Man cannot discover new oceans
unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

• Courage quote: André Gide (1869-1951), French author and Nobelist. This quote is very fitting for anyone who’s thinking about venturing into the unknown: no matter how safe you might feel in the harbor, you can’t discover new oceans unless you’re ready to leave the safe and familiar behind you. Actually, you probably did this as a child because you can’t truly learn to walk unless you have the courage to let go of your parent’s hand.
• Photo: “Tall Ships” by Wim Lassche. The small version of this image simply doesn’t do justice to the rich textures, details, and overall mood of the original photo. Trust me, you just have to view the larger version of these ships! Also, check out the photographer’s Photo.net gallery for other, equally amazing shots. They’re also featuring beautiful landscapes and settings, with rich textures and details, yet the photos aren’t overdone. Expect to see more of Wim Lassche’s work featured in Weekly Inspiration…

In this post, I’ll discuss the why and how of this decision in detail. My goal is to gradually change my diet, so that by the end of 2010 I won’t be eating any dead animals anymore. A 100% plant based diet would be ideal, but I’m not sure I could go that far yet, so my goal is just to eliminate all meat from my diet.

If you’re a seasoned vegetarian, please feel free to post advice and suggestions for an aspiring lacto-vegetarian, especially if your diet is low in grains and low or moderate in carbs! I might need your advice!

Why Vegetarian: The Trouble with Meat

My decision to give up meat has nothing to do with health. It’s purely a spiritual and ethical decision. Actually, if it wasn’t for health issues, I’d be a vegan already!

While I believe it’s natural for animals (including humans) to eat other animals, I think the way we humans treat them is everything but natural. Factory farming, enslaving and breeding animals just so we’d get food, is unnecessary, cruel, and totally despicable. Animals should be able to live a happy, natural life.

Why Omnivore, Then?

Despite this ethical problem, I’ve been eating meat, simply because I don’t feel well on a vegetarian diet. I feel the best when I’m on a low carb, high animal fat, and moderate protein diet, very rich in low to moderate carb vegetables. When I went on this relaxed low carb, high animal fat diet on 2007, I experienced so many health benefits it was incredible.

I’ve done a few vegetarian diet experiments and I’ve felt miserable during them… Even though I know I’ve gotten plenty of protein from various plant-based sources, I’ve eaten a variety of veggies, grains, nuts, legumes, seeds and so on, and I’ve made sure I got adequate calories.

At the moment, the choice seems to be suffering: either the animals will suffer or I’ll do. And, let’s be honest here, I’m selfish. My personal health and well-being is more important for me than the well-being of other animals. That’s why I’ve just eaten meat, although I’m aware of all the dark sides of meat eating. Sorry. But at least I’m being honest here.

Last year, however, something incredible happened. It changed my views for good.

The Spiritual Healing Incident: I Got Healed?

Last summer, I was healing a sick plant with my energy. Yes, I do seem to be gifted with some healing abilities, but know I’d need some more practice to take full advantage of them.

The plant healed successfully, but something strange happened right after it: I suddenly lost my appetite for meat. It’s as if a switch suddenly went off in my head! For a couple of weeks, I simply wasn’t able to force myself to eat dead animals, so I was a lacto-vegetarian for three weeks.

The Vegetarian Experiment

Spiritually, I felt fantastic during this time. My psychic powers got a huge boost, and I also felt good about not eating dead, tortured animals. I also felt a surge in creativity, probably because I was eating more carbs than before.

Physically, though, I didn’t feel well. I had to eat every two hours or I got so hungry I nearly fainted, which was very annoying because I’ve gotten used to eating every 4-6 hours. My skin also got worse, I lost a little weight but became bloated, my blood sugar levels changed too much (sugar highs and crashes, hunger pangs), and my stomach objected to all those grains and legumes. You don’t want the details. Let’s just say I emitted quite a bit of greenhouse gases during that experiment.

I quit the experiment when I got the symptoms of a flu, something I’ve always gotten after a couple of weeks during my vegetarian experiments. If I eat my usual low carb, high animal fat food, I never get sick. This time, I didn’t want to endure the upcoming flu, so I quickly went back to my old eating habits, and the flu symptoms vanished. As did my skin and stomach problems.

