The Fool

In Tarot the first card is the Fool. Perfect for today, April Fool’s Day.

Our yellow lab Dobby figured out in his puppihood that if he makes gagging noise in the morning, one of us will fly up out of bed and let him outside. In that dog mind of his, he has learned not to do this every morning, so it remains highly effective. He used it this morning. Keith got up and put him out. When I got up twenty minutes later, Keith told me to be careful not to step in the puke. Bleary eyed I looked around amazed the dog had actually gotten sick. Then Keith laughed….April Fool’s.

The Fool card in Tarot is about starting a new journey. In a sense each day is a new adventure waiting for us. What is special about the fool is that he travels looking up to the sky,  excitement on his face as he steps off the edge of a cliff. I tend not to be a foolish strider admiring the sun, but rather an earth creeper, often assuming every crack in the sidewalk could quickly open up to an abyss. Fool is a good reminder to me to be as Jesus advised, the little child, or as Thich Nat Hahn terms it, to have Beginner Mind.

So the Fool travels with a little dog, in some decks anyway. My dear Dobby teaches me that even though he has used the gag trick at least once a week for seven years, I still fall for it; a perfect example of beginner mind if you ask me. For one so skeptical and cautious, I will take it as a good sign that I looked for the puke this morning. There is a fool inside me yet!