The Strength card is about wearing your deep dark heart on your sleeve or on your neck or in your hair, wherever, just as long as it’s visible so you can see a little flash of the fact that you’ve got some depth and some balls and you will get through this. That’s all.

My mom used to have this friend who told her about a convent where they would take casket roses and roll the crushed petals until they looked like garnets, and then set them in a silver flower pin. So my mom did that with the petals off my dad’s casket and gave one to each of my sisters and me. That was a long time ago, and I honestly don’t know where the pin is right now, but I do remember that it’s quite a thing to wear that on your lapel. Nobody says a word about it, because why would they, who would remark on a dime-sized flower pin? Who would even notice it? They wouldn’t. They don’t, but you do, because every time you look down you see a little glimmer of casket. You feel a lot of things when you wear that, including strong.

This is what you’re going for today.

If you don’t have any casket roses, just find a couple of things that remind of you of your dark and light parts, and roll them together and see how it works to wear them at the same time. It might not feel easy but  by the end of the day it should feel good.

Strength is sponsored by The St. Peter Food Co-Op & Deli, for obvious reasons, including that they sell the Vega Maca bar which is “renowned for its ability to balance, invigorate and energize…ancient native Peruvians used maca for thousands of years as both a food and a tonic, believing maca increased energy and stamina, improved fertility and enhanced libido.”

“I am eating one right now and I think it’s working,” says the Co-Op’s Emperess of Marketing Kris Higginbotham. Goodness.

Tomorrow: The Hermit.