I want to recommend Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth Series (of which I’ve read the original 11), bringing special attention to my favourite in the series, Faith of the Fallen.
Never have I read a fantasy, nor any novel for that matter, that sticks so fastidiously to upholding the honour and value of truth, logic and reason. There is a strong case for Goodkind’s argument that his books are not fantasy due to his honouring human nature before the fantastical elements. The magic he introduces is very natural and works with the humanity of his characters, never against it.
And let’s talk about the hero: what a dream! Meet Richard, a humble woods guide turned wizard as he discovers the truth about magic, the world, and who he actually is, The Seeker. His nobility is uncovered throughout the series which is a marvelous allegory of the complicated struggle between good and evil. Through the development of the protagonists, Richard and Kahlan, we see how they work to restore peace, balance and truth to the world.
excerpt from Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind
Goodkind’s series is exciting, dark, light, easy to read, and masterfully crafted. Despite its criticism, I have fallen in love with The Sword of Truth series and especially Faith of the Fallen.
I first read Faith of the Fallen over six years ago. In particular, this installment touched me because of the strong parallels it draws to our present bureaucratic quicksand, governing hypocrisies, the hopeless despair and laziness of modern man, and how, in the end, Richard moves people to take action to free themselves from their own enslavement. As the back cover describes, the book really is “a novel of the nobility of the human spirit.”
Freedom requires effort if it is to be won and vigilance if it is to be maintained. People just don’t value freedom until it’s taken away.
Terry Goodkind
I’m sitting down for a re-read right now! How are you spending this glorious sunny day?
The King I seek is standing in the sun. I cannot see his face. He holds out his hand to me. In his outstretched palm is a wax seal. I cannot make out the pressed emblem. On the tips of his fingers he offers an amber Jewel. I long to take the Jewel from his hand, but I don’t want to appear selfish. I just feel this offer means so much more. The seal reveals his official business, but Jewel feels like a gift meant just for me. I reach out my hand to touch his.
The King disappears, and I wake up.
Another Dream:
I was sitting on the bank of a river. From a distance, I watched a female oriole weave her nest with dry plants and tree bark. Every so often she would pause and call out to her partner, working at a distance. I moved closer to get a better vantage point. From up close I could see that the lady in orange array had woven lavender forget-me-nots into her hanging home. As she flew off to gather more materials, I stood up and peered inside. I gasped, thrown by what I saw. A window into a deep red world. A ruby hung in the clear sky casting brilliant rays across a crimson lake. A couple cradled in a copper canoe bent in for a kiss. A scarlet glare lights my pupils aflame and, blinking, I wake up.
For the first time in history We have lost daily danger Robots doing most arduous work Steadfast protection from perceived external threats
So we no longer fight to live Turning our choices over to untrained professionals Motivated by momentary monetary gains Unhappy lacking distraction in still moments
We interchanged dogmas So we can scoff at virtue, instead Worshipping power and profit strawmen Spiritual faith exchanged for political cocksucking
We are no longer compelled to fix ourselves We are machinery now repairable with medication Our bodies broken before birth Necessitating genetic modification
We manipulate nature’s randomness We have erased beauty because man perceives Chaos where nature reigns pure and cyclical Revealing the path we walk now is narrow
My hands miss you even now. They miss the feel of your skin, the warmth of your body. They miss running through your hair, squeezing the soft skin around your neck, pinching your taught nipple, parting your lips, fingers swimming in the warm wetness, tight and strong, yielding walls.
My fingers miss you even now. They miss creating the causes for those small moans to escape your throat. They miss meeting your fingers in the push and pull games we would play. They miss tickles, and walking along the pale bumpy shore of your shoulder blades, raised pores, sensitive beyond measure. They miss control with tiny touch. They miss running for their lives to avoid being crushed in the roiling brawl, dark room, damp sheets, foot on floor, head on bed.
My head, it misses you even now. It spins and movies play across my lids. I yearn to close my eyes in every waking moment to bring you back to my here and now. My ears feel your lips, hear your whispers. My neck hair raises to think that near you passed. I smell the air hoping to catch the non-existent waft of your invisible scent – woodsy deodorant, dark amber and cotton candy.
My dearest Red, my soul misses you even now. It was as if it was whole until I bore into you and created the causes for my own misery. Misplaced attachment and tangible fear of loss to replace peace and joy and love. An uncontrolled desire that rewrites fact with lustful fiction on a cord I wrap ‘round both our necks.
