The 4 of Swords shows me in lovely detail that I need to stop overthinking these things.  It’s time to relax a little, rest my weary mind and just spend some times enjoying butterflies.  Reality is that no matter how much I worry or try to think of ways to improve this situation there is only so much I can do.  Worrying and becoming stressed over this situation is not going to improve it.  It’s okay to give myself periodic breaks from the worrying.

The Queen of Pentacles reversed puzzled me at first but while discussing it with a friend I realized she’s telling me that I need to re-define how I see prosperity and abundance.  I don’t need to use the typical, consumerist definition (“he who has the most toys wins”).  If I have learned anything from this experience it’s that I can be happy with much less money than I realized.  She embodies the concept of abundance and prosperity; of having enough resources to care for ourselves and others.  That may or may not mean having a wealth of financial resources.

Not having as much excess cash has forced me to become more selective about what I purchase.  I’m not as willing to engage in a bout of retail therapy so the things I acquire are things I really want or need.  I am reducing the amount of “toys” I already have as well as resisting the need to purchase new ones.  I finally realized that all I was doing was using “toys” to distract myself from things that left me unhappy and unfulfilled.  In truth I had been unhappy at my job for a few years before I was finally terminated.  The joy had gone out of it for me.  These two cards remind me that rather than just seeking a way to generate income I need to find something that fulfills me on other levels too.

I’m not going to be happy simply earning a paycheck.  I want to feel that I am contributed to the greater good in some way.  Of course it is also possible that I could find a way to earn money that won’t fulfill this desire but will give me enough free time to achieve that goal in other ways.  In the past I have been able to perform well at jobs that are not very challenging but don’t require much in the way of mental resources, energy or overtime.  Regardless of how this plays out, it’s time to embrace a new standard of abundance in my life and stop worrying about what was lost.