Recently I was invited by my granddaughter’s first grade class to give a brief ‘community helper’ presentation on my job and how it helps our communities. Of course, I readily accepted this invite as it seems my love quotient has grown exponentially since the grandchildren began appearing on the scene.  Now, what might I say to these 6 year olds about being a practicing psychologist? I thought if nothing else we might learn a new word, ‘psychology’ and its origin. I wrote on the blackboard in large letter the word psychology, then wrote down the meaning of ‘psyche’ and ‘ology’. I described to their seemingly interested and adorable faces that psyche is an old Greek word which means soul, spirit or breathe.  I shared that the word was also the name of a sister in an old Greek story, of which have had quite a bit of influence on our world still today. The story is a reminder that our individual souls are a gift we present for the good of this world.  It may be my own projection, but they seemed to understand and know this immediately. I went on to say that this gift is often lost, buried or hidden from us.  There were several nodding heads.  Sometimes we get stuck or find ourselves in trouble and need some help. I asked, “have you ever felt like you just don’t know what to do about a problem?”, nodding heads responded. The old story about psyche reminds us that it is often among our troubles that we find the gifts carried inside of us, and we may find the help we need at a particular time.  Not only we do we find our gift, but our gift has something very important to offer the community.   Each of us here in this classroom is a community helper, sometimes in very unexpected ways.  I then went on to define ‘ology’ as meaning ‘the study of’.   “A psychologist is someone who really studies and learns about peoples souls so that they may help them to discover the gifts they bring to the world, even when they are feeling stuck.”