When I was 15 years old, I use to argue with my stepfather Ron pretty regularly (it drove my Mom insane). The topics were usually political, religious or debating whether animals had souls. To me it wasnt a debate, in fact I argued that I could make a compelling case that animals were infinitely more soulful than humans...at the time, it seemed true to me...now, even more so. I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau...I wanted to dive to the depths of the oceans, save all the whales and protect Antarctica. Whatever Jacques deemed important became my crusade. I adopted a humpback whale named Pegasus, I signed petitions (and harassed my friends and family to do the same) to save whales, dolphins, sharks, all the oceans and everything in them. I had pictures from National Geographic and the Cousteau Society magazines of every kind of ocean creature you could imagine plastered all over the walls of my room. I had a fish tank in the corner of my room and I use to turn off all the lights, leave only the tanks blue lights illuminated, listen to Enyas Orinoco Flow and pretend I was near the ocean. The more my stepfather argued with me, the more I would dig my heels in and make my case. Id cite articles, statistics, whatever necessary to get Ron to see the light. Of course, looking back, I realize he just liked getting me riled up - it was good practice as he made me think deeply about why I believed what I believed. I was a animal/environmental protector living in a junkyard - acres of cars and parts and junk surrounded me. Im certain that it was this very environment that ignited my passion for organization, beautiful landscapes and protecting all things vulnerable. One day I was doing Rons laundry, and as was normal, I found several dollar bills. Ledbetters Auto parts was a cash business and we would find dollar bills all over the place and put them in a coffee can in the kitchen to use for lunch money. But this day, I had just finished an argument about whales that were trapped in the ice in Alaska. Ron thought it was ridiculous that so much effort was being made to free them and I of course thought that every effort available to man should be made to free the grey whales. So I was flattening out the dollar bills I had found in his work pants when I had an epiphany: Ill send the money to the Cousteau Society so that Jacques could save the whales. The Cousteau Society Motto: We protect what we love. I filled out an envelope, stuffed seven wrinkly dollars in and didnt even include a note. They would know what to do. I continued that practice until I graduated high school and left for prep school. I never told a soul. I was thinking about this today as I was walking Hanky admiring the beautiful red rocks in the background. Ive lived in beautiful places and Ive loved and protected more people and animals than I can even keep track of and all because (at first) I wanted to prove my stepfathers life philosophy wrong and not realizing in doing so, that I was really just creating my own life philosophy: I protect what I love. Sometimes, what seems like a curse can turn out to be the greatest blessing - positively changing the trajectory of your life. Its your job to find the blessing. ;-) Love, Light & Blessings in Disguise. ~Chelli
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 03:27:53 +0000
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