Waterfall also warmed to the twelve-year-old Chattering’s aura, which she said was similar to his brother’s, but maturing nicely with some comforting, sheltering green evident with the yellow and orange. “I see this green in the auras of people who are therapists, healers, and teachers,” she said. “Green in the color most strongly connected with the heart chakra.” Green is also the color of people associated with social justice.

The word “helper” in this context got my chattering mind churning because, actually, I had just been ragging on Chattering Son Number One for not helping enough, not cleaning his room, not picking up his towels and so forth. So it was tremendously touching to sneak a peek at my son’s grateful face as Waterfall was telling him what his “green” meant, because I could see that he was quite relieved to be called a helper, a teacher, a champion of good causes, and so forth. And I realized in that moment as she was talking, that my mom-ish haranguing about how he doesn’t often think of ways he can be of service to me had actually wounded him. Now, he was nodding, smiling brightly at Waterfall with a face that looked so relieved, so understood. And I recognized then that he is pretty much a normal kid at home, and a tremendous helpmate and counsel to his many friends, and someone who, yes, does have a passion for social service and a hope to save the world.

So I would have just sat there bathing in the glow of this realization if Waterfall then hadn’t then turned to “read” me.