I see on Facebook that today is National Son Day, so I wanted to share a story about my son Eric and his friend Arta from my upcoming book The Synchronicity of Love.
“It is the fall of 2002. I’ve just tucked my kids into bed, kissed them, and turned off their lights. I am getting into bed myself now, but I am sad and grieving for my son, Eric. It was his first day back at elementary school today, and it did not go well.
“He was so excited to go back to school this morning—like “can’t sleep, peeing your pants, and jumping up and down” kind of excitement. But all the kids he wanted to hang with and play with at school were rejecting him. All my son’s super-high back-to-school expectations were dashed on day one. He did sort of have a friend named Arta, and I asked him why he wasn’t playing with him, and he said that Arta wasn’t cool and that all the cool kids rejected him too.
“My son is experiencing rejection on the first day of school, and it looks like the light has gone out of his eyes. It cuts me deeply. What parent isn’t just a little upset when their kid is being rejected and cast out?“
“I have recently been introduced to the Tarot, and I love all the images on the cards. I learned that the Tarot can be used to get intuitive answers to difficult questions. I have been taught to use my intuition and let the images speak to me and my question rather than read the name of the card and the explanation in the book.
“So I pull out my Voyager Tarot deck and ask, “How can I help my son, Eric?”
“I spend a minute with my hand on my heart center and enter a state of unconditional love. I feel like I am also in a state of selfless service. I spread out the cards, close my eyes, scan the cards with my hands, feel for just the right card, and then draw it and turn it over.
“The card I draw looks to me like a pair of swans taking on the world. The intuitive hit is instantaneous. I immediately go back to my son’s bedroom and ask him how it might feel to be best friends with Arta and to not worry about what the “cool” kids think. I suggest that maybe having one good best friend might be better than being friends with lots of cool kids.
“The light returns to Eric’s eyes. Yes! The excitement is back.
“The next day, he zips out the door to school like it is the first day all over again. When he comes home, he is smiling. His new best friend is Arta, and Eric is glowing.
“Eric and Arta are different. Eric’s heritage is American, he lives in a divorced household with his dad (me) and sister, and we go out to eat a lot. Arta’s heritage is Persian, and he lives with his mother, step-father, brother, and grandma (who always seemed to be cooking Persian food 24/7), and they tend to eat at home a lot. Eric is generous and focused on others; Arta is more independent and self-focused. Eric is not into school and academics; Arta is.
“Following my experiment with the Tarot, the boys stayed best friends all through school. They played on football and basketball teams together, formed some awesome heavy metal bands together, wrote all their own music, played in some big venues, traveled all over the United States, did paintball, airsoft, played video games, drove fast cars together, and remain good friends today.
“Just now, I am looking at that card again, and I notice it says, “SYNERGY. SIX OF WORLDS,” and the book that goes with the deck says the card is about teamwork and cooperation and achieving greater goals together than alone.
“I had spent most of my life to that point relying on data and news and statistics and logic and the opinions of others and then spending hours musing and thinking, thinking, and thinking some more. But here was an answer to a challenging problem that seemingly came to me in an instant. And so, from that day forward, I fall in love with intuition. I spend the rest of my life and still today seeking intuitive answers to life’s difficult questions”.
—-excerpt from The Synchronicity of Love by John David Latta
© John David Latta
