The Queen's castle is nestled in a lush, green valley, overlooking the ocean. She is the latest in a long line of Witch Queens and Sorceresses, tasked with tending the land and guarding the dragon egg.

The egg has been handed down, generation after generation, into the hands of the Queens. The legend says that one day, the crystal ball will flicker and that flicker will be seen across the ocean all the way on Dragon Island, the island that the legend says is there just beyond her sight. Then, the green dragon Jasmine will come with the tea that will wake the hatchling from her centuries-long sleep.

The Queen's magic is old, and dark, and lush, and full of life. She is as comfortable in the rich loamy dirt as she is in the bright airy turrets of her castle, or bridging the elements as she walks along the shore, hair salty with sea spray. She keeps the queendom safe, and tends the earth, and cares for the people, and sometimes in the middle of the night she wakes and climbs and sits with her back against the strong base that holds the egg, and she reads the legend and imagines that she will be the one to see Jasmine soaring green and graceful through the blue-on-blue of ocean under sky.

Like many Queens before her, she dreams, and hopes, and keeps tending to her queendom knowing it probably won't be her.

But unlike the many Queens before her, she's wrong about that last bit.

For this Queen, the dream will become real.

For this Queen, the egg will hatch.

For this Queen, green Jasmine will fly across the blue.

On this particular morning The Queen wakes up, like she always does, with her cat purring on her pillow and the birds singing outside her window, and the ocean crashing against the shore.

But this morning her cat does not stretch and yawn and curl into her neck. Instead, she leaps off the bed and waits at the door with an air of urgency.

And the ocean sounds insistent, impatient.

And even the birds sound more eager than usual, chirping higher and louder and with more of a demand.

The Queen takes note, and takes off down the hallway, following her cat and the call of the ocean and the chorus of the birds.

The intersection of mental health and corporate cultures

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from Tiffany Sostar, self-care and narrative coach - sostarselfcare@gmail.com 403-701-1489