Cups are associated with the element of water, with emotions, love, pleasure in life, matters pertaining to the unconscious, intuition and inner planes.  The Queen of Cups may be devoted to the needs of family and friends, and at her best shows a radiant, compassionate heart.  She is intuitive and able to tune in to the emotional needs of others.  She's a dreamer who can turn her imaginings into creative activity.  Reversed she can symbolize someone who indulges in emotional outbursts and a martyr complex in a quest for sympathy.  She can also become manipulative on an emotional level if she is unable to channel her energies into a productive outlet.

"Your interpersonal interaction is highly evolved and fulfilling.  You experience your emotions deeply and allow others to feel theirs.  You are skilled at processing your feelings and understanding what is happening in your relationships.  You express a deep empathy and understanding toward others.  You have reached a strong level of maturity and depth with a relationship or emotion." - Gail Fairfield

As I was walking through NYC today, I had my usual cranky monologue running through my head "damn tourists, why don't they go somewhere else", "where did all these people come from", "why the hell do people just stop in the middle of the sidewalk".  Basically all of these are variations on my usual theme "why won't these people just get out of my way".  As I was grumping to myself, I realized that this is a ridiculous waste of my energy.  

Instead I decided to channel my inner Queen of Cups and use it to allow myself to feel something other than aggravation towards these people.  What she allowed me to do was feel a sense of joy that outsiders could find my hometown so fascinating and attractive.  It allowed me to focus more on the joy I feel walking around my city and less on the aggravation caused by tourists who seem driven to stop dead in the middle of the street for no apparent reason.

I also spent some time in the Lane Bryant store on 34th Street.  I haven't been clothes shopping in some time and was inspired by recent blog posts from a Lane Bryant bloggers' convention.  I decided it was time to update a few of the pieces in my wardrobe.  I have to say that visiting the store was a joy.  All of the employees from the security personnel to the guardian of the fitting room were friendly, helpful and welcoming.  If I looked as if I needed assistance, someone was there to provide it.  I ended up ordering a few items through their Lane Bryant 2 You program (which let me order at the store and ship to my home).  I was quite happy with my little shopping adventure.  I felt as though I had pampered myself a bit and that might have been one of the Queen of Cup's messages to me.

Sometimes I ignore the fact that I need real pampering.  I'm not talking about spending the day being lazy and doing nothing.  I'm talking about spending the time to focus on my and doing things that make me feel good.  Some days that might mean a shopping trip, other days it might mean a haircut or manicure and on other days it may mean giving myself the time to roam through a museum.  I need to keep nourishing my spirit, my soul and my heart with little things like this that make me happy and allow me to pamper myself just a bit.