Strength
I had a request to use this deck so this week’s card is from the Baroque Bohemian Cats deck (3rd edition) from Baba Studio. This is a wonderful, whimsical deck of anthropomorphic cats dressed in rich garments, with backgrounds taken from locations in and around Prague. Cats, sumptuous fabrics and Prague, what more can we ask for?
The Strength card. Typically on most decks Strength features a woman subduing a lion, or sitting contentedly with one. The Strength card is about our inner strength, subduing our own baser instincts and becoming better for it. I found a couple of quotes I liked about strength and wanted to share them.
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
This one made me a little misty-eyed:
Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP
I feel like I’m going off to battle every day when I go to work now. Somehow I have to believe I have the strength to get through this.
Be strong, be brave.
21 Comments on “Strength”
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Beautiful quotes and profound messages.
Two things:
1) If you are going to battle the best tools you can have with you are your Armor (Your Wit) and your weapon (Your personality) Both of which you seem to be able to use proficiently.
2) At the risk of introducing comic relief. “Never give up! Never Surrender!”
Wishing you a peaceful start to the week, Ma’am.
Ha!
But therein lies the rub. It’s like the humor and personality is what’s sinking me at this job. I get the feeling the boss wanted the stereotype of the prim, proper, stuffy executive assistant, and my personality is more along the lines of ‘Friday casual’.
You have the strength, I know you do! We’ll be strong together
Thanks, Angie
You are so perceptive about life. The resources that you have offers kind words that brings hope and strength to those you share with. Thank you, DD! Hang in there!
Thanks, Jeff, that’s very kind of you.
Sometimes we learn the most from stuff we wouldn’t wish on a dog. You’re getting smarter and wiser and stronger every day, DD – when you least expect it, the moment will arrive when you’ll step up and use all those skills to meet your destiny. Be brave, be strong, but don’t forget to be patient.
There’s just gotta be a better way to make a living. I’m a square peg in this place.
p/s/doncha love Louise Erdrich?!?
Yes, I do
Methinks this story may have a good ending wherever.
Thanks Phil, I hope so!
This is so great. I love that deck. Each card is a little jewel. The Hem quote is great but the second marvels. Yes, I like the term broken for some reason yet we epoxy ourselves and still go on best we can. Thanks momore insight.
It really is a stunner of a deck. I love Baba Studio, they put out the best. Yes, we should all keep a supply of epoxy around.
That last line got jumbled. Should have said, best we can with more insight. Lol Loved it.
hee hee
Louis Erdrich is so on point! and sorry it feel like a battle each time you go to work.
Thanks, Lora. Hopefully in time it will get better. I’ve been here for almost 5 full months now, maybe by next year it won’t feel like such a slog.
Agree, next year will be new with a few new people, change of attitude and behavior due to life change for many, plus repetitive that you know what the person you work with mean when she don’t say it, lol, sorry but you have to laugh at her sometime and silently shake your head.
DeeDs, your story is sounding more and more like that situation I found myself in in 2006-7. Please don’t let them grind you down to the point where it’s too late for _you_ – for you to get out with your self intact. Strength can also mean walking away from a losing battle /concerned lecture ends/.
Good point. It is scary to think of walking away from something that pays sufficiently with decent benefits, and go back out into the world of job-hunting. Ick. I think I should tough it out for a year, otherwise it looks really bad on a resume. I don’t know, though. I’ll have to see. It’s definitely not what I thought it was going to be. I think that irks me as much as anything, that the job posting/interview was basically false advertising. It is so different from what they lead me to believe it was going to be. I just don’t know right now.