Where do you picture “success”?

In Podcast, What Is Success by Sonja

I’ve been hanging tarot cards on my wall recently (as one does), and building something of an abstract tree out of them.

Each card’s placement has unexpectedly taken on meaning (much like, y’know, tarot – shoulda seen that coming).

I picked up a card with the label “success.”

I thought, “well, clearly this needs to go at the top of the tree, up here at the ‘end’ where fruit grows and all that.”

As I pressed the tape against the wall, my body froze.

Why? I wondered. Why is “success” up here?

Far away?

Out of reach?

“At the end”?

I have a story, as many of us do, that “success” is somewhere at the end of something. Not even sure what that “something” is, but it’s certainly not here, where I am now … is it?

I moved the card back down to the trunk of the tree.

Eye level. Right here with me, and you, and anyone else who needs it.