Card of the Day: King of Swords

Another day of snow, fever and sleeping in late.

However, restless sleep can occasionally offer up dreams, visions and inspiration. It can also, like driving, provide insight into unsolved problems or challenges (PC speak).

Like the King of Swords, it is time for impartial and cold judgment...and not unfocused dreams.

Pondering an approach to a one year plan, I believe I can work on writing in the mornings, and visual art in the afternoon into the evening--occasionally merging the two.

I also believe I am more capable of short stories than a full blown novel, and that many of the purple folders that have accumulated over the years of scattered writing can be properly set into a framework that will hold together as a finished piece.

It is also possible to take on some collaborative work as recently suggested by two friends, and I have tentatively agreed to one of the suggestions. Tonight I will hear the details and its intent.




So, like Solomon, I will put forth the complete child rather than persist in separating and segregating the two, and abandon the notion that I can't do both visual art and write simultaneously.












Image: Golden Tarot, Karen Black; King Solomon painting

King of Swords (Spades)

Where am I now and where am I going?

Since facilitating the PW workshop on Saturday, I've been in a quiet place of unconscious and occasionally conscious introspection. Nothing material has really been accomplished and my time has been slipping through the hourglass with much pondering, some worrying and a few moments of wonderment.

The pondering is focused on "what to accomplish next and how?" The worrying is about the state of the economy and my own limited resources.

I appear to be consumed with news, good and bad and particularly about the election. I am convinced that the Republican ticket will be bad for the economy and very bad for me. I worry about the outcome and don't feel more heartened by the number of robo calls I am getting from the Democrats.

Today my phone rang and I picked it up to hear former President Clinton's voice encouraging me to vote the Democratic ticket. In the last week I've heard from the Governor, the Democratic Party, our local Congressman and now a former President.

In previous years, I was registered as an Independent--it was difficult to do otherwise. Now that I've enrolled in the Party, these calls are both fascinating but also telling of how folks are scrambling in a hardscrabble election year.

It doesn't put my mind at rest, but rather unnerves me.

The wonderment is how small things can be the best of all.

This week I received my Pelikan M200 nibs from Chartpak and had a terrific conversation with Abi on the phone today.

While 40,000 of us had an 18-hr power outage, I had a wool cape I bought at a yard sale for five dollars to keep me warm indoors.

And finally today I signed up for National Novel Writing Month for the first time. I have had friends and acquaintances attempt to write a novel in 30 days, but it didn't appeal to me. Now I've signed up, not necessarily with the intention of writing a novel in thirty days, to jump start my lagging daily writing.

Imagine: Spanish painting of King Solomon (perhaps in an old tarot deck).

King of Swords (Spades)

One of my many challenges before Christmas is to paint the Princess Room, the name my grand-daughter gave it when she visited last time. I am saving some Princess wallpaper for her, but hope to have it done up in earth colours before Santa Claus arrives.

So, the entire second storey is in mini-chaos including the absence of an end table where I would normally have my current reading material and a tarot deck.

The Golden Tarot has become my back up deck and tonight after a long, insightful talk with my child, I pulled the King of Swords after fetching it from its unfamiliar corner.

Then I went back to my note-taking for this Saturday's workshop.