Monday, September 29, 2014

Nature's Wisdom for a Beautiful Life

Today I'm featuring a guest post from my friend Fatima Sissoko. She originally posted this on Facebook and it was so beautiful and true, I just knew it belonged here! For more from Fatima, please visit her blog Charmed and Strangerous.

Naturally, Human Nurture
Whenever I hear people discussing and lamenting over how people change, I like to remind myself that humans can always learn from Nature, whence we came and where we will return after our stint here on Earth.
When people grow cold and indifferent and their long record of loyalty and commitment grow shorter like autumn days, remember that vegetation copes with the colder months by shedding their superficial layers.
Remember that underneath is a network of roots and support systems that keep the plant alive. Then so must you, finding those people who are willing to keep you alive during your hardships, who are willing to act as your hearth when others are chilled towards you.
There are some people, though, that seem dormant, static, unresponsive, but all they need are the right conditions to bloom and to thrive. Some people are born hardy but only bloom when they have enough of the right resources to nourish their beauty. They are waiting for their morning chill to give over to new springs of life.
And when you find dead parts about you, parts that may be holding you back or, perhaps, even killing you slowly, remind yourself to prune those parts of you in order to see more growth in your future. Worry less about the loss of the living and focus more on unloading the burden of dead weight, so that you don’t break yourself under the pressure.
Remember that there is no sadness coded in the cycles of Life. Be reassured that what goes around will surely come back around to remind you that love, happiness, pain, beauty, and death are all the same word for human nature because to be human is to mimic creation in all its forms, including the first frosts that signal the onset of closing chapters.
And lastly, remember that which we miss and those who we cherish are demonstrated in our abilities to survive icy, winter storms. To fashion better stories we first have to live to tell our tales.

Usually I would write something pithy and poignant here but I simply can't follow Miss Sissoko's wonderful words. Bravo, Tima, and encore!

And, as always, double underlined links/ads are not my doing. They are generated without my consent and I have no control over the content.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

True Love

Just a thought before I drift off to Dreamland...

I just got back from the Yami Bolo show. He sang a song which goes, in part, "Jah Jah give me true love. I need not search no more." I really don't know if he said this or not, because I don't believe he generally does, but at one point I heard "Jah Jah teach me true love." And I think, yes, that IS the point. Receiving God's perfect love teaches us how to give that same love to others.

Blessings! 



A note on the video: It was the only vid of this song I could find using the Blogger link embed feature. Usually doesn't sound quite like this. I'm betting it's because he's apparently playing with a recording here. Tonight he was playing with a live band and they were hot like fire! (Pictured above, at top.) If you follow the link by clicking the word "song" in the third sentence it SHOULD take you to a better version. For some reason it comes up as a totally different video when I try to embed it.



As always, a warning not to click the uninvited links.


Friday, September 12, 2014

Ask Your Reader and Being Stuck

The title of this post harkens back to my last post, Meet Your Reader. Now that you know me, I hope you'll feel more comfortable coming to me with whatever is on your mind/heart/spirit. Much like my last post, this one is very uncomfortable for me to write because it hints at that which is exemplified by having a blog at all: Arrogance. See, in order to write a blog you first must assume you have something to say that is worth reading. Today I'm suggesting that I might even have something helpful to say. A lot of people come to me for advice, and not just in my capacity as a Tarot reader. A couple people have even said I'm their conscience. Sounds arrogant, doesn't it? Hey, they said it, not me! So, in a move of supreme arrogance I'm introducing a new feature to the blog, a sort of advice column. In our area there is a neighborhood where trendy, young hipsters hang out called Ghent. There is a Facebook page called Ghent Confessions to which people write in their confessions anonymously using ask.fm. Then other people proceed to say all kinds of horrible things to the confessor. I thought that so many of these people want help but all they get on Ghent Confessions is hate. Wouldn't it be nice for people to submit these things to someone who would actually want to help them?! So, I've launched the Bridge Tarot ask.fm service. At least until I figure out how to add it more permanently to my site, I'll be adding that link to every new blog post. Remember, this is for normal advice or questions about something you think I might have special knowledge about like mythology, shamanism, affirmative prayer, etc. If I don't have a complete enough answer for you I will do my best to put you in contact with a better source. If you would like a Tarot reading, please contact me through a private message via Gmail or Facebook. Now, without further ado, the conversation that gave me the inspiration for this new service. I thought it would be helpful to leave this in dialogue, since that is the most natural mode for the human mind to exchange information. This is a reproduction of a text message conversation, with the permission of the other person, who will remain anonymous. We will call this person Blue, in honor of the Doctor Who episode I watched last night. Anything in [brackets] is added for explication and flavor.

[I see a post on Facebook that makes me concerned for "Blue". I text.]


Me: You ok?
Blue: Yeah, just discouraged. I feel like things aren't getting any better or more resolved. : /
Me: Two things have recently given me this message: Sometimes the best thing to do is just wait. Waiting can be necessary and helpful. When things feel stuck there is a lesson waiting to be learned in order to move on to the next level. [Frequently, when I am supposed to be learning something, a friend will come to me with a similar issue so we can learn it together and help each other.]
Blue: But what's the line? At what point does waiting go from being patient to being ineffectual?
Me: It's not about being patient but rather about being present.
Blue: Can you explain this concept of being present, and in what context?
Me. The waiting exists for a reason. It has a cause. It has a solution. It has a lesson. The solution is learning the lesson. The lesson is related to the cause. Better?
Blue: I think so, O vague mystic...
Me [because my sense of humor was surgically removed at birth]: Mysticism is necessarily vague. The Divine can't be expressed in language. Only in experience.
Blue: Goethe said we should speak less and, like nature, draw more. Create sketches.
Me [oblivious to what Blue just said because I'm typing frantically]: Basically whatever situation you're stuck in, you're stuck in for a reason. When you figure out what is causing the stagnation you will have learned something. Like a doctor discovering a new illness. Once you recognize the pathogen you can develop a cure [I'm no biologist, so don't fault me if this is technically incorrect in some inconvenient fashion.] This, of course, happens on both a literal cause and effect level and on the spiritual level of the soul contract you wrote for yourself.
Me [finally catching up with what Blue has said]: I was never very good at the visual arts.
Blue: Trust me, I've been wracking my brain over it like crazy. Soul contract? I'm so lost.
Me: Soul contract is the agreement your soul makes with itself and others before incarnating. Like your Higher Self's plan for your life. Try wracking your heart and intuition rather than your head if that bit isn't working.
Blue: I will.

[And then we talked about other, tangentially related things until I said "Must sleep now. Eyes closing. Resistance futile." and was out cold.]

Have you been feeling like you've been stuck in the same place and same issues recently? According to the shamans over at The Power Path, the astrological forecast for Spetember is change, change, CHANGE! I've definitely been getting this message over and over since the beginning of the month! So hang in there, you should be finding yourself on the move again soon; although, this part might be even less comfortable, depending on your self and circumstance. But remember, there is always a lesson and a higher purpose in what you're going through and how difficult it is for you relies, in great part, on how you choose to react to it. Blessed Be!