Something Changed for Good…

Something changed for good, though. That was the first time in my life I seriously considered the possibility I might give up meat one day, even though my body seems to need it. Since then, I’ve eaten a little less meat, and every now and then I have days when I just feel I don’t want to eat any meat.

I’ve called the Law of Attraction to help me. I set out the intention of being a vegan and I often visualize being one. Since I began doing that, my appetite for meat has just kept going down. My motivation and mental need for becoming a vegetarian has become stronger and stronger – so strong I know it’ll overcome the physical problems eventually.

I know it will happen some day when I’m ready, but as much as I’d want to go cold turkey on all animal products, I know it’s not reasonable. Therefore, I’ve decided to listen to my body and spirit, and go along as they want. I believe that if I gradually change my diet, my stomach might get used to vegetarian food.

I’ll just need to get around my perfectionism. I either want to do everything by the book, or I won’t do it at all. I would totally want to go cold turkey on meat and all animal products and become a strict vegan, just so I could slap a label called vegan on myself, but I know it’s not sensible. A gradual approach seems to be the best one.

My Meat Free Plan

Ok, guys, this is where I need your help! But first, I will “officially” state my goal:

My goal is to gradually change my diet, so that by the end of 2010, I won’t be eating any dead animals anymore. A 100% plant based diet would be ideal, but I don’t think I can go that far yet, so my goal is only to eat food that doesn’t have to be killed before I can eat it. This would mean I can include milk and honey into my diet, and maybe eggs, too.

I promise to be merciful with myself and take care of the needs of my body, not just my mind and spirit. I’ll remind myself not to strive for some “ideal vegan diet” or to be “pure”, I will just gradually eliminate animals from my diet. If I feel the need to eat meat, I will do so, but I’ll look for fish and eggs as my first choices of animal protein.

Some things might need clarification.

Why eggs, you may ask. Eggs aren’t fertilized so they’re not dead animals, unless you intentionally buy fertilized eggs from a health store. No, this isn’t a cop-out, honestly! I’m not that big a fan of eggs so I don’t need any excuses to eat them. But during the healing incident, when I just wasn’t able to eat any meat, I was able to eat eggs for the first couple of days. I wondered why but I guess it was because they weren’t fertilized.

Honey won’t be a big issue, either. I use very little honey anyway, so I’m not going to pay much attention to it until I’ll be eliminating all animal based products from my diet. The same goes for obscure food additives that may be of animal origin – if something is hidden behind an E number, I won’t stress about it.

Fish and milk will be my biggest issues.

Got Milk? I Do. Here’s Why

I’m painfully aware that drinking milk isn’t any more ethical than eating the cow herself. It would be ideal – both health-wise and ethically – to have access to raw, unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk of a free-range, grass-fed cow. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to any at the moment.

1. Cheese! Actually, I drink very little milk because I can’t stand the taste. However, I’m a huge cheese aficionado and I can’t see myself letting go of that pleasure anytime soon! (Look, I’m still not claiming to be totally selfless, ok? )

2. Healthy fats. I think dairy fat is healthy for you and keeps you thin. Yes, I know my opinion is rather unorthodox, but it’s based on my personal experiences and some diet studies.

3. Cream and butter. I cook with butter and real full-fat cream, and I’m not going to touch any margarines or those horrible, unnatural cream substitutes. I’m not quite sure how healthy the milk of a tortured cow is but unfortunately, I think it’s way healthier than any of those vegetable oil based substitutes. At least it tastes better, and I’ve learned to trust my taste on health issues.

4. Calories. Also, during my vegetarian experiments, I’ve noticed I just can’t get enough fat if I eat vegan food. If I use vegetable oil in cooking, it tastes icky greasy if I add a lot of it – yes, even good quality extra virgin olive oil. The same goes for soy cream – it’s actually pretty tasty, but still tastes icky greasy compared to real cream, even though it has 50% less fat. As a result, I can’t get enough fat and I’ll be starving. If I substitute those fat calories with carb calories, I’ll need to eat every 2-3 hours, and I don’t like that either.

