My Name is Mud

I believe that the Universe loves me and wants me to be happy.  I believe that It helps me out by sending me little signals.  I can't say that it really is some Big Universal Divine, or just myself finding what I'm looking for.  And I can't really say there's a difference.  I just don't know.

Either way, I always look for signs, and I always get them.  Recently, these have taken the form of playing cards.  Most people I've mentioned this to say they've never found a playing card on the street in their lives.  I've found five since December (6 of diamonds, Queen of spades, Joker, King of spades, and the 9 of clubs.)

I've been looking up the Tarot equivalent of these cards to figure out what they mean.  And the 9 of clubs comes at the perfect time.  It represents victory over all hardships, the tearing down of all obstacles, the inevitable success despite all appearances of futility.  Awesome.

Listened to a Zencast podcast (I think it was the one on Taking Refuge and if not, it was still nice) and Gil said something about how the lotus rises through muddy murky water and is still able to open with clean petals.  The mud just can't stick.  And I liked that.  Things are obscured now, by the murk, but soon the lotus will emerge, and nothing of the murk will remain.  (Neel responded: "Even the mud sees clearly as mud, why can't you?  Flowering can happen later, but obscuring should vanish now."  Thanks Neel.)

After a nice chat with Helmut, I'm beginning to feel a little more like the mud surrounding me, watching the beautiful flower searching blindly for the sun.  Even the mud sees clearly as mud.