Relaxing out of the Whirlwind

Today's card brings me a seed. Beneath the soil, it symbolises something which is beginning to grow. We nurture it with our care and attention, as shown by the hands in the painting which keep it warm. One day we will receive it's reward, which is shown here as peaches. In conventional tarot, this card would be the Ace of Pentacles, but here it is titled Prosperity Begins.

As you can see, Santa has been and brought me The Psychic Tarot Oracle. I had been considering this deck for over a year. When I was talking to a woman in a shop in London about it, she said that it had literally flown off of the shelves and proved to be very popular. I thought that it appeared interesting online, but in person, it is very attractive. It has gold gilding on the edges and a luxurious helping of lamination, but rather than being sickly sweet, it feels very wholesome and down to earth. I had been a bit worried about the omission of both court cards and the 'tens', but holding it in my hand, the deck feels complete.

My boyfriend and I went out for a while on Christmas Eve (our morning plans to meet my friend were cancelled for the third time). While out, I received a call. Unfortunately, as well as bringing things at Christmas, Santa also takes too. My best mate called me to tell me that our friend, who I wrote about in a recent post, had died that morning. She was in her late 30's. She had hoped to stay alive until January, which is when her only daughter turns 1, but couldn't fight her cancer any longer. Apparently, she passed away at 11am, surrounded by her family. Even though we had expected this to happen at some time soon, the news really knocked me. It hit me the hardest on Christmas morning, when I had to go upstairs and take a break from the opening of presents, just to let the emotion out. All of this has happened so quickly. I can't believe that she has gone.

My boyfriend and I spent Christmas morning with my parents and then headed over to his. We shared the day with them, his sister's family, and their nan. We had a lovely meal, and afterwards, it came to the time to swap gifts. The youngest of the three children there, Sophie, dished out the presents to everyone from under the tree. As the ones from the outside of the tree were soon opened, her job became more difficult, as we watched her tunnelling under the tree's branches with her feet hanging out, trying to get to the gifts at the back. When we read the label and she discovered that a present was for her, she was so excited. We bought her a toy ironing board, which my boyfriend put together for her to play with. All three of the children were perfectly behaved all day.

This morning, we spent a little time with my boyfriend's brother, sister-in-law, and their two little girls. One is not a year old yet. I get on so well with all of his family. We swapped gifts with them and they gave me a wonderful sewing bible. We spent this afternoon at my house with my family and have just finished watching the news. I had been following the story of the missing architecture student in Bristol and am really sad to hear that her body was found yesterday. My sadness was then suddenly turned to anger as I watched the next item, which showed hundreds of people elbowing each other out of the way and arguing with one another as they tried their best to get cut price goods in the Boxing Day sales. Some people just don't know what's worth fighting for. I want to relax out of the whirlwind of the last few days, but need to start to pack this evening before our drive to Birmingham in the morning.

Illustration from The Psychic Tarot Oracle by John Matson