I seem to be in the minority, but I always feel excited when I see The Tower in a spread.
So many people see The Tower in a spread and immediately turn into Poe’s Raven, calling “Doom! D
oom!” and trying to find a way to soften impending disaster. I may be considered hopelessly positive, but I actually feel energized and challenged when this card shows up. I see it as a card which indicates a cleansing, either voluntary or involuntary, but from which the querent will arise with a strong foundation on which to build anew. A foundation which has been cleared of a whole bunch of baggage which was keeping them from realizing their true potential. In short, I see it as a card of tremendous opportunity.
Sometimes, we get so comfortable where we’re at that we fail to realize we’re stagnating. Sure, we get clues all the time, but we can rationalize them away when we’re comfortable. That’s when I see the Tower coming into our lives, telling us that either we stir things up ourselves or something will happen to get us off of our butts and moving forward again. I’ve seen it time and time again in my life. Sometimes, I’d see it coming and take pre-emptive action, but others, I’d get blind sided.
Fortunately, I’ve never been much of a victim, and even when I was, it didn’t take long for me to see what I was doing and shake my own world until I saw the stupidity inherent to the path I trod. Even at my lowest point, I readily admitted that what, on the surface looked like a disaster really was the kick in the butt I needed to get out of a place that wasn’t in my best interests.
Honestly, which is easier: To shake your virtual fist at all of the bad luck, karma or juju you’ve suffered or learn from the life’s setbacks so the next one doesn’t knock you on your keester quite as hard?
I have a particularly hard spot for the “woe is me-ers” and the “doom and gloomers”. Listening to someone whine and complain about the same thing over and over, yet never taking it upon themselves to change it will set off my BS meter faster than anything. Unfortunately for the whiner, this also tries my already poorly contained patience and often means I unintentionally hurt their feelings. Frankly, if I were keeping score, I’d say that made us even: 1 for them for trying my patience, 1 for me for insensitivity to their tender feelings.
But my goal in life is not to misuse people, so I’ve learned to simply walk away when those red flags, bells and whistles warn me that I’m in the presence of a Negative Nellie; someone who wraps their negativity around them like a security blanket and for whom complaining is a way of life. There are people who can function well around these people. I admit it. I’m not one of them. More than once, I’ve failed to stop myself from saying rather rudely “Either do something about it or quitcherbitchin’!”
OK, so Social Worker is definitely not my calling. I just believe that we make our own way and even when the chips are down, we need to see it through because those tough times teach us a lot more than the easy ones. Universe, please note, I am not asking for more adversity. I’m simply acknowledging the fact that I learn something when I have to work for it!
At any rate, we all have “Tower moments” in our lives when it seems like the walls are tumbling down around our ears, whether it’s a marriage going to hell, a job loss, a death in the family or a million other things which make us batten down the hatches, ride out the storm and clean up the mess afterwards. Invariably, they happen because we need to move and are holding onto things which no longer serve us (yes, even family deaths). When my mother committed suicide, it really was a huge release for me. I had a ton on my plate at the time, and her overtly judgmental ways and, in hindsight, extra needy behavior were getting close to pushing me over the edge. Her death was just enough pressure release to allow me to keep moving forward. In the two years after her death, I was laid off from my job of seven years and finally saw the end of my lengthy divorce. In both cases, they were Tower moments and things changed and I had to adapt.
Where would the human race be if we had not been faced with adversity and forced to adapt or die? What kind of wimpy, useless race would we be? We certainly would not have outlived the dinosaurs, defeated Hitler or developed creatively the 
way we have. Sure, we’ve ignored things like preservation of our environment, but not forever. Who’s to say whether we’d have come this far had we worried about our world as much as we should have? Who’s to say that causing the damage then coming back and having to figure out how to repair it wasn’t part of the plan in the first place? The greatest people in the world made a ton of mistakes before they succeeded. I don’t have the audacity to believe that I get to avoid all of the pieces of the process they endured before I find my own success, whatever that might be.
A couple of people shared this today, and I have to agree. The secret to success is no secret at all. You need to get up every morning, push those doubts to the side while you down that cup of coffee and put some effort in! If you just sit under a tree and wait, you’re just as likely to be hit by a bolt of lightening. Failure is really a learning curve in disguise.
It is, however, time for me to step down from my soapbox and express my gratitudes.
1. I am grateful for my soapbox, and grateful that I know when it’s time to give it a rest.
2. I am grateful for the adversities which have made me stronger.
3. I am grateful for my lack of patience as it pushes me away from people who drain my battery.
4. I am grateful that the unplanned days of rest are making my back happier. I look forward to resuming my normal activities.
5. I am grateful for abundance: points of view, intelligence, inspiration, motivation, love, beauty, challenges, spirit, friendship, harmony, peace, joy, health and prosperity.
Blessed be.
