Teaching Animals about The Ocean

I used to set up little desks in my bedroom and I made my cousin, Bee, and my brother, Jeff, be the students. I loved making up worksheets and all kinds of busy work for them. I was always "the teacher". I also loved putting on large, variety shows where we roped certain family members into performing year after year. I may have really loved being a theater director, but girls in l972 were not really encouraged to be anything other than nurses or teachers. I deviated and became a mental health worker (that was somewhat acceptable). But.... as it would be, I burnt out on the crazies and decided to go teach. I loved it from the beginning. I was absolutely passionate about it. I was at school from dawn to dusk just to set up one nutty, fun thing for "my kids" after another. I couldn't believe that they paid me to do it!!

I would say that my reigning passion throughout my life has been "to teach". I even like to teach the cats and the goats. They are really the only students I have in my grasp at the moment. (Be wary.... Alivia and Ducky!!) I have always thought that teaching was an honorable and extremely important profession. Not the way it's currently being done in our schools, though. (I will not rant on about that, but it's why I finally quit!)

My second passion would probably be my love of animals. I can't help myself. I will jump out in the middle of a freeway to rescue some poor stray without even pausing to think about danger. I have 20 cats at the moment. Only 3 are mine by choice. The rest have been sent to me by the spirit of Ed Unanian, a true animal lover who passed over to the other side about 5 years ago. ( That's what I tell Mike, anyway!) I could never work in this field, though. It would break my heart to really know what goes on with all the unwanted and neglected animals worldwide.

Third would be my passionate love of the ocean. I have wanted to live by it's side my whole life. I was lucky enough to have a house on Kauai for 10 years . It was so close to the Pacific that the surf actually flowed under the deck of the house at stormy high tides! As I sit and write this, the waves are breaking about 2 blocks from me. I hear them everyday and it always makes me feel "right". When I was young, and things went screwy in my life, I would get in my car and run to the coast. It always seemed to soothe the problems. My mom said, " You can't just always run off to the beach to solve your problems." She was wrong.

And now for some of the smaller passions..... books (of course.... they are piled everywhere in the house.... I hide them when guests come who don't already know about my bibliophiliac problems)
anything having to do with France and Paris, in particular.... Herbs..... I may even start a little medicinal herb business...... Decent Food.... I am a devoted grower's market shopper and try to teach everyone I know about the benefits of eating well..... Baking..... I bake every day. And last, but definately not least.... Jigsaw puzzles. ( I know, that's a sad one.)

So.... summing it all up.... if I could "teach" "animals" about the "ocean" or beside the "ocean", I would probably be a pretty happy person every day. Linda