Dear Red what mind is it that yearns for direct suffering as the product of a wish? What mind that reaches for the poison on the top shelf and strives to spill every last drop into its own being? What unabashed lust that craves bodily satisfaction over everlasting love? It is my mind. So in my mind we sit together now. All night long we have not stirred, and yet God has not said a word!
If your organization has volunteers, it needs volunteer supervisors. Simple as that. But what does it mean to be a volunteer supervisor? What responsibilities does that role come with? What’s the measurement of success? How does this role impact the entire organization?
If you can answer all these questions, and your values are supported in your workplace, that’s wonderful! Know this is not all work environments. If you need a starting point when outlining this role or communicating it to your staff person, the Volunteer Supervisor Responsibilities document will give you one.
Note to Staff Managers:
It’s important to realize that when you add volunteers to a department for the first time, you must recognize the additional work this places on your staff. Yes, the volunteers are there to alleviate some mundane or redundant work that staff can easily delegate when given the opportunity. However, the staff that supervises them must be given the proper recognition of the time necessary for training, coaching, feedback and evaluation.
Real Talk:
In an organization already overburdened, it’s easy to add additional roadblocks instead of finding real solutions to the overflowing problems. This often includes overlooking the need for proper compensation due to staff with an ever-increasing workload. Change and growth is difficult, because it usually means loss with your gains. Not everyone makes it through. But it is necessary in order to remain sustainable.
Suggestions:
Plan your week so you build in time for strategizing, goal setting, appreciating your staff, etc. During that time, you can complete the next two steps.
Draft a version for your own organization. You can adapt this for any role at your workplace if there are aspects that need clarification. You may include it in a new hire package.
Schedule time to talk to the staff that will be working with the volunteers. Review their responsibilities, your expectations, and then open the floor to any concerns and address them right away. Show your support through actions rather than empty words. Keep your door open and engage feedback on a regular basis.
Resource Key Aspects:
I start off by appreciating the Volunteer Supervisor, recognizing the importance of their role. It’s important to be genuine if you include acknowledgment like this. I make a point to recognize my colleagues for the work that they do, so it feels natural for me to include this.
I have defined terms such as “Volunteer Coordinator” and “Volunteer Supervisor” – two different roles in the organization. You may include different terms as necessary.
Numbered list format. My original contained a poem I found inspiring, but I’ve pared this down to its core. Keep your expectations concise. If some responsibilities are not vital to your organization’s mission, don’t include them. Once more, consider the time it will take to perform these additional duties (if they are new to the position) and recognize your staff person accordingly.
Finally:
If you’re already running a volunteer program and you’re having challenges, it may be good to ask:
How do we currently supervise volunteers?
What training do we provide?
What could be improved? What could I improve?
Are they being given opportunities to demonstrate their skills?
Are they reliable? How are they being screened?
How do we provide feedback?
How do we say “Thank you!”?
And so on… there are many aspects of your program(s) to be evaluated. It is easy to think, “I don’t have time for that.” But, in reality, you can’t afford not to create an organization designed to grow sustainably. This means working with your most important resource: people. This means scheduling time in your day or week to review, evaluate, and plan. This means cleaning your room.
This week’s energy speaks of challenge. You may be facing a situation where you feel left out in the cold. You may be struggling alone despite being amongst many people or systems that have the potential to assist you. There is a suggestion of unwillingness to ask for help – perhaps you have been burned before. It feels safer to guard what little resources you have, stretching them thin in order to sustain your survival alone. Though you have enough to just manage, you are feeling the lack wearing you down, and you’re ready for change.
The pentacles typically deal with finances, career or studies. The five can indicate difficulties, conflict and instability – all wonderful for guiding us toward a beneficial change we may otherwise refuse to make. There is no reason to fear! In fact, now is the perfect time to transform the stagnant energy of worry into one that feeds purposeful action.
The image of the little girl keeping herself warm with one match at a time mirrors your situation. As soon as you feed a fire in one area of your life, it seems another goes out. As you strive to take care of your physical health, your mental health suffers. When you try to take care of your mental health, you struggle with finances. Just when your finances are in order, you realize you’re missing out on a social life. When you put time into your social life, you find you’re not sleeping enough or eating properly. You seek balance to replace this instability.
