How to Find the Beginning in the End - Look at Us Now

It's inevitable, no matter how blessed a life is. The universe pushes us humans out of our tidy comfort zone into the abyss of loss. 

Actually that shift is so much part of the human condition that it is a subject of the Tarot cards, dating way back to the 14th century. For those endings the Five of Cups captures the sense of actual despair. The imagery has a man in a black cloak with his head and body hunched over in pain. His only perspective is the past. He can't envision a possible future.

But also in the Tarot are the cards symbolizing grasping the beginning in that ending. They include:

The Fool

Death

Judgement

Ace of Swords

In a recent Ted Talk, Rhode Island award-winning attorney John Tarantino of Adler Pollock & Sheehan mapped out that journey from the mindset "Everything Is Lost" to "Look at Us Now, Building Something Amazing." Titled "Redemption Stories," it captures human turning points. Already it has about a half a million views and traffic continues heavy.

Essentially Tarantino frames his narrative about two men who were thrown up against unexpected adversity. It seemed like the end. Actually it was the end for both. That is, of who they were in the past. 

One had to put together a concrete sign of atonement after blurting a racial slur. That consisted of creating a sustainable educational program in inner city grade schools. Those young people did go to college. They are still going to college. 

The other saga was of a happy close-knit family. That comfortable nest experienced a rough shake when the mother developed terminal cancer. However, she was the leader in transforming her individual suffering into improved healthcare in RI. That woman had been Tarantino's spouse Patricia. 

In a conversation, Tarantino told me that, yes, the healthcare initiatives were key to start the beginnings of the next chapter for him and his children. But in itself this Ted Talk gave the family a kind of permission to put closure on that painful part of their lives. As a family, the Tarantinos are back. But different. Pain is transformative.

In the 1970s when I stumbled upon business writing as my profession I experienced a lover's bliss. It was a vocation, a calling and purpose-driven. I helped corporate executives and small businesses put themselves out there to the max commercial advantage.

Then it was then. 

The field became glutted. From all directions there were warnings that technology would wipe out more and more jobs/assignments. Where did I get the strength to search for another beginning? I have no idea. What I do know is this: Although the pivot to conducting Tarot readings went surpisingly well it didn't prevent profound mourning. 

As with the redemptive good deeds described in Tarantino's Ted Talk, how I managed to find a way out of the darkness was through giving. That happened with pro-bono Tarot readings. I developed contacts  on the border of Mexio, in the US town of Nogales. People found inner peace. They released through the Tarot what they had been holding in.

So, where are you right now? Your loss could be as simple as disappointment or as huge as the death of loved one, human or animal. Reality is that the pain can be the platform for a whole new start. 

Tarantino is a different man from when, wearning my journalist hat, I covered his defense lawyering in the landmark RI public nuisance lead paint trial. There is now an aura of extreme compassion. 

I have softened and brightened up. 

Of course, I don't wish displacement on anyone. It is a wretched state of being. But we can begin our lives all over again, reframing that past whatevers as a gift. If Tarantino decided on a second career he could take on the mantle of an evangelical speaker. Me? I never anticipated I was capable of doing so much to heal human suffering. The future is certainly open. 

Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive Career Coach.

Don’t Give Up Before the Miracle.

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