most of the Six of Swords from someone's version of the Tarot but I couldn't find attribution for the artist even with reverse image lookup IF YOU RECOGNIZE THIS SIX OF SWORDS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW

This one goes out to everyone who's recovering from a big, tough thing

loss, illness, heartbreak, a combination, whatever it's been

  We've got the Six of Swords up there for you because that's a card for this very thing. The hard time happened and it's done and behind you but you're exhausted and possibly still wounded. You need rest and existential aftercare.

I've never told you about my place. I have a place I go a lot. I conjured it once for a couple of minutes when I needed it and then caught myself re-conjuring it over and over. Now I can travel there quickly and, since I already know what it means, I can benefit from even a few seconds there

I'm sending individual boats for each of you, just like the one up top.

You don't have to get in if you're doing great and you don't feel like it. You can reserve it for a later date

but all vulnerable mortals are hereby invited to this place we’re stopping in now so you can pick up the keys, as it were

  let’s go, get in <boat wobble, settle>               *quiet sailing*                     we'll have the boat land here 

head up the sand path   then follow this other path

 until you get to the place 

 THE PLACE is a clearing in a forest, but not a modern forest. There is no modern world in this forest, but it's not from the past either. It's a forest. There's a group of small dwellings there around a communal fire. The dwellings look- (well, mine look a certain way yours can look how you want them to look) The dwellings look like you want them to look. Not too many people are there and when you get there, they're all off doing something*.

*in recognition of the fact that it can be hard to remember how to be your whole self when other people are around,  and you'll need some time to  a) figure out that it's safe to wind down your show   and  b) wind it down

You don't have to be doing well in this forest.

Another way of putting it is: To be some way other than kicking ass and charging ahead or plowing stoically on is not to be doing poorly in this forest

One is doing however one is doing in this forest. There's room.

You can lie down and cry as much as you want, or be hot and angry. You can shuffle around in a blanket. If you need special tea, you can sit on a log by the fire or [on whatever you want] in a dwelling and drink special tea. Or you can be in a dwelling in a bed. Somebody wise can come and talk to you for as long as you need it. People who know about bodies can help you with your body. Hold it, massage it, warm it, press it, move it around, help you move it around. Somebody who knows the thing you're going through inside and out can look in your eyes, that alone, and you can look into their eyes.

There's no substitute for that.

  Nobody is here who wants you to be different or feel better than you feel.

You are not on a timetable.

People here love what you really are,

both generally and right now.

They're as close or far as you need them but you know that when they're there, they're really there. They're not wishing they were somewhere else or wishing you were someone else and you know that so deep down that it feels like you've eaten hot soup.

Doubt is only a memory ghost in this forest. You can be plagued by whatever else you want here but not by doubt.

     Stay as long as you want.

   Redecorate, even. Mi forest, su forest.

    Come back whenever you want. It's free and it’s not a long sail.

Meanwhile, back on regular Earth, some diversions

• I'm reading this right now and enjoying it

• If you have $85 and the mood, you could have this

• If you're a person who enjoys lipstick, a person who enjoys playing around with color

and most of all a person who wishes they could name cosmetics  you're never going to stop doing this I myself have not stopped

:  

Jennifer Starr, Elk Lake