What Floats Your Boat

First, I want to thank Linda for suggesting we think about our passions, and then share them with the group. This "exercise", for me, has really been a good way to clear out the cobwebs and get down to the "bones" of what makes me tick.

So...the first grand passion of my life was and still is this place, western Oregon. I was born in the same town where I live, in a maternity home that is still there but now a private residence, kind of a shabby little house, but I love to drive by it anyway. I have never been happy living anywhere else and have instigated major upheavals and risk taking for my whole family so that I could be here. When dislocated from this place, I would just pine away, making everyone around me miserable. Every day, as I drive to work, I see the familiar landmarks (the river, the quarry with the goats, on a clear day the Three Sisters, Bear Mountain, the site of our old house now part of I-5, the glimpse of Eugene coming over 30th Avenue) and it warms my heart in a way nothing else does. There must be an imprint of 43.81 N/123.06 W in my DNA (Maggie is this possible?).

The other grand passion of my life is books. Not just the reading of, but the actual physical book in my hand, on the bedside table, filling bookcases, in piles on the floor. I spend grocery money on books. I cannot have too many books. It is impossible. My mother says I was reading the dictionary by age 3, but I do not know if this is really true. She says my Uncle Dave will attest to it. At one point, I was ready to "chuck it all" and open a used book shop. I did research, visited other booksellers, tried to think of a way to combine being a bookkeeper with running a book shop. But, at the time I was also the mother of two teenagers, working on my college degree (trying to finish it before my first child graduated from high school...and did!), working full-time in a dreary job (police/fire payroll for the City of Eugene), and so it was an "impossible" dream. This is the gut wrenching truth of the "weight of personal responsibility", as Annelle rightly says. Plus, I had no money.

I still have no money, and little time, but I will have more time in a few years. So, I am thinking about selling books online when I retire. I have a web domain name just waiting: cottagebookseller.com. It is never too late!

So, these are the two constant passions in my life. One since birth, the other since the age of 3, I guess! Constants, passions, touchstones - - they are REAL and they are powerful. Ignore them at your peril.

And Linda, although my haircut might give one the impression that I resemble Colette, a lot of good it has done as I am now walking off a cliff book in hand. It must be "Suite Francaise", a WONDERFUL book. Thank you Kerry!