Adding dairy products into my diet seems to make a huge difference: I feel so much better on vegetarian food if I can add cheese, butter and cream into my diet… even though the combination of grains and dairy seem to generate mucus and a foul taste in my mouth. Dairy without grains, or grains without dairy won’t do this. But it’s a small inconvenience, so I guess I can take it.

So, despite my ethical objections to how milk is produced, I’ll be aspiring to be a lacto-vegetarian, mostly for health reasons but also for some culinary reasons.

Fish vs. Eggs

At the moment, I feel horrible – mentally and emotionally – if I eat any sort of meat. Eating meat feels more repulsive each day. Interestingly, it’s began feeling worse physically, too.

For the last week or so, I’ve been eating mostly lacto-vegetarian food already, but I will feel weak and hungry if I don’t eat any meat, so I’ve eaten some kind of meat once a day. It’s been mostly pork and poultry because that’s what we’ve got in our freezer. However, I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to eat them.

It seems, at the moment, that fish is the only kind of meat I can eat. It’s fortunate, too, because fish is a nice source of Omega 3 fatty acids. I also believe that if I just have to choose between two evils, eating fish might be a little more ethical than eating eggs (unless they’re pastured eggs from a local farmer or something, but I don’t have access to those). Also, at the moment, I can stomach eating fish but for some reason, eggs repulse me.

So, it seems fish will be the last meat on my menu. I guess I could call myself a lacto-pesco-vegetarian now, but I don’t like the label, because it’s an oxymoron. The words pesco and vegetarian kind of contradict each other over there, no? I’ll just call myself the omnivore I still am, no fancy labels with foreign words here.

How about Nutrition?

I realized I didn’t really discuss nutrition in this post. This one’s already at a marathon length, so I’ll save the nutritional discussion for a later post. I’ll be following the general nutritional guidelines I discussed in my diet goal and guidelines post, so nothing new there, except for the details.

In my next diet post, I’ll tackle the following issues:

• My protein/carb/fat ratio. Yes, I’ve learned to listen to my body pretty well, so during my previous diet experiments, I’ve been able to come up with the best ratio for me.
• How I know it when my proteins, fats and carbs are ok. Yes, I’ll give you some tips on how to do it yourself.
• Fats: How I’ll keep my Omega 6 / Omega 3 fatty acid ratio in check.
• Processed foods: Because I want to keep my food as natural and unprocessed as possible, I won’t be gorging on mock meats or highly processed soy products at every meal.
• Protein: Where I’ll be getting my protein from.
• Carbs: My diet will be a little higher in carbs than usually, because it’s going to be lower in fat and because all the best sources of unprocessed plant protein also contain lots of carbs.
• Vitamins: Shouldn’t be an issue, really.
• Fiber: Definitely not an issue! I’ll get plenty of it from nuts, legumes, veggies, and whole grains.

With a vegetarian diet, it would be ridiculously easy to meet the official dietary recommendations of our government, with flying marks. However, that’s the problem. I’m totally not going to follow any official dietary recommendations because they’re a total disaster and I’ll feel horribly unhealthy if I follow them.

That’s why I’ve gotta make my own.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

• Quote: Buddha. This is one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite authors, the Buddha: so simple, so profound, and so very true. Unless you realize that peace comes from within, no external circumstances can make you feel at peace. Peaceful circumstances can of course help you, but in the end, peace comes from within.
• Photo: “Lily Pair” by George Dangerfield. Click the image for a larger version or view his photo gallery for more beautiful photos by him.

Expect to read musings about the following:

1. General guidelines for a diet I believe is the healthiest one for me and for everyone. Yes, you too!
2. Confused musings about the more controversial diet issues: why I’m not quite sure about them but how I feel about them anyway.
3. Why I feel there is no One True Perfect Diet™ that would magically make everyone healthy.
4. A summary of my diet goals for 2010.