2021 is a year of challenges, so it is not surprising to see the number five come up in the cards. This may represent a cycle you’re going through this year or it could reflect challenges you’ve always had now surfacing anew.
Journal Questions:
What challenge(s) am I facing alone? What help is available to me that I refuse to ask for? Is my isolation a product of fate or choice? What choices can I make that will help me overcome the adversity I am facing? What about my situation is temporary? What am I worrying about that I cannot change? How can I let that go?
You are ready to look at your situation as it is. You now have an opportunity to free yourself by initiating the necessary discussion (either with partners or with yourself). Only clear and open communication will facilitate progress.
Gerd Ziegler
A Message from the Oracle:
The Wild Unknown Archetypes – November 2, 2021
Apocolypsis
This card represents “devastation for the sake of regeneration”: the death that bears life, the grief that gives healing, the destruction that must come so something can be built anew. What truths and love does your heart keep? Ground yourself and stay true to your center. In order to move through the deficit energy the Five of Coins reveals, you must find the deficit within yourself.
All kinds of things will be revealed during a time of apocalypsis – from big global lies to little white ones that lace the bedroom sheets. Brace yourself for the horse of truth to storm your every field.
Kim Krans
This is not your everyday transformation. Things will be shaken up on personal and global levels. You are not the only one reaching a breaking point. It can feel scary – but there is nothing to fear with this change. When we are this intensely dissatisfied, when we feel such disparate lack, when we yearn for revolution…big change has to happen to take us to a place where we can intentionally build the future we want. Individually and collectively.
Always keep hope in such times of darkness. The sun will shine its light on a new day, no matter how black the night. You choose what to make of it. You can choose to peacefully let go of what no longer serves you with appreciation for the lessons you learned. Or you can have everything yanked out from under you as you desperately cling to familiar evils instead of embracing the love and peace coming in.
Today’s Reminder:
How you see your challenges is entirely up to you.
Request: Paint the glass bottom of a restored tea tray.
Instructions: Maybe a teapot or something summery.
Result: I went with tea on the patio of my grandparents’ backyard. Something I’ve had the privilege to enjoy my entire life. The baseball announcers sang the song of summer. Memories flow: listening to Yankees vs. the Jays (my grandpa’s team versus my grandma’s) while my brothers and I smack a tennis ball off the brick wall with squash rackets. Fresh cut grass and trimmed hedges. Sparrows sing and squirrels forage, rustling foliage. Hot tea and cold coca-cola.
My grandparents recognized it immediately and loved the finished result.
The best discipline I ever received from a teacher in elementary school was, “I’m not telling you not to do it. I’m telling you not to get caught.” He was referring to my poetry notebook confiscated by a substitute teacher. She had taken particular offense to the metaphor I drew of my homeroom teacher as the falling sun.
Mr. Watson was one of few teachers who did not actively try and kill my childhood dreams of becoming a creative. The first time I received in-school support was from my grade two teacher: he laminated one of the first stories I wrote.
I carefully crafted my dreams in secret for most of my young life. Teachers and many other adults were unskillful at nurturing big ideas. They were small dreamers, and they functioned to place limits on all young lives they touched. This was my experience anyway.
There is a Bob Dylan quote that goes, “Destiny is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you’re about will come true. It’s a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it’s a fragile feeling, and if you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It’s best to keep that all inside.”
I feel this truth. When you have a special idea or dream or talent, it’s important to keep some of it to yourself. You have a personal legend, a treasure, and it’s perfectly okay to guard that. In fact, I believe you should. Not everything is meant for the world to see. People kill ideas. We see it every day. Not one idea can be agreed on by all people – so why try and make it so?
Keep doing what you love, what’s precious to you. At the right time, you’ll be able to reveal it to a select section of the world: your special audience. In its infancy, you must guard your personal legend so it can’t be torn down by people who take joy in setting other people’s limitations. In the meantime, work on removing self-imposed restrictions. Encourage others wherever you can, and this gesture will be returned tenfold.
Drinking cold blackberry bubly In the hot Himalayan-salted bath In the apartment I rent And listening to Nat King Cole I belch loudly four times through the open window Being a woman in the twenty-first century isn’t so bad
As long as I hold patience for people And cherish the other that is not me.
The Halfwit Writer 