Blue Rose Tarot - Ten of Wands
Created by Paula Gibby
Published by Soul Guidance

Description:
A dark-skinned man in simple white pants and shirt, sandals, and a straw hat is carrying a huge basket (nearly as big as he is!) strapped to his back. Until I got the book, I'd always thought the basket looked like it contained bulbs of some sort (like onions or garlic) covered in some sort of netting, but according to Paula it contains flowers. The man has stumbled under the weight of the gigantic basket of flowers and is on his hands and knees in the street of a small village, trying to crawl forward as the sun sinks over a nearby house.

From the book:
Too much of a good thing is still too much. Gaze on the figure of the man in the 10 of Wands. His burden is lovely. See all those beautiful flowers? And after all, flowers don't weigh very much. It is so hard to think of leaving a single blossom behind. But again...too much of a good thing is, at the end of the day, just too much.

Such burdens can, and many times must be carried because there is no other choice. But when an opportunity arises, even a superhero must take a break from saving the world and solving all of its problems and retreat into himself for replenishment and healing.

My thoughts:
When I see the figure in this card, I think he's probably a family man who is planning to sell those flowers to provide for his family. So who can blame him if he doesn't want to leave any behind? After all, the more flowers he has to sell, the more money he can potentially make to provide food and shelter and clothing for the people he loves.

But of course if he collapses from heat stroke, or is hit by a cart as he's crawling across the street, or takes so long to reach the market bearing his huge burden that the flowers all die before he can get there and sell them, then he's left his family with nothing at all...not even the amount he would have made from carrying a basket of flowers half that size.

This version of the 10 of Wands would remind me to remember the difference between what I, or those I love, *need* compared to what we *want*. Sometimes we can run so hard after our wants that we overburden ourselves too much to even take care of our needs.

Deb R.