Guidelines for a Healthy Diet

When it comes to a healthy diet, there are certain things most people, both “diet gurus” and scientists alike, seem to agree on. These are the points I also agree on, based on my very own diet experiments and some scientific research articles I’ve read:

• Veggies are good for you. Eat them as much as you want. No, actually, eat them more than you want!
• Protein is good for you. Eat enough of it! It keeps you feeling full longer, and your muscles need the building blocks. Just don’t overdo it. A good rule of thumb for your daily protein needs would be 1 gram of protein per 1 kilogram of bodyweight.
• Trans fats (partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) are bad for you. They’re worse than any other kind of fat out there. Don’t eat them. At all. Seriously, even butter, lard and bacon are better for your health than this stuff!
• Sugar is bad for you. It makes you fat, messes up your metabolism, causes Type 2 diabetes, rots your teeth, and is bad for your heart and arteries. White flour and white rice are basically the same thing as sugar, so they’re bad for you as well. Eat them in moderation.
• Natural, unprocessed foods are good for you. The less something is processed and the less it contains artificial additives, the better it is for you. A good rule of thumb is to buy only the kind of stuff your great-grandmother would recognize as food!
• Use alcohol in moderation. Moderate drinking is good for your health, but drinking too much pretty much ruins it. Plus it makes you look older than you are. Drink moderately or don’t drink at all.

These guidelines, I believe, are pretty much universally agreed on. Next, I’ll discuss the more controversial issues and tell you how I personally feel about them.

Healthy or Not?

Sometimes, diet seems to be like religion: people fiercely defend their personal opinions and believe their view is the only right one. Scientific research isn’t helping much here, since you can find a completely valid, well executed scientific study supporting pretty much any view you can think of. Just cherry-pick the articles that support your personal view, and you’re doing well.

That’s why I believe scientific research articles should always be read with a grain of salt.

The following are the things I’m currently undecided on. Actually, on some issues, I’m totally torn! I’ve read quite a bit of scientific articles on these issues, and it doesn’t seem to help anything, as the research findings seem to nicely contradict each other. I’ve learned to listen to the ultimate authority on these issues, and I suggest you do the same: your very own body!

• Meat. I have a spiritual problem with eating dead animals. While I know nature operates like this – animals eating each other – we humans are capable of thinking about the moral consequences of our actions, unlike other animals who just follow their instinct. Also, it should go without saying that factory farming is unnatural, unethical, and cruel. However, I’ve noticed I feel the best when I eat a lot of meat and animal fats. If I try to eat vegetarian food, I become sick, even if all my meals are “perfect” according to the book. Despite this, one of my goals for 2010 is to reduce the amount of meat I eat, but I’ll discuss this issue later in another blog post.
• Milk. I don’t drink milk because I hate the taste but I do enjoy cheese and other dairy products. Plus I think butter is healthy. (Yeah, this would need its own blog post too.) Unfortunately, milk is pretty much ruined: cows are suffering for their whole lives, raped so they will constantly produce milk, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, and on top of that, the milk is pasteurized and homogenized. Raw milk from a happy free-range cow might be healthy for you, but how about this stuff that is totally ruined? And how about cheese?
• Carbs vs. Fats. The high carb, low fat diet is recommended for us, but I’ve noticed it just doesn’t suit me. Whenever I’ve tried to eat that way, it’s been a total disaster. I’m thriving on a low (or moderate) carb, high (or moderate) fat diet. Recent research also seems to support the notion of limiting your carb intake, but instead of contradictory scientific research, I’ll just listen to the highest authority on this issue: my own body. And it tells me to eat low carb, high animal fat.
• Saturated fats vs. unsaturated fats. This is a complex issue that would, again, need its own blog post. (Maybe some day… ) The thing is, if you get most of your fats from vegetable oils, your Omega 3 / Omega 6 fatty acid ratio will tend to get totally messed up. You’ll get too much Omega 6 fatty acids compared to Omega 3s if vegetable oils are your main source of fat. Despite the bad rap they’ve been getting, animal fats and saturated vegetable fats (such as coconut milk and oil) seem to be a safe choice.
• Grains. Whole grains are supposed to be good for you. They contain a lot of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and are a nice source of protein for vegetarians. But if I eat too much of them, I’ll get all kinds of stomach problems, and – believe it or not – pimples! For me, “too much” is the 6-9 pieces of bread my government recommends eating! A couple of pieces seem to be fine, though.
• Cooked vs. raw food. I believe in a balance in this matter. Some nutrients actually become easier to absorb when they’re heated. Some other nutrients will be destroyed if they’re heated. So I’ll just eat both raw and cooked.

