Wildflower Gardens and Tarot Cards
A season to explore new beginnings
You might notice today’s newsletter is sent out a little late — that’s because I’m writing it on Friday morning! It was a busy week and instead of pressuring myself to meet my Thursday night deadline that nobody actually cares about, I’m working with my schedule instead of against it. Hooray for flexibility!
Today is a smorgasbord of things I’ve been loving or excited to jump into. Hopefully some of these will also be future writing topics (lol how often do I say that, right? Also on my mental list for the near future is how autism shows up uniquely in females, and the effects of high-control religion and/or authoritarian practices on teenage identity development).
First, may I introduce you to my wildflower garden:
Last fall, we tilled a bunch of grass up with the idea of making some kind of garden. I bought Ohio-local seeds off the internet, scattered them, and had essentially no idea what to expect. They looked like weeds for the longest time earlier this spring, but now look at those babies! They are SO wonderful! Best yard decision ever.
We also now have two raised bed gardens1 for veggies, and somehow we got everything planted by Mother’s Day. Now I have little beet sprouts, pea shoots, tomatoes growing taller by the day, and more! Fingers crossed we can stick with this project through the summer and actually, you know, eat the produce…
Last December, I mentioned buying a book about Tarot. It’s been sitting in the place for books I have not yet started for 5 months, but a couple of weeks ago I decided I was ready to begin my Tarot adventure. (You just have to know!). I bought a beautiful deck and a journal I stumbled upon in our local toy and book store. Now I’ve been perusing the guidebook about how to use the deck, and starting to learn what the cards mean. I haven’t even looked at all the cards yet, but I’m feeling very patient and calm about the process.
What I’m loving about what I’m learning is the emphasis on your own intuition and inner guidance. Tarot is not a fortune-telling device (at least not for most, I guess). The images are designed to speak to something deep inside you, and you have to learn to calm the outside voices and get yourself into a reflective, semi-meditative state to get the most out of the messages of the cards. It’s calling forth your own deepest truth, not having something from the outside imposed upon you.
Now for the last delicious part of my smorgasbord (for now): at the same store where I came across the luna moth journal, I found a psychology book that grabbed my attention. Turns out it’s dovetailing really nicely with the preverbal trauma training I just took, because it’s all about the transmission of intergenerational trauma, and how learning what your parents / grandparents / ancestors have been through may be vital in your own healing journey. I’n only on chapter two but I’m fascinated by what this might unlock for all of us!
I’ve been very intrigued by mind-body connections, by psychosomatic illnesses, and the myriad of information the body’s symptoms contain once we are able to listen. Another book on my don’t-touch-until-you’re-ready-to-commit reading pile is about using psychology + spirituality to help us heal physical symptoms. I am 100% going to be an eccentric2 old lady one day… warning you now.
Well! Hopefully I didn’t chase too many people away with my broadening interests — my excitement doesn’t have to be yours! — but this is my favorite time of year and I get a sense of joy from the possibilities. What have you been intrigued about lately? What’s bringing you joy in your life, or what do you hope to add?'
Do I miss living in a city sometimes? Often? Yes, I do. But on the other hand, I love that our rural town allows us to have enough land for gardens galore!
Hopefully in a good way, not in a holed-up-in-my-house, the-government-has-wiretapped-my-phone, there-are-litter-boxes-in-the-middle-school-bathrooms kind of way.
The wildflowers look amazing!!!😍 and can’t wait to read more about your tarot journey and that generational trauma book! I want to add it to my TBR list so badly, but I’m making myself pause now that summer has officially begun and my kids will be home. I just know I will only have time for the pile of books I already have 😆 can’t wait to hear more about what you think of it!
Your post showing your wildflowers has created a problem for me, which is I might need to uproot myself, pack all my belongings in a moving van, and come live next door to you. Hopefully the house next to yours is actually for sale, so I wouldn't have to become a squatter, hiding out in your neighbors' toolshed or something, furtively munching on the vegetables they're growing and drinking from their garden hose. Moving from the Sonoran Desert to rural Ohio would likely be very disruptive to my daily routines. And as an autistic person, I live and die by routines. But those flowers!!!! Oh, my Dog! They are just gorgeous. I **need** them! ;)
In all seriousness, I would love to read anything you might be willing to share with us about inter-generational trauma. Thanks for highlighting that book. I think of myself as versed in a few basics about trauma, but the inter-generational aspect is an aspect I know very little about. So, pretty please, write about that? And resetting affective circuits? :)