Amidst the Ruins is Opportunity

If you've ever had a Tarot card reading, you may have come across the Tower card. This card represents the ultimate catastrophe, a tower struck by lightning and crumbling down. All is lost.

You would think this is a terrible card to have in a Tarot reading, and you would be right, because it clearly shows a challenge ahead. But I like to think of another meaning to this card: opportunity to rebuild.

Everything you know may have crumbled, but as you sit amidst the rubble, you still have the stones to work with, you have experience to learn from, and you have opportunity to build something better.

Had it not been a total disaster, you may still have to patch and mend, you may have to work hard just to maintain something that wasn't perfect to begin with.

When it all comes down, you get a fresh start.

No matter what it is in your life that crumbled down to nothing, you have the opportunity unlike any other, to make a fresh start.

For example, if you are stuck in your job, you may feel frustrated, under-appreciated, and under-paid. Maybe the company is understaffed so you have to work longer hours. A situation that is not ideal is hard to maintain. Trying to make the best of a poor situation is exhausting with little progress, if any.

On the other hand, being fired, or 'let go' from a job feels worse. You are flung into the unknown which is scary enough, but adding insult to injury, it is a terrible blow to your ego. But once you hit the ground, and brush some of the dust off, you realize that you now have a chance to look for a better job, maybe a more interesting job, or a job with better benefits, or more vacation, or a shorter commute - whatever job would fit better in your life right now. And once you start to look for that, it's amazing how often you find it. Total disaster brought you great opportunity.

In relationships, it's amazing how often we try so hard to make something work, all the fighting, and conversations, and negotiations trying to keep it together. We put a lot of hard work and energy into preserving a relationship that has no love or joy. Then one day it ends. We feel like a failure. We feel unlovable. We give up on love. Once we let go, all we can do is just be ourselves, and that is often when we find someone we are truly compatible with.

Even devastating health issues are opportunities for growth. Slow, debilitating health issues often don't have the alarming wake-up call that critical health issues do. People will exist for years with allergies, or fatigue, or insomnia and just try to get by. But when catastrophe hits, and you are diagnosed with something potentially fatal like heart disease, or cancer, then you suddenly make dramatic changes in your habits and lifestyle. When you've recovered, you find yourself feeling better and more energetic than ever. Not only do you feel great, you have a new found appreciation for life, and you begin to live life more fully.

What you find when people have faced a major catastrophe in their lives, is that the new life they build begins with a stronger foundation. We are rebuilding the tower, but we are smart enough now to put the solid stones at the base.

When we are looking for that new job, we focus on the type of work that we really want to do. When we find new love, we know it because it feels right. When we begin new health habits, we begin with an appreciation for our body and it's desire for good, nourishing food.

Building a new life on a solid foundation is the first step toward taking your life to places you never thought you'd go.

So, the next time you feel that your life has ended because something terrible has happened. Next time you feel like life is crashing down on you - look for the opportunity. It's there.

You are no longer tied down to WHAT WAS.

Because buried in that mess is the opportunity to create WHAT WILL BE.