The Ideal Diet for Everyone – Does Such a Thing Exist?

Let’s look at the facts here. The fact is, humans are omnivores who are capable of surviving on a huge variety of diets.

Our species has spread wide and far, ranging from warm tropical and subtropical climates to the harsh, cold conditions of the North and the tops of mountains. Peoples have adapted to a diet most sensible for their geographical location: lots of meat, fat and root vegetables in the North; lots of fruits, veggies and rice near the Equator.

Kitava: Healthy and High Carb

For example, Kitavans are known to be very healthy. They get about 69% of their calories from carbs, 21% from fat and 10% from protein. I’m a Low Carber myself, but the Kitavan example simply shows that low carb is not the only way to eat. As the Kitavan diet shows, you can be perfectly healthy on a high carb diet as well.

Interestingly, however, the fat Kitavans consume is mostly saturated because it comes from coconuts. They also eat a lot of fish, so they get plenty of healthy Omega 3 fatty acids, too.

Inuits: Healthy with No Veggies

Then again, Inuits are also known to be very healthy if they stay on their traditional diet. If they begin eating the current Western way, they’ll begin suffering from diabetes and heart problems. Their traditional diet? Totally against all dietary recommendations: Mostly meat and fat, not much vegetables, a little berries now and then. The traditional Inuit diet is high in protein and very high in fat: about 75% of their calories come from fat.

Despite not eating veggies, Inuits can get all the vitamins they need from the animals they fish and hunt because they eat every part of them, not just the muscle meat like we Westerners do. They eat the fat and organs, as well as skin and intestines and brain and everything.

Traditional Vegan Diets?

How about vegan, then? Interestingly, there are no peoples out there whose traditional diets would be 100% plant-based. Even in India, where traditionally a significant portion of population are vegetarians, vegetarianism means lacto-vegetarianism.

However, it seems to be totally possible to thrive on a strictly vegetarian diet, provided you take care of your B12 vitamin and Omega 3 fatty acid intake.

The Bottom Line? Eat What Makes You Feel Well!

So, humans seem to be a species that can adapt to a wide variety of diets. You can’t just point out one single way of eating and say, this is the one and only way for a human to eat. Don’t make diet your religion.

What to do, then? Experiment! Experiment with diets and find out what is the diet that fits you, personally.

Eat what makes you feel good, healthy, and energetic. I personally believe that constantly stressing out about your food is the surefire way to lose your health, no matter what you eat! I believe mental factors (stress, happiness, etc.) are much more important for our heart health than we think. It’s a pity this isn’t researched more. Then again, who would want to fund a study that would show you don’t have to spend money on supplements and diet pills, all you have to do is relax and enjoy your life?

The Trouble with Meat

Like I said, I’m at my healthiest when I eat a lot of animal meat and fat, no grains of any kind, and a low or moderate amount of carbs. However, I have big ethical and spiritual problems with eating dead animals. My goal is to gradually reduce the amount of meat I eat, and if everything goes well, I might be a lacto-vegetarian by the end of 2010.

I’ll discuss the reasons behind this decision in my next post, so… stay tuned!

