A Harmless Deception?

I'm not fond of this little fella. Once again, I sketched the card. While drawing, I noticed his untrustworthy slitty eyes and the way his head is hidden under his collar and hair. Mary Hanson-Roberts does a good job of conveying the meanings of the card in such small details. This guy is off with your swords and hopes he won't be recognised.

Today has been good. Once again, I found myself in Pret A Manger at lunchtime, sampling their expensive lunches. I met my friend Becci, who I only usually end up seeing in the pub. On the last time we met, we suggested branching out and doing something else, so organised coffee for this week. She is a freelance journalist and had some time away from her laptop this morning, which fit in with my day off of school. It was so nice to catch up without a table of empty pint glasses and wine bottles in front of us. She is really good company and I hope that we can meet up like this again. Alcohol can really get in the way. It's funny how you can know someone for so many years, but not get to really know them. I felt as though we crossed over that line today.

On the evening before I have to go to one of my schools and teach three lessons, I just received an email to say that there has been some muck up and the materials I requested will not be here until Monday. These are the same materials that I have been waiting on for five weeks. I would have been inclined to believe that the suppliers had lost the order, but having the 7 of Swords as today's card, I am now questioning that. It would seem strange that they had lost the order a few weeks back, because my point of contact said he had only been on to them last week. I suspect that it could be a lie and he had only thought to send the order through this afternoon. He is probably panicking now, since they can't courier it over until next week. At least I know in advance and can sort something else out for the kids to do tomorrow. That means extra work for me tonight, when I should be spending quality time with my boyfriend. I wish he'd emailed three hours ago and I could have done my extra preparation then.

I often get a little worried when the bloke from the 7 of Swords tiptoes into my day, because I always assume that he represents someone else. However, he could be highlighting the sneakier and deceptive side of myself, since we are all prone to the odd little white lie or harmless deception. I have a family party to go to at the weekend and was thinking of pulling out at the last moment. This is not because I don't want to see the host, because I really want to be there for him; it has more to do with how my extended family can be and the fact that I have ignored another relative for nearly a year. I could kind of do without confronting that relative and opening that particular can of worms, and I get sick of being around a family who ask lots of questions but never bother to listen to the answers. It seemed that faking an illness and pulling out might be one way of avoiding all of that, but on thinking about it, I don't want to either disappoint or upset the guy who's birthday it is. Today's card knows what I am thinking, but chats with my lunch partners today and yesterday persuaded me to go along for his sake. Let's just hope that none of my family members read this blog. To be honest, I very much doubt that the majority of them could be bothered to. That would require a level of interest in what I have to say.



Illustrations from The Hanson-Roberts Tarot by Mary Hanson-Roberts