I brought paper to work today so I could work on a sketch if I had time -- but once I got there, I realized I'd forgotten to pick a card to work on. So I called my friend Chris, and he drew one for me, and I knew what I'd be drawing the moment I heard what it was.
I work a few days a week at a restaurant around the corner from my house. My work schedule is really wonderful for my creative life (not to mention this blog), but on the days I work, I work insanely hard for hours and hours. And while today was certainly one of those days, I stole a few moments here and there to sketch it as it happened.
The Ten of Wands is all about work and he humility it imposes, even upon the successful. Most decks seem to have taken their inspiration for this card from Pamela Coleman-Smith's version. I merely adapted its message to my actual job, showing some of the complications that I deal with from one moment to the next, or even all at once. It's a burden that I bear gladly right now because of what it allows me to do, and it's one that I've deliberately engineered, but still -- yikes. It can be physically and mentally ruinous.
The Ten card in any suit represents fulfillment of some earlier idea -- at this point, you've gone about as far as you can on the track you're on. If you stay on it you're just going to keep going in circles. Some might consider them victory laps, others might say it's a holding pattern. Some are just building up the courage to launch themselves into the next challenge, and some are just killing time and waiting for the future to reveal itself to them.
In my case it's all of the above. It's getting me where I need to go. So I'll continue to serve brunch and wipe down tables and take phone orders. I'll continue to spend that first quiet hour setting up the dining room as if I'm throwing a huge party, and to spend the seven hours after that scrambling around like a whole hill of ants. At the very least, being embroiled in all this is a constant reminder of what I originally set out to do. If I was able to pick it up in the first place, I must be strong enough to carry it just a little bit further.
PS: Our phone totally doesn't have one of those old-fashioned receivers like the one in the picture, but cordless phones aren't interesting to draw in the slightest. And the flowers are carnations, they're for the bud vases on our tables.
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