The first thing I noticed on the Vanessa 10 of Coins is that the woman is holding a ring of keys. She is standing in front of this lush property with a beautiful house in the background and she stands there holding keys. So it struck me, I hold the keys to my own prosperity. I hold the keys to achieving my goals in life. I can’t really blame others or circumstances for not achieving my goals. This is entirely up to me. And I’m not saying that in a judgmental way. The reality is that I have been lucky enough to always have choices in my life. Despite whatever craziness I dealt with as a child, I was able to complete a master’s degree in psychology and I’m not going for a master’s degree in public administration. I have been happily and successfully married to a really special and amazing man for 22 years. And I’ve always been able to pursue my personal interests whether that is Tarot or books or dolls.

I already possess a lot of the abundance represented by the 10 of Coins/Pentacles. In fact I may even have an over abundance. I realize that I have almost lost sight of the wonderful things I have – I can see the forest for the trees. I have so many dolls, books and Tarot decks that I don’t actually enjoy them individually because I get overwhelmed. They have become one huge blur of “things”. I don’t see my Society Girl Barbie that resembles me in my high school graduation photo. Or I forget that I have a Tapestry Tarot deck tuck away somewhere but never used.

This has made me consider simplifying some things in my life. A former supervisor once told me that in your 30s you want to collect things and in your 40s you want to collect experiences. I was in my 20s at the time so I blew off these words of wisdom. But now that I’m looking back I think she had a point. In my 30s I spent a lot of time and money buying things I felt I had been deprived in my younger years. Now I either want to put all those things to use or maybe it’s time to let them pass along to others who can appreciate their beauty.

In addition to this snippet of revelatory wisdom, I realized that I also hold the keys to my own happiness. For the past two days I’ve been snippy with my hubby. I’m not 100% sure why but I was hyper-sensitive so that if he said anything that could be interpreted wrong, I did so. If he said anything that rubbed me the wrong way I snarled at him. When I saw the keys in the woman’s hands I realized that I held the keys to my reactions. Saying “Well it’s not my fault you said that” isn’t the answer. The reality is that while I can’t control what anyone else says, I can certainly control my reactions to their statements. And that’s what I needed to do in this situation. I needed to take a pause before responding to see if I was interpreting things differently than they were intended. And once I was able to take that step back and pause, I found that my snarkiness diminished. And this led to a much more harmonious household.