Six of Pentacles

This card indicates financial balance, sharing of wealth, and generosity. You could be the person sharing their abundance or be on the receiving end of someone else's charity.

A Little Extra

My apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, three stops from the end of the R line and a 57-minute commute on a good day from my job in Rockefeller, cost $825 a month in 2005 when I moved to New York City. That was over half my monthly paycheck at Simon and Schuster, where I got my first real job as a managing editorial assistant. After three months of living in this studio that now felt like home, I realized the other half of my paycheck could technically float the rest of my monthly bills, but there was no room for error. 

I bought salmon for a date I was having over and a bottle of 2 buck chuck, and the next week, I had to eat the pasta I found in the back of my cupboard every night for 10 days to avoid overdrawing my account. My mom and I had a weekly chat on Sundays, and she always asked how I was doing, but this time, she was wondering about my health. She had seen some recent pictures on Facebook and thought I looked too thin. Too thin! That is not a statement I had ever heard come out of anyone in my mom's family's mouth. I nearly fell off the wobbly Target dining chair that I put together by myself, not well, so it always sat a bit off-kilter. It wasn’t the chairs instability that got me; it was the shock.

My mom and her extended family have an unhealthy fixation with weight; she thinks it has something to do with being South Asian. She claims it has always been this way, with a regular greeting from an uncle being, "Oh, you've gained weight! What diet are you going to try?"

I never want my mom to worry and hate asking for help, so I always said I'm OK in response to questions about how I'm doing. At the end of month four of living in my studio, I found a card from my mom in my little metal mailbox and inside a check for $100. Until I got my first promotion, this envelope would show up at the end of each month. 

The card would be adorned with a dancing snoopy, flowers, a Van Gogh painting, and a note for my mom saying  "just in case you need a little extra." I protested at first, but she insisted; she had it to give, it was not a strain for her, and she wanted to help. I made a budget and ensured I was covered with this buffer, and if I had some extra at the end of the month, I would buy a $10 shirt from H&M or Forever 21 or go out for a happy hour with co-workers but only buy one drink. Her monthly financial help didn't just make that first year in the city a bit easier; it taught me how to manage money for the rest of my life. Would I have learned how to do this regardless of her gift? Probably. But was my life during that time better because of her generosity, one hundred percent.

Does this card inspire a story in you? If it does, I want to hear it!