Saturday, 26 June 2021
Gifts Context
A spontaneous trip to the Tweed Coast has me receiving gifts, a relatively new laptop. After the first four hours of it being mine, I realised there was a cost to pay.
Gifts that Come at a Cost
When a friend gives you a gaming laptop they’re no longer using; it’s important to not just wipe user data but to reload the operating system. Trust me, not doing the wipe can cause you pain.
The gift of the laptop was incredibly generous. Okay, so I paid a small amount for it, but it would be worth it. Wouldn’t it? This weekend we went to my bestie’s place. Her husband is the one who has been helping me with cryptocurrency.
Because I use many Apple products, it’s difficult for Stew to help me navigate around the screen and environment, even if he had visual access to my machine. His old laptop became my new laptop. This new laptop was going to make my life easier. Stew was going to help set up everything and be ready when I went home.
Setting up was anticipated to take a long time because applications needed installation and new links established. When it comes to technology, you get used to a level of responsiveness and expect the same responsiveness everywhere. If the responsiveness isn’t delivering, you can become impatient.
There comes the point where you are mockingly banging your head on the keyboard because of the PCs slowness. You can literally make a cup of tea/ coffee between clicks on the screen. I am not kidding! Argh!!! Because it was a gift, I didn’t want to bag/ rag on the computer’s slowness too much, and certainly not in anything but a joking tone.
There’s also an additional level of expectation if you’re the gift giver that the gift you give will function as well as it always had for you. When it’s not performing as expected, you’re a little embarrassed. Then between gift giver and receiver, exhausted and tired, the tension can build.
Realising the Gift is Broken
Even the most optimistic soul needs to know when to call it a day. There was a little bit of tension, but neither one of us wanted to upset the other. After all, we respected each other enough to feel the moment and then let it go.
Late that night, Stew suspected his error. Realising you’ve made an error in not reinstalling the operating system has just caused a delay. Of course, it’s an older laptop, so it might also have processing issues.
Luckily for me, Stew had a second spare laptop! Wow! Overnight Stew set to give the new old machine to do a complete wipe and reset. You know the saying, if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try and try again and then quit – there’s no point making a fool of yourself!
What impressed me was that we did curb our tension; I suspect that we both realised it’s late and the computer was the cause of frustration. Not getting upset by it, just impatience; I feel it helped us both.
Hopefully, things will look better in the morning. 🥱
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Carryover Cards
Two cards carried over from yesterday; Change moved from Future Energy to Others’ Views, and Conditioning moved from Distant Past to Hopes & Fears.
Cross gifts
Travelling in the Now describes the travel neatly to my friends’ place. The journey was an impromptu excursion for the weekend.
Turning In is the Influence position. When my friend called and said we should come down to get the laptop and do it this weekend because some of the cryptocurrency needed investing in a certain way – I went.
I like to think my decision wasn’t motivated this weekend by money. But that’s probably a lie, I tell myself. Just because I don’t think about money, all the time doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a hold on me. This motivation made me reflect (Turning In) on my substance.
As it worked out, Goal wise I’m also motivated by Experiencing new and spontaneous activities. An unplanned trip to the Tweed Coast was the best activity to tick that box. It also provided an opportunity to confirm some advice I’d received in the Distant Past for Guidance on cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is such a rapidly changing world. Last time, Day 163, it was all about getting Panthers and Sharks. This time it’s ditching the Panthers and buy more Sharks! That would be great if I knew what it all meant.
With much heavy thinking and asking many stupid questions in the Recent Past, I gained a glimmer of Understanding. Comprehension is what drove the travel. Get it? “Drove” is what you do as part of travel.
Now that I have Understanding the Future Energy, it tells me to listen to my Inner Voice on what to do next.
Base
My Feelings are of Exhaustion. Before the impromptu travel, I was looking forward to catching up on writing articles and sleep. I enjoy being with my friends, but there are times when taking a much needed time to recover from the week’s ravages is necessary.
Perhaps my questions stopped, or maybe I’d conveyed a level of knowledge when it came to the gift, but Others’ Views is that I have a Change afoot or I am changing.
Hopes & Fears were Conditioning in the Distant Past yesterday, but today steps in for hope and fear. Conditioning is about stepping away from the artificial ego. It’s the one to gets upset before you’ve had a chance to think about things. I hope to not succumb to my fake alter ego and fear I don’t have enough control over my mind to shift old habits.
Conditioning is also about training your mind to be more focused and more receptive. To do this, you need to use your Creativity, which is the link to your intuition.
The final card is Creativity. Creativity is required to piece together the new information into an accessible and logical format.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
