Daily Draw: XVII - The Star

Description:
A nude woman with kneelength brown hair, worn loose, stands next to a creek.  With her left hand, held  at the level of her heart, she pours water from a pitcher onto the grass at her feet.  With her right hand, held at hip level, she pours water from another pitcher into the creek. The pitchers are yam shaped (or possibly womb shaped?)  The woman's eyes are open but she seems to be looking within more than at externals.

A tree grows behind her next to the water, and there is a red bird (a phoenix, I think) in the tree, flapping its wings.  Behind her on the other side is a high rocky mountain. 

Over the woman's head, like a halo, is a star surrounded by yellow light.  Concentric circles of six-pointed stars shoot out from this main star - eight stars in the inner circle and six in the outer circle.

The woman in this card looks both vulnerable and strong - there is something about her loose hair and body stance that is very touching to me, and yet her face is calm and looks inward or beyond what she can see, and it doesn't matter... there is trust here.  The fiery phoenix speaks of rising up from the ashes... the hope of the Star doesn't require that a situation look hopeful... hope comes from knowing that new life and possibility comes from even seemingly hopeless situations (but I think it's key that it is new life that is possible... hoping for things to go back to the way they were isn't always well founded).  The mountains show both challenge and, for me, mental solidity - this isn't pie in the sky wishing... it is a well grounded faith in the essential goodness of the future.

The woman pours her water out on both solid ground, and back into the flowing source of that water... if this is faith, it is faith that is connected to spirit and to practicality, not favoring one over the other.

A friend of mine has been exploring the UUA and sharing with me some of what he's learned. I'm not convinced I need (or want) communal religion, but the conversation has led me to do some thinking about spirituality within a religious framework, and I will admit that UU...especially as it links to pagan ideas through CUUPS has some appeal for me.  Whether I pursue it or not, though, I think it is a good thing every so often to give some attention to just where our hope lies... what is our relationship to optimism about those things that aren't clearly visible?

For me this sort of hope - whether it's rooted in religion or not - is necessary to being able to envision better than what we have or are now.  In absent of it, I don't know how anyone can stir up the bravery to make any positive changes in their own life or in the world.  Being optimistic does come with vulnerable... what we let ourselves be hopeful about ... be invested in.. can disappoint us.  But I'd rather have my hopes disappointed now and then in spite of reaching for them, than to live a life never letting myself hope for anything and not being disappointed by the nothing that results.

(No AC repair guy but it's cooler...and the plumber has come back to start repairs and replace my sink faucet.)