My landlady has a well-earned reputation for planticide. She’s killed my flowers more than once. I never react very well to this, incidentally.
I also don’t think about it too much anymore, because what’s the point?
But I was remembering it last night, looking over the rooftop to the massive trees that poke up from the back. Because a couple of summers ago, she chopped down one of the biggest trees back there.
I was heartbroken. I loved that tree! (Okay, I love most trees. All the ones I’ve met.) But this particular tree was magnificent. I liked to watch this tree from my front porch, peeking out over the roof with the branches gently swaying. At the right time of the day, the leaves reflected the light as the branches danced, as if each leaf was coated with a little magic.
For a long time after that tree was cut down, I saw nothing more prominent than that gaping hole where one of my favorite trees had lived. But after a while, you stop paying so much attention to what’s missing, you know?
And that’s a good thing.
I eventually walked past the stump one day to spy some new growth. Yes! The tree had defied the death sentence! She wasn’t going anywhere. Her comeback may have been modest, but her roots go deep. I liked knowing that.
I just realized last night, I don’t see a hole there anymore. None at all. I couldn’t tell you exactly where that lovely tree had stood without going out back to seek out the stump.
The other trees had filled in the empty space with their own branches. That gap, the empty space, had been replaced with new life. And that’s what happens.
This coming week feels like this, to me. We can look for the holes in our experience, what’s missing. Or we can notice the other blessings that step up and fill in those spaces. There are always both.
Next Week in Tarot

This week, we have the Ten of Cups reversed from the Tarot Illuminati, along with Hibiscus (again) from Botanical Inspirations: Beauty & Happiness.
Every moment is full of possibility. You can see what you want, or see what you don’t want. Both elements are present in everything.
Sometimes, we think we have to rearrange the world a little bit–or a lot, or rearrange the other people in our world a little bit, or a lot–to achieve contentment. That’s a losing proposition if ever I heard one. Because really, how’s that working out for ya?
Don’t shoot for making anybody else happy here, either. Instead, look to boost your own happiness by seeking out the beauty around you. Beauty and happiness do go hand-in-hand. The mistake that most people make is thinking there isn’t always some beauty to find. There is, in everything. You just have to look at it in the right light to find it.
[bctt tweet=”Beauty isn’t an external reality. It’s a function of perspective. #OnMyRadar” username=”goddess_dix”]
Satisfaction is attainable, and it’s not very far away. Instead of seeking to please others, seek to please yourself by looking for what you love and reveling in the beauty of it.
Are you finding some beauty?
For a little help realigning your perspective in a private session, give me a holler.