Diet Goal in a Nutshell

These are the things I’ll be concentrating on during the next year:

• Drink less alcohol. I genuinely enjoy the taste of certain alcoholic beverages (like fine wine, Scotch, cognac, wheat beer…) but to be honest, I also enjoy the “side effects” they produce. My goal is to cut back the amount of drinks per night, so that I would get no hangovers, blackouts, or loss of control when I go out and party.
• Gradually eat less meat. Whenever I feel like not eating meat, I will not do so, but if I feel I need it, I’ll do as my body commands and won’t feel bad about it.
• Eat at least one meat free meal per day. Dairy is ok, however, so this should be very easy to do. Yes, I know dairy is no more ethical than eating the meat of the poor cow herself, but at least it’s not a dead animal.
• Eat veggies on every meal. No, potatoes don’t count. During the long cold winters here in Finland, it doesn’t really make sense to eat fresh veggies, so until it gets warmer, I’ll eat the frozen ones mostly. Fresh veggies are, at the moment, very expensive, of poor quality, and transported from the other side of Europe.
• Cook your food yourself whenever possible. It’s a lot healthier. Besides, I love cooking!
• Watch out for MSG and other additives. I’m not going to be too strict about this, but whenever possible, I’ll choose the product that has less additives or artificial flavor enhancers. But because I aim at cooking most of my food from scratch myself, this won’t be an issue. Besides, like I said, I don’t want to fret about my food too much.
• Take care of your Omega 3s. I’ve got some fish oil capsules, so I’ll pop those in my mouth. Also, I’ll take vitamin D supplements, too.
• Most importantly: Relax, don’t fret about your diet! Enjoy your food with gratitude!

That’s it, folks. I didn’t list things like not eating sugar, because I eat so little sugar it would be a no-brainer anyway. The same goes for white flour – I already eat it in moderation because my skin and stomach don’t like it.

So how are you going to eat? What’s your view of a healthy diet?

Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

• Quote: William Arthur Ward, an American author and scholar.
• Photo: Timur Emeka. Two women toasting as fireworks explode during an outside party in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district to celebrate the New Year 2010. This image is from Boston.com’s wonderful The Big Picture blog. Go check out the whole entry, Welcoming 2010, and its 38 photos of New Years celebrations from around the world!

• Quote: Unknown. Nobody knows who originally came up with this holiday wish, but who cares – the message itself is the important thing. For me, Christmas isn’t about presents or cards or expensive decorations; it’s about calming down, spending time with my family and loved ones, and celebrating the Winter Solstice. (I don’t give presents or even send Christmas cards. It’s so liberating!) In the West, Christmas is often considered to be the time of peace and good will… but I wish you peace and good will for all year long!
• Photo: “Winter Night” by Ketil Monsen. View a larger version of this image or view the photographer’s Photo.net gallery for more photos by him.

My very first Tarot reading with my very first Tarot deck was like that.

Fool Closeups from Jean Dodal, Thoth, and RWS Tarot.

Let me tell you, I didn’t really appreciate it back then. I was an ignorant newbie who was hoping for a profound and pompous and grandiose reading with fancy and dramatic cards. Instead, the deck fooled me – both figuratively and very much literally.

Let me share this foolish tale with you. It features an ignorant (and a bit arrogant) newbie Tarot reader, a brutally honest and provocative Tarot deck, and an annoying reading that took a few months to sink in.

The Point of No Return: How It All Began

A friend of mine introduced me to Tarot in 2007, about a couple of years ago. She brought her Thoth Tarot and an accompanying book with her and let me experiment with her cards. I was both curious and a bit skeptical at first, but soon my skepticism turned into wide-eyed amazement and some major jaw-hanging. The cards were so spot on it was eerie!

That was the point of no return for me. I wanted my very own Tarot deck.

I learned that I should choose a deck that “speaks” to me, so to speak. I spent hours reading about different decks and watching sample images on the web. No matter how many decks I browsed through, the Thoth deck kept calling for me, although I knew it wasn’t exactly recommended for newbies.

To hell with recommendations, I thought. I went ahead, bought the Thoth deck, and borrowed the accompanying book from a local library.

The Fool’s First Tarot Reading

I handled my new deck with care and respect; I even blessed it before beginning to use it. Somehow, it felt natural for me to consider the deck as a separate, conscious entity with a personality of its own, so I did. It’s a habit I still have, by the way.

