Upright Keywords: Conflict, tension, competition
Symbolism & Meaning
These witches love eachother dearly and are the best of friends. Clearly though, something has happened to ignite this level of heated discussion between them. If they can’t come to an agreement about this recipe soon, they will have an explosion on their hands. Constantly fighting fires and cleaning up the mess is the last resort. It is much wiser and much easier to nip things in the bud and try to find resolution.
How The Five of Wands is Relevant to Me
The Tonkin household has shifted over the last few months. When I was first out of hospital, things were actually pretty calm. Oldest was in college, youngest wasn’t really fully into his GCSE routine, Steve was working and my mum was staying with us. At that point, I was literally just going from my bed to my chair and back again, twice a day. Our days consisted of binge watching TV shows and generally just trying to kill time. Once I was weight bearing confidently, my mum went home.
As I have become more mobile and also trying to build a work from home business, I have noticed the dynamics of the household shifting. Oldest is out of college, youngest is having to knuckle down with his studying and Steve is juggling full time work with In the Abyss.
All of a sudden, our 3 bed semi does not feel big enough for all of these competing personalities. Everyday, there is some kind of battle over sharing space which mainly seems to be around the kitchen. Family meals are a thing of the past it seems and we have pretty much given up trying to achieve this. We even made the decision to dump the dining table once I no longer needed to sleep downstairs. I think the only meal that would guarantee us eating the same thing is a homemade Cornish pasty. Even then, the oldest would probably want to disappear upstairs to eat alone. We have accepted that they are wanting to have their independence which is fine, until we all want to prepare our dinner and nobody seems to be able to cope unless they have the kitchen to themselves!
Neither of them are interested in the boat and the oldest has no interest in holidays as a family. She is ready to head to uni and create a life for ourself. Youngest is impatient and feels ready now but he knows he needs to get his ducks in a row, educationally speaking, for this to happen.
Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing more than for them to go off and live their lives however they want to. In the meantime though, we all need to live together!
Honestly, I have never been more happy than knowing we have the boat to disappear to. Not just for us but for them. The kids are quite keen to get rid of us and certainly wouldn’t entertain coming away as a family for a few nights.
I remember someone telling me once that your children reach a point where they seem to “go away” but they always “come back”. I hope this is true but if they do, they will be doing it on the boat, whether they like it or not! If I have to bribe them with a homemade Cornish pasty, so be it!