Ten of Swords

It ended at work, the role, the project, the trust, and it feels total. It is an ending. It is not the end of you.

What actually ended, as opposed to what it feels like ended?

Write the plain version of what happened today, without the adjectives.

The money thing collapsed and you are treating it as the end of everything. It is the end of one plan.

What is still true about your situation that the loss did not touch?

List three of those things today, then take one step from there.

It is over. You keep replaying the ending as a betrayal because a betrayal is at least a story. Sometimes things just end.

What are you adding to the story of this ending that was not actually there?

Tell the ending to one person this week in five plain sentences.

The decision was made by events, and it feels brutal. Brutal is the drama. The fact is smaller and easier to carry.

What is left to decide now that this is settled?

Decide that today, and stop relitigating what is closed.

Something has ended for good and you are lying in it. This is the floor. The floor is where getting up starts.

What are you still hoping might not have happened?

Say the sentence it happened out loud today, once, without softening it.

The project is dead. You are mourning it as a tragedy when it is a piece that did not work, which is most pieces.

What did this one teach you that the next one can use?

Write that in three lines today, then close the folder.