As a get-to-know ritual, I separated the Major Arcana, shuffled the cards and asked the deck, “What is your nature? What do you represent to me?” Being a newbie and having almost zero understanding of the cards, I was secretly hoping for the Hierophant, the Priestess, or some other cool or profound or pompous or grandiose card.

No. The goddamn deck gave me the Fool. The Fool! Of all the 22 cards, the deck had the nerve to give me the Fool! Being a complete newbie, all I knew about the card was the label. And the label wasn’t exactly cool or profound or grandiose.

When I consulted the accompanying book, I somewhat managed to understand the card meant a new beginning, but I was still disappointed. I felt as if the deck was teasing me and making fun of me. Besides, the card itself was ugly. The face of that fool was totally creeping me out.

Actually, the Thoth Fool is still creeping me out a bit… but I can deal with it.

The “Aha!” Moment

A few months later, when I had learned a little more about Tarot and its symbolism, the message finally sinked in.

I realized I couldn’t have gotten a better card to describe my first deck. While doing my very first reading, I was at the beginning of my Fool’s Journey. I hadn’t really worked with Tarot yet, so my brand new Thoth deck represented the Great Unknown, the moment I was about to step off the cliff. I didn’t exactly know what I was doing with Tarot, but I approached it with enthusiasm and naïve trust. The Fool’s Journey was awaiting me, although at the time, I had never even heard of that term!

When I finally realized what the Fool card meant, I felt grateful. And amazed. The deck was so right. The deck was so right I wasn’t able to understand it at the moment.

Milestones on My Fool’s Journey

Now, a couple of years later, I’m feeling even more amazed and grateful. That first reading with that first Tarot deck was the beginning of a marvelous Fool’s Journey, indeed. My journey didn’t turn out to be what I was expecting for when I took the leap of faith and jumped off the cliff… it turned out to be so much more!

Psychic growth: Tarot is the very first psychic tool I’ve ever used. When I began exploring the world of Tarot, I had just broken free from the fundamentalist Christian religion I was raised in. I was well on my way of developing a rather skeptical, atheistic, and materialistic view of the world. Tarot turned it all upside down.

I was forced to see, with my very own eyes, that Tarot simply seemed to work although there was no way of explaining it. It opened my rational and scientific mind to accept the possibility that there may be many things out there that are real even though science can’t explain them yet. As a result, I began to approach other psychic phenomena with a more open mind as well.

Beloved hobby: My first experiment with Tarot also turned into a hobby. I’m collecting Tarot decks because they are all similar but different: they follow a certain system and contain certain symbolism, but each deck interprets these common themes in a different and unique way. Also, Tarot cards are amazing pieces of art. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for pretty pictures.

Even if I stopped reading Tarot cards altogether, I’d still continue collecting Tarot decks because I like them so much.

Thoth goodness: My first reading was also the beginning of an interesting relationship with a Tarot deck that turned out to have a complex personality of its own. Like I mentioned before, I consider all my Tarot decks to have unique personalities, but the personality of Thoth seems to be the strongest.

My Thoth deck is like a wise, but cranky and mischievous old man, like a grandfather who likes me a lot. It’s like someone who feels sympathy towards me and wants to help me, but who also gets impatient with me because I’m so young and stupid. The deck often seems to tell me, “Listen missy, you think you know it all but you ain’t knowin’ nothing yet. Let papa tell you.”

Since then, I’ve bought a few other Tarot decks and enjoy reading with them, but Thoth is still my favorite Tarot deck. It’s frighteningly accurate when I treat it right, annoyingly mischievous when I don’t.

Oh, and I still think the damn thing is teasing me and making fun of me.

• Quote: Japanese proverb.
• Photo: Unknown. Do you know where this photo comes from? If you do, please let me know!

When I woke up today, I was feeling totally tired and grumpy. Getting out of bed was the last thing I wanted to do. I was definitely not looking forward to this day.

Then, my husband did something that totally changed the course of my day. It was a seemingly insignificant gesture but it worked like magic. Suddenly, I was ready to jump out of that bed, feeling happy and grateful, looking forward to the day!

