Sometimes, like now, I feel the urge to just give up. Loki urges me to "attack in the opposite direction." It's not a retreat. It is a tactical maneuver around a problem that is overwhelming. The Sly-Fox has a good point. When things are overwhelming, it is good to take a few steps back and look it over again from another perspective. When you have a hard time changing focus and reframing a problem, talking it over with someone who isn't intimately involved with it and can see the big picture is a good plan.
Loki is one of the deities that I talk about life problems with. When it came to cutting some toxic ties, it took me a long time to reach that point. Loki was right there pointing out how those ties, even when they're inactive, are still toxic to me. Rather than confronting the people whose toxic behaviors were causing me pain, as I had tried in the past and had it turn into a conflagration that ended with me painted as the bad guy for standing up for myself, I "attacked in the opposite direction." I backed off and looked at it critically.
Then, with Loki's blessing, torched the bridge between them and I by just ghosting them. Loki's remark to my deciding to disappear from their social media was "Mmm burnt embers. Time to toast some marshmallows." While I can't have my "victory s'mores", I sleep a bit easier at night for doing what I did. Sometimes, 'attacking in the opposite direction' means retreat. Sometimes it means you do the unexpected. In this case, I did both.
Loki may not be a god of warfare but he's one heck of a strategist.
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