Focus On: Achievement

At the top of this card we see the Capricorn ram as a monument, gilded and posed, surrounded by stylized star-flowers. Below, under the auspices of the Sun-coin, we have well-maintained buildings, just a bit luxurious, perhaps 18th century in style.

Achievement: the fruit of the stubborn work ethic of the Capricorn combined with the optimistic energy of the Sun.

I am reminded by the images in this card of how easily it comes to us, as larger societies, to celebrate achievement. We build monuments and statues everywhere. We name bridges and highways after famous figures. We open museums. We create national holidays, produce action figure toys and stylized, glorified movies, put images of famous men on bills and coins. Everywhere you turn, if you are looking for it, you can find some reminder of the past, what 'our' people or 'other' people achieved. Currently I live within walking distance of a bunch of different roman ruins, lots of signage helpfully pointing out the way to this and that, look what they build here once, across centuries...

And yet when it comes to our own personal achievements, our own lives...how often do we dismiss, belittle, take for granted what we have done, what we have gained and over-come, what we have struggled against and survived? We don't want to seem arrogant, to 'brag', so instead we laugh, say "oh, that was nothing" when in fact it was NOT nothing - it was something important, something significant, something that required our efforts, determination, skill to achieve.

How often do we take the time to build our own, personal monuments, to pause and really think about what we did and tell ourselves - why yes, I did do that, and that was quite awesome of me?