Hello everyone! I wound up having some major issues pop up yesterday and even today but I am FINALLY able to post the card pull. HAPPY SEPTEMBER! Today is the first day of meteorological fall! WHAT!? I am not ready. I will wait to celebrate the Autumnal equinox during Mabon a few weeks from now, thank you very much. Holding on to my summer as long as I can. I swear, sometimes, this feels like the year that will never end…. other times it feels like time is going impossibly fast. How about you?
Yesterday, my youngest son had his last first day of school- he is a senior and graduating in June 2021! Crazy. It is all virtual here for now for the kiddos but hopefully the fears about this nasty virus dissipate and we can resume SOME sense of normal life. While it is important that we all practice good hygiene and support our immune system by eating well and healthy exercise, we must not forget our mental health. Our mental health is absolutely intertwined with today’s card pull- Friendship. This card comes from my Magical Times Empowerment deck by Jody Bergsma. As we navigate these crazy times, and start school again, new jobs (in my case) Friendship is important- perhaps now more than ever. The text on the card tell us to “Be with the ones who make you shine. Who love you and really care. Keep those and let the others go” (Bergsma, 2013). We all need to feel supported and loved. We need to know that the people around us are in our corner, and that the are with us when times are easy, fun, and happy, as well as in times of crisis. Our friends laugh with us, sometimes AT us, and our friends take the time to cry with us, too. Real friends encourage us to be our best and when we fail, they are strong enough to hold us accountable with love and to carry us a bit when lose our ability to stand alone.
Sometimes, though, we hold on to people who at one time were friends but are no longer. Often, these relationships exist on the peripheral of our lives and don’t really require that we take action to cut the chord between us. Unfortunately, there are people in our lives who were once friends, or who we THOUGHT were friends, but really never lived up to the definition. Some of these people we have known a long time, some are new acquaintances. However long the relationship, it is time to let these people go. It isn’t easy to let these “friends” go, for various reasons but often because of the sheer longevity of the relationship. If this is something that resonates with you I want you to take a good look at the relationship. Does this person add to your life in any positive and meaningful way? Does this person lift you up when you are down, laugh when you laugh, cry when you cry, hold you accountable when you desperately need it? If the answer to these questions is no then it is time to release them from your life. You don’t need people to bring you down- life is hard enough. The worst influence in your life is the person you thought was a friend but has really only contributed to your misery and pain.
Friends are our chosen family. It is important to make sure that the people we choose are what we need them to be. On the other hand- it is absolutely necessary that you are also a good friend to the people who chose you to be in their lives. They chose youand if you accepted the beautiful responsibility, the privilege of friendship – be the shoulder for them to cry on, the smile that turns their day around, the person that carries them with loving strength but firmly holds them accountable when they need it. Friendship is a relationship, a two way street. It takes two to form and do the work to maintain a friendship.
So as we begin this new month and navigate the crazy emotions and changes that come with it- hold tight to your friends and let them grab hold of you. Together we are so strong. Together, as friends, we can get through anything.
Affirmation from the deck- “Today I open myself to have the companions and friends I want and deserve in my life. I know true friends are the ones who weave magic into my days and bring out the best in me. But the other ones, the false friends, I will see them for who they are and let them go. I now choose the company of those who know I am valuable, lovable, and worthy, for I am” (Bergsma, 2013)