This poem has gone viral, with good reason …

It reminds me of a recent posting by Grace. Both have been much on my mind as I move through each day’s routines, which include reading about and creating card/collages inspired by Tarot …

• 78 Degrees:  The Two of Pentacles implies a hidden magic in ordinary pleasures
• Kitchen Table Tarot: juggling … regardless of the surrounding chaos … balance
• The Creative Tarot: things are unstable … and yet … happy … things have shifted … it’s time to take on a new task that is also a diversion … to hunker down and focus …

About mid-way into the planning for the project I had decided the Texas Tarot pentacles would be grasses and shrubs, although I didn’t assign specific plants to each card, deciding to let circumstances show the way. Well, have they ever.

Looking at this most recently drawn Cosmic tarot card made me think of my grandkids beachcombing along the shore …

And we were, indeed, supposed to be vacationing on the Gulf Coast today, until we weren’t. Likewise, travel plans to St Louis have been cancelled in the cascade of closings and rethinkings that COVID-19 has triggered. We wonder if the planned-for family in June is even possible anymore. But wondering will not change a thing.

Instead, we are reading books and giving art “classes” to our Austin and St Louis grandkids via FaceTime …

And in my mind, I walked the trails behind the Hill Country house. Remembering the grasses that grow in the early spring … Texas Wintergrass and Rescue Grass … and the anoles, coming out to sit in the sun …

Balancing the realization that I cannot return to the past, nor do I wish to race toward the future.

Instead, I will stay here, now … grateful to have technology that enables me to recall golden memories and to create new ones with our family.

Glad in the knowledge that our oldest granddaughter, at least, can still walk along a sandy shore …

I really do draw the tarot cards randomly, and they have yet to disappoint me. Today, I dared hope for a Wand card. Wands are wildflowers in my Texas Tarot world and wildflowers are the essence of green. Green for Marti, who loves green most of all. No surprise that I drew a Wand … the Ace no less.

Along the way to picking out images for the card/collage, my eye kept catching on book covers that ultimately led to this impromptu celebration of St Patrick’s Day …

Then turning my attention to the tarot books, I found them to be rich …

• 78 Degrees: a gift from life … the card teaches humility for it reminds us that we have done nothing morally to deserve the optimism and greater energy that sometimes overwhelms other people
• Kitchen Table Tarot:  the universe is handing you some good karma, but what you do with it is up to you
• The Creative Tarot: the Ace of Wands sparks courage and inspiration … you find faith – in yourself, with the divine, with one another … it is the feeling of being on another plane of existence … (of course) it’s hard to get a lot of work done when your hair is on fire …

Who, me?

I already knew the images I wanted to use from the blog: a single Mexican hat blossom, a field of blooms, and cloth dyed with Ratibida colunifera (aka thimble flower and prairie coneflower). Sadly, the vivid blue faded to gray over time (as did the yellow cloth dyed with mountain pinks), but its brilliance remains in my memory and in this picture.

The book covers provided a suitable pair of hands and I was done …

May we be safe … may we be healthy … may we be happy … may we be at peace …

I won’t lie … Covid-19 is coloring (dimming?) my view of everything. Which is why I was initially inclined to go to the dark side of the King of Swords.

• 78 Degrees:  the tendency of government and rulers to divorce their judgments from the needs of the people … the remote King … harsh, cold, judgmental …

My pick for this card/collage was the red-tailed hawk, flying high above the world with its piercing “kyr” … remote … harsh … not a creature that brings altruism to mind.

It didn’t help that I had The Eagle and the Hawk playing in my head, with John Denver’s lyric “I am the hawk and there’s blood on my feathers.”

Fortunately, I kept reading …

• 78 Degrees: a master of wisdom compelling us to recognize and hold on to the truth
• Kitchen Table Tarot: it is his job to keep the kingdom running … being sure everyone has food to eat
• The Creative Tarot: he wants conversation to think through his ideas and also to allow others to influence him … he wants to read and to know

Kinda what you wish for in a president, come to think of it.

Anyway, I started with a lot of covers …

and more than one arrangement …

before ending with this pared down version …

the music still playing in my mind …

“Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops
Sail o’er the canyons and up to the stars
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
And all that we can be and not what we are”