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This week, our card is the Easefinder from Pleasure Alchemy. What have you been chasing? What is never enough? The Easefinder reminds us that right here, right now, we are doing good work.
In this moment, it is enough. We are enough.
I’ll be honest. When I pulled this card today, I wasn’t happy to see it. With all the trauma and strife in the world—the horror and grief of all those suffering in Gaza being echoed and refracted across social media and news screens—this card seemed like the absolute worst message to receive.
In the wellness and healing communities, especially, there can often be a tendency toward lightwashing: slapping on a little bit of “love and light” or “just raise your vibration!” to fix problems that need real, concrete action and courage. I always try to keep this in my mind when writing posts that I hope offer support and companionship. I don’t want to present the idea that a little printed piece of cardboard drawn from a card deck can fix anything in the world. Often, I have no answers, no solace for those who are suffering. And oh, how this breaks my heart. Oh, how it must break your heart, as well, when you witness the world today.
So, when I pulled this card I had an immediate feeling of recoil, of rejection. No way does the world need ease right now! It needs action! It needs strong words! It needs conviction! It needs change!
Yet it also needs us to let go of our expectations that we can fix everything, everywhere, in this moment, because we cannot.
I think that’s where the wisdom of this card can be useful for us this week. Notice the Easefinder’s subtitle: She lets go of expectation. This card isn’t just inviting us to take ease. This card is a reminder that in order to move forward in any direction, we need to be willing to make the journey however it plays out without anticipating any one outcome.
It can be hard to start anything when we look around and see so much brokenness, especially so much brokenness that we are incapable of mending physically, in person, with our strong, brave hands and hearts in this very moment. That road leads to overwhelm and paralysis.
But so often I forget (we all forget, I think) that in order to change the world, we don’t need to change all the world. We just need to do our best in the precious space we hold. We just need to begin, one step at a time.
These are dark days. But we are bright lights. To quote Gandalf, “all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I don’t think the human brain has really evolved enough to comprehend global suffering. When faced with such enormities we often shut down, numb out, can’t move. Again, I have no answers. But perhaps it might be useful to periodically tell ourselves: I am here. I am not there. But I know there exists and so I will act here.
So perhaps the ease the Easefinder invites is really an ease of encouragement. It’s not an invitation to stop, sit back, relax, and let go of our responsibilities. It’s not permission to turn away from the trauma of the world. No, it is the ease of recognizing that we are fallible creatures. We will make mistakes. We will get it wrong. We will not be able to fix everything.
Yet, we are still valuable, still precious, and still capable of making true, lasting change in the world. One moment, one step, at a time.
Let’s all do what we can. I love you.
Questions for the Easefinder:
What am I holding too tightly?
What does a river know of being at ease?
How does a mountain know what is enough?
Who in my life exudes Easefinder energy? What does this look like to me?
What do I want to happen? What if this doesn’t happen?
What is grace?
This Precious Alchemy is reader-supported. I would be honored and grateful if you considered becoming a free or paid subscriber.