Tarot say Death

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve sat down with a nervous client for their first Tarot reading and they’ve gone to me:

Don’t give me the Death card… but it doesn’t mean death… or does it…?

And I am generally of a pig ignorant disposition, so I always find that hilariously funny and will laugh and say –

No… of course not… It doesn’t mean death when I pull it… though when you do…. bwhahahaha!

Any who… death means different things to different people and even to the same people on different days, it can change. So, here today, for me, right now is my take on death.

This is death…

This is my most favourite picture of all time. It’s a portrait of my youngest two boys taken 10 years ago. Those are times that are gone for good. There are many things that I am sad have passed and that I miss, such as the smell of freshly washed hair so soft and fine that it brushes in and out of your nostrils as you inhale the tops of their heads… These days, they smell mostly like wet dogs!

But there are many things that I am more than happy are done with… the endless rounds of nappies and disrupted nights of sleep… the almost military precision required to leave the house for even the simplest of tasks. How do kids know to fill their pants as soon as you put the key in the door to lock up and leave?

So… I love this picture. I look at it most days and it makes me smile. It’s one of the rare occasions they are both asleep at the same time! It makes me laugh that they used to sleep wrapped around each other like puppies. Those tiny feet, I washed and dried and rubbed and held in my palms… Feet that later I dragged out of trees, and mud, and streams, and puddles. Feet that these days flail and stomp and bounce and break beds… But these days will pass too and I’m sure I will miss these too when they are gone.

But also I look at those tiny feet and wonder -How big will you grow? How far will you travel?

So… To me… Death means Life.