Monday, 6 September 2021
No to Charities Context
One of the disadvantages of working from home is having charities rock up on your front door. Every charity is a worthy cause, at least from the perspective of the campaigners. Each campaigner is earnest, or appear so, therefore saying “no to charities” is always a struggle for me.
A friend of mine considers charities leeches; she had a bad experience with them when her grandfather was dying. The fundraising from the organisations persistently tried contacting him in his ailing state in the hope of having money left to them in his will. Obviously, hounding the ill is morbid and crude. Consequently, when she arrived on the scene, she monitored the hounding and didn’t struggle to say no to charities.
Fortunately, I’m at an advantage when I’m working from home. Firstly, I’m not keen on being interrupted for a lengthy conversation that isn’t work-related – a delivery of “sign here” is about my tolerance level for exchange. Secondly, if a meeting is in progress, I will forego conversations and move the charity along. Thirdly, saying no to charities while I’m in work mode is more manageable. Finally, I had recently committed to another charity, fulfilling my charity quota for the month.
If the charities were hoping to catch me while busy and off-guard, as they did, my defensive stance comes to my rescue. Having these advantages had the charity on the back foot before they started. I’m unlikely to sign away financial information when a lot is going on.
Don’t get me wrong, I contribute substantially to charities, and even on Day 208, I was hoping to do a fundraising charity walk. It’s just that when you have six charities on the go, there’s a limit. I found my tolerance level today.
Today's Cards
The Cards - No to Charities Analysis
Carryover Cards
No cards carried over from yesterday.
Cross
In the Distant Past, The Burden of not saying no to charities weighed on me. In the Recent Past, Possibilities for the investment made me realise that I’d like to draw the line somewhere.
Other people’s Projections on what their expectations of me are also irked me. These Projections influenced The Rebel in me to appear. Strangely, I felt liberated in saying enough, and in a sense, this was a Breakthrough (Future Energy).
Today, I felt projected upon; for instance, during the discussion with the campaigner, comments were made about my good character and what I like and don’t like – how would they know? They don’t know me. Sure we make impressions in next to no time before we even start a discourse.
However, a discussion can reveal intent, and a person’s intentions is a critical deciding factor in my world. Thus, an identifiable Breakthrough aligning nicely with the Goal on the topic, which was to have a Transformation. A Transformation is about not being able to “unknow” something.
Base
When a seek breaks through its encasement into the world with a Breakthrough, you might feel empowered, or like you’re Flowering, much like I did today.
Others’ Views, and I’m going to call the campaigners, felt that we had made a Compromise. A Compromise is like nobody wins. It’s a reasonable meeting of ends but unsatisfying.
I didn’t feel that way, but they left empty-handed with a promise that I would seek out their website as a possibility to support the cause should I stop supporting one of the others I’m sponsoring. By the way, I did visit the website.
Hopes & Fears has the Slowing Down card. Ideally, I’d been hoping to slow down when it came to my charities and learning how to say no to charities. The fear of not being able to say no to charities scared me.
Finally, there’s a sense of Completion in the Outcome position. The Completion card echoes the Breakthrough card and fulfils, in part, the Goal of Transformation, all because I learnt to say no to charities.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
- Tarot Layouts per month
