People’s Views position and it was here in the same position on Day 43. Exhaustion is more than simply fighting sleep, it’s also about the unnecessary stress I created for myself. Unfortunately, dear reader exhaustion will translate into my posts and for that I’m sorry. So, am I exhausted? In short, yes!
Hopes and Fears has the card of Abundance as the ninth card. It’s nice to see this card, even if it is in the position of Hopes and Fears. The Hope is that the website continues to grow and is successful and I get in touch with my “The Creator“. In this context The Creator is in the true sense of the Osho sense, where I become a creator of myself and become a masterpiece of me. Of course, such a creation is quite scary because it implies changing things about yourself The Fear is that not all change is progress as not all movement is forward, kind of thing. (By the way, I think I picked up that last bit in a leadership/ management workshop, so not my quote).
The end result or Outcome in position ten sees all the stress eventually reach a point where Healing occurs. Awareness or identification of the issue is the first step in the healing adventure. Not being able to move about freely has given me plenty of opportunity to ponder exactly what needs healing. But seriously, when does it all stop?! *smile*.
Of course, it’s all about the continuous healing spiral of improvement. So, not for a while then (?)….
References
Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7