The Beginnings of a Crappy Day

When my alarm went off, I was feeling incredibly tired and a bit crappy. Hitting the snooze wasn’t enough for me, so I set up a new alarm to wake me up an hour later. After some tossing and turning, I figured, “What the hell, I’ll just sleep as much as I want today” and turned the alarm off completely.

I didn’t have to go anywhere today, so I was free to procrastinate as much as I wanted. However, I had the alarm set up because even though I had the day off, I didn’t want to sleep in.

By the way, I totally recommend a habit like this. (Setting the alarm, I mean, not the procrastination part. ) If you wake up at the same time each morning, even if you have your day off, your circadian rhythms won’t go totally out of whack. Plus it’s rewarding to wake up early… except if you’re really really tired, like I was today.

Careful if You Wanna Wake Me Up

After some more tossing and turning, my dear lovely husband came into the bedroom. That was the last thing I wanted. I knew some major annoyance was about to come my way.

You see, I absolutely hate it when someone tries to wake me up when I’m dead tired and am trying to sleep in. I’m dangerous if you wake me up too harshly. Mess with me too much in the morning and I may end up being angry for the whole day. For example, once my hubby wanted to tease me a bit in the morning, but he made the mistake of overdoing it. He suddenly stormed into the bedroom, turned the lights on, and pulled the covers off of me with one swift movement.

Let’s just say, um, that all hell broke loose. After that one single incident, he never did the same thing again.

These days, he tries to be a little less annoying, just for his own good, but he still manages to irk me big time and he totally knows it. That bastard. He usually opens the bedroom door and begins to sing or chant some really annoying things to get me out of bed. Usually, he makes me want to throw my alarm clock at him.

Yeah. I’m not a morning person.

The Critical Moment of Magic

While I was tossing and turning, feeling crappy and tired, someone opened the bedroom door. Aha! Major annoyance coming my way.

“Wake uuup!”

There he was, my dear lovely husband, standing at the door, resting his finger on the light switch, looking like he was really tempted to suddenly switch the lights on. I’m glad he didn’t.

“I’m horribly tired. Let me sleep.”

“Someone said she was gonna wake up sooo early today! Remember?”

That bastard. Making fun of me. At this point, I was harboring some very violent thoughts.

“Yeah, but I’m really tired.”

I was ready to reach for the alarm clock so I could throw it at him. Unfortunately, that would have required me to get up.

Then he dropped the bomb and did his magic.

“I made some coffee for you!”

What? Did I hear the magic words? I lifted my head off the pillow and had to make sure I got it right.

“Coffee? You made some coffee?”

“Yep, lots of it. There’s a big pot of coffee waiting for you.”

“Aww, thank you honey!”

ZAP! I instantly jumped out of bed, feeling happy and grateful, looking forward to my coffee. No more crappy feelings or violent thoughts. With this very small gesture, my husband managed to totally change the course of my day.

Why Small Things Matter

You may wonder what’s the big deal with coffee.

Well, coffee just happens to be holy and sacred for me. I love my morning coffee ritual so much I sometimes look forward to it at night, when I’m going to sleep! However, the problem is, I hate loading the coffee maker in the morning. No matter how easy and quick it is, it’s still very annoying when I’ve just woken up.

So, if you want to make me incredibly happy with virtually no effort, just make me some coffee in the morning, and I’ll treat you like a king or queen for the rest of the day in return. This is something most of my friends and loved ones know.

My husband, however, rarely does anything like this. He’s totally clueless when it comes to the small things, but he’s learning. When he actually does something like this, it really has an impact. He knows it and does small things like this every now and then, when he figures I need some extra cheering up.

The lesson of this story? Figure out what are the small gestures that can really make or break the day of someone you love. It really can be something as small as making coffee at the right moment. Small things like this are a win-win for everyone involved: with very little effort, you can make someone very happy.

• Quote: Brandi Snyder.
• Photo: “Cigni” by Guido Fulgenzi. Click the image to see a bigger version of the swan photo. If you want to see more photos by Guido Fulgenzi, visit his Photo.net portfolio or check out his website at Photo-fulgenzi.com.