clairvoyant monica and the mystery of major

For my twenty-seventh birthday, I go for my first and only palm reading. Clairvoyant Monica instructs me to make two wishes in my head. “Do not share them with me at any point,” she says. “When you’re done, state your full name and turn over your hands to me.” I make my wishes and I obey. Her immediate remarks, verbatim, are: “Taylor, you’ve been here before. You’ve lived 2 to 3 major lives and a lot of minor ones. And in every one of these lives, you were some kind of healer.” I feel a tingle travel over my extremities. The wishes I made before surrendering my palms were all too specific. On any other day, I might have wished for Pabllo Vittar to fall in love with me, or for a large sum of money with which I would move to Brazil and buy a property on the coast in Bahia. And yet, effortlessly my wishes came to me: (1) That my school community be protected (2) That everyone in my family be healed This was in August 2019, the month I started graduate school, and a whole eight months before the coronavirus pandemic would sweep the world like wildfire. For the past 2 years, whether I was teaching in the brick-andmortar classroom, or suspended in online space with my students, I knew deep down that they would be protected by my wishes. When my mother contracted COVID-19 and her cardiac physician managed to get her an antibody transfusion, it felt like a miracle to me. She was healed.

*** The time I spent teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic has

been illuminating. I realized: the molecules that make up a school are far less dense and far more motivated than stone and steel. Educators, teachers, counselors, healers, peacekeepers, and students, above all, make a school. I am the lucky Spanish teacher of preschool through 5th grade at a small school in Philadelphia. I love my students, their collaborative spirits, their joy, and the stories they tell me. I celebrate their contributions—especially when they speak their minds and hearts. I adore their authenticity and their agility. They inspire me to keep going and to do better against all odds. The full impact of this pandemic on our communities and on the future of education remains to be seen amid the darkness of the unknown. What kind of developmental disparities among children will follow the homeschooling of a nation? How do we innovate safe, ethical, and dignified pathways for every child to do well? How can we as adults connect to the budding identities of children who occupy increasingly transcultural spaces? We must nurture our cultural humilities. We must be willing to unlearn and learn again, infinitely. *** Clairvoyant Monica’s words endure like a puzzle in my mind: “Some kind of healer” and “2 to 3 major lives.” How is major measured? Every morning I wake up, some days more slowly than others, but always with the mystery of major and the notion of making a positive impact. With whatever Time I am granted, I’ll be out here working to heal myself and the world.

Taylor Stabler, M.Ed. @boi_magia