Tarot: Your intuitive introspection tool
Tarot, like astrology, runestones, reading tea leaves, etc., are tools to help us to consider parts of our consciousness that are otherwise difficult to confront. What if you’re not entirely sure how to get started with tarot, or you’ve tried but come up against some blocks? You don’t need a degree, or even a fondness for symbols, or anything, really. Just a willingness to look openly and honestly, and a deck.
Here are my tips for tarot newbies…
How the Aziz Ansari accusation highlights differences in consent among the generations
I’ve been a fan of Aziz Ansari for years. So when I saw his name pop up in the headlines attached to a sexual encounter, my heart dropped. The issue wasn’t whether she was believed or “right” for me, it was how responses in the media seemed very much divided by age. And where we go from here when it’s not a cut and dry issue of power structures, but rather how consent is dealt with between all of us. Here’s how I’m seeing responses in the different generations…
#MeToo pissed me off until I looked inside to see why
When I checked Facebook, nearly every status said or referred to #MeToo. I felt annoyed at the whiplash of public consciousness, that we were constantly ping-ponged from tragedy to tragedy. I assumed it would die out within a few days when something else came up for everyone to angst about online. Obviously, I was wrong. Instead of dying out, #MeToo has grown and started a cultural shift so grand and overdue and amazing that it still feels too good to be true. Women are rising and abusive men are falling. Still, instead of celebrating, I felt disgust. I had to finally sit down and journal about this to try to figure out why. As I wrote, I peeled back the layers of my reaction.
Opposite Action: using negative emotional prompts for positive outcomes
We all have so many things we know we SHOULD do, but ug it’s so hard to make the time to do new things… especially when we’re all so busy being stressed out, restlessly bored, vaguely miserable, generally unhappy, dealing with floating rage, or whatever your personal favorite miserable brain loop is.
But what if you used that misery to help you do something awesome?
A letter to my goddaughter about religion
Agapi mou, I don’t know how much you understood about what your yaya and I were saying tonight. You seemed pretty into the cool new Barbie™ Theia Athena bought you. But even if you didn’t notice now, I imagine that one day you will have questions, so I wanted to address them — while some […]
Privilege & bigotry: how I’m owning it and un-learning false narratives
I am a white male from a small village in North Wales, UK. I married a white American female. I am a step-parent of a young child with whom I get along very well; we are a very close family who always strives to support each other unconditionally in any way possible. I was born within the NHS (National Health Service) and was raised to respect everyone and treat people equally. I have been blessed to have many opportunities in life that others have not had. Here’s how I’m acknowledging my privilege and bigotry and making sure I’m striving to use these privileges to be a voice of reason to those who may not understand or have the same privileges as myself.
What cooking taught me about life
I didn’t begin cooking from scratch until I hit my 30s. Prior to that it was a lot of arranging food or eating pre-made stuff. Turns out, I really enjoyed it, started a food blog, and now cook super often. It’s fun, but it’s been a little revealing when it comes to living life in general.
Cooking can actually be an analogy for life. That’s no revelation to most people, but it has been for me. Here are some cooking life lessons: what cooking taught me about life and happiness…
False dichotomies: What if the opposite of trying too hard isn’t being lazy?
What’s the thing that you MOST identify with? If you had to pick one quality that most defines who you are and everything you do, what would it be? And then what’s the opposite? And then what if YOU’RE TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT THAT?!
Here’s the favorite thing I learned at my midlife crisis workshop…