Slices, dices, and makes julienne fries...
It's a new website! It even handles stubborn stains!
I’ve been meaning to write something for a few weeks now, particularly as I wanted to make an announcement. In January, around the time of my birthday and the lunar new year, I completely revamped my website! There are new offerings, information on services that I’ve only been offering quietly for a while, and a whole update of language and aesthetics that better match where I’m at in the evolution of my work with the tarot.
Perhaps one reason it feels so good to get this out into the world now, and also the reason why it’s taken me time to announce it, is because the year thus far—on a granularly personal as well as national/global level—has been… well… a lot (to put it most mildly).
As we are collectively coming to terms with what seems to be the falling apart of old systems and institutions and pretty basic norms of kindness and care, I have been coming into a new relationship with my own living system and how to care for it. And as I come to terms with how I’ve aged and have not tended to physical care over the years, there have been moments when it seems my body is falling apart as well.
From periodontal surgeries to help address the bone loss in my mouth, to having a mole biopsied and my left forearm then carved up to remove the skin that was around that melanoma…and then developing an allergic reaction to the adhesive of the bandages and medical tape protecting that stitched up incision… From slicing off a bit of the tip of my thumb while cooking the very same night as my biopsy, to quitting smoking and grieving the loss of those little friends (aka cigarettes) that were still so pleasurable and buzzy to be with even after 28 years… And to being put on prescription drugs for the first real time in my life, and for likely the rest of my life…
I am sure that my husband and some others around me are tired of hearing me go on about it all. And yet tending to my body, caring for my health, in these new ways, has been moving me in profound and major ways, and has simply been a lot to deal with. Thoughts and feelings and questions that are emerging include:
What does it mean to only now realize how much I’ve taken for granted about how my body moves? How even a temporary limitation in the range of movement of my arm exposes all the everyday unconsciously carried out physical actions I have been completely unaware of? How frustrated I get with those limitations, and with all of the necessary after-care for my arm, in the changing of dressings every morning that, because of the size and placement of the wound, is really a two-person job. The frustration with how the other person is helping me with that job, with myself on the mornings I don’t have a second person to help, and with the basic dependency I feel of needing someone else to help.
And strangely, maybe because the one-year anniversary of my cat’s death is soon approaching, this weird noticing of something like fetishizing and obsessing over all these new and different kinds of bandages and coban wraps and waterproof gauze pads (with and without adhesive tabs), and making sure that I have enough of them to get me through to when the stitches will be removed… Having this noticing did bring up memories and feelings around all of the prescriptions and paraphernalia that ended up being involved in taking care of my cat during the final year of his life.
It brings me back to reflecting a lot on what is care? What does care look like? And this term “after-care?” The care that comes after something is split open and then stitched back together?
As with the four- to five-inch incision across my arm, how are we stitching up and caring for the terrible divisions in the world? (Have we even reached the point yet where stitching up is possible?) Can I set aside frustrations I feel in order to keep going? And how is what that after-care requires of me changing me?
I’m going to be back in the Boston area on April 5 to cohost a second Warm Data Lab at Bay State Cohousing! If you’re nearby and/or know folks who are and might be interested, here’s a link to learn more and register.
And via my new website, you can:
book a tarot reading with me and learn about forthcoming tarot workshops,
engage me as a Spiritual Companion to support your exploration of your relationship with spirituality,
and learn more about my one-on-one coaching & organizational consulting in Change Readiness and Navigating Uncertainty.
Finally, you can connect with me about the possibility of hosting a Warm Data Lab for your group or organization.