{"id":62590149,"date":"2022-07-05T13:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/?p=62590149"},"modified":"2022-07-05T13:00:05","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:00:05","slug":"the-illuminating-spark-finding-joy-in-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/?p=62590149","title":{"rendered":"The Illuminating Spark: Finding Joy in Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some musings about finding sources of hope in difficult times.<\/h2>
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(Image description: A photo of three, rustic-looking oracle cards on a black cloth with two shades of blue Celtic knotwork overlapping each other. The first card is The Curragh, with the second and third cards being Honey and Lady\u2019s Mantle.) Credit: My work.<\/p>

Lately, every day feels like another day of something awful happening. Another day of \u201cwhat else can go wrong?\u201d In reality, this mindset isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>

Even in difficult times, tasks still have to be taken care of, whether that\u2019s a job, a grocery store trip, or laundry. It\u2019s the mundane in the midst of all the mayhem.<\/p>

However, I have to remind myself that I need to find joy in some way to keep going. It\u2019s all too easy to get into a routine and not have anything to break up the monotonous nature of it all. So, what can I do to bring measures of happiness into my life?<\/p>

Reading and drawing were a couple of my favorite activities to do as a child. Unfortunately, those hobbies have significantly fallen by the wayside. I want to change that, even if it has to be done in baby steps.<\/p>

A recent oracle reading had me pull three cards instead of the usual one, and all of them had relevance to the matter of bringing joy into my life despite the steady stream of upsetting current events.<\/p>

The first card I received was The Curragh, which symbolizes freedom. It calls back to when St. Brigid had Her fellow nuns take the corners of Her mantle and go as far as they could in order to attain land for their convent.<\/p>

In the US, this message seems ironic and even hard to accomplish. I can\u2019t do miracles, but I have to remind myself what freedom means. Freedom means being able to live a life as I want, despite what others would prefer. Learning to know yourself is one of the world\u2019s oldest mysteries, and it\u2019s a freedom that people often ignore or take for granted.<\/p>

The second card was Honey and symbolizes the sweetness of life. Showing gratitude can serve as a reminder of what you do have and grounds you in the moment, rather than speculating over what-ifs. It\u2019s one thing to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but taking count of what\u2019s there can calm fears as you show gratitude.<\/p>

The third card was Lady\u2019s Mantle and indicates finding ways of creating sacred spaces. Doing small activities can create sacred in the mundane, a reminder that even in hardships there can be moments of holiness and beauty. I think the idea to read and draw more goes well with this card\u2019s message, but I\u2019m sure other small \u201crituals\u201d can bring peace of mind as well.<\/p>

While the world can seem quite dark and hopeless, I know I have to find respites to re-energize when the news is overwhelmingly negative. Otherwise, events can grind you down and leave you spiritually, mentally, and physically drained, and then you don\u2019t see the need to push on despite everything going on around you. Finding those buoys of hope are essential to staying afloat.<\/p>

May you discover what brings gladness and hope in these rough periods of life!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some musings about finding sources of hope in difficult times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62590149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62590149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62590149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62590149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62590149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62590149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminatingspark.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62590149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}