I am drawn to being a Hermit right now. I feel like I must live in the deepest solitude and reflection as possible, while still venturing out amongst the people in the world, in my life.

There are a lot of versions of The Hermit in tarot, and this card and the number 9 are tied to Virgo. When figures are turned to the left in tarot is means looking toward the past. I don’t want to look at the past, I want to move toward the future. So I searched far for an image of The Hermit that made sense for this time. If you change the black cat into a black dog, this card is about exactly how you might find me most of the time.

I am regrouping. Things have been happening, and this is where the story goes inside. Where I take my pain and learn to sit with her, give her a cup of tea, and get on with it.

I have been telling my students to say “thank you SUN!” whenever we go outside and the sun is shining. Today after lunch and during our social-emotional time we listened to a visualization where the voice told us to imagine a playground. “Where are you at the playground? What do you see? Hear? Let yourself play here.” I laid down and found myself sitting on a bench beside a mountain lake, alone. The gentle breeze was making the surface of the water ripple in little waves, and the sun was shining down through the pine trees on mountain on the other side of the lake. Sun was creating pools of light on the lake. I could hear Kingfishers and Osprey and water lapping the shore. I was so content, I never wanted to open my eyes. I was some completely blissed out, and my friends that weren’t into it gave me and their peers the grace of quiet giggles. Some of them were squirmy, some completely yoga-ed out, some fell asleep. One of them came over and laid down next to me. I put my hand in hers, and she grasped it tight. Both of us eyes shut, feeling a little vulnerable and open and the same time. I was listening to my lake water hit the shore.

When it was over ten minutes later, we did a little debrief. I said, it’s totally ok if this didn’t work for you. Now you know. And it’s hard to keep our minds and bodies focused that long. Thank you for trying. I said when we do things like this pictures appear in our heads sometimes. I asked them what their playgrounds looked like, if they wanted to share.

My hand holding friend said her park was full of dogs she wanted to play with.

I quite believe that Kindergarteners are saving my soul.

Namaste.