Dive Into Your Imagination

What is the most important thing in your life?  Is it a person, a place, a material object, your dreams, experiences or perhaps your faith?  When was the last time you gave yourself a few moments of time to stop and ask yourself what really matters.  During the past two months my world changed forever with a phone call, “Annie we took Mom to the hospital emergency room and do not know if she is going to make it.  Nobody knows what is wrong.”   At first I was in a state of disbelief and then slowly during the next weeks my family and friends traveled on a roller coaster ride of emotions as Harriet went up and down.  The doctors still have not figured out what exactly happened to Harriet, but she was hospitalized for 49 days.  Mom does not remember the first 15, yet remembers fighting for her life.  I spent quite a bit of time with her during her recovery and am experiencing a new meaning of gratitude towards life.  My mother gifted me the optimism gene many years ago, yet this experience has made me realize the importance of life and love.  One morning as I was caring for Harriet, she just kept talking and talking.  I said, “Mom, you sure have been talking a lot, don’t you think you should rest your voice?”  And she replied, “But Annie, I CAN TALK!  For nearly a month I could not walk, talk or feed myself.  I could not do anything and I did not ever imagine my life would recover.  Now I know it can, look at me…it is a miracle.  I can breathe Annie and because of you, I believe my life can be better than before.”
 
What we think matters.  What we say matters.  What we do matters.  The things we do in our lives are directly related to what we think.  What are you saying to yourself right now?  What do you say about yourself to yourself?  About others?  About our environment?  Starting to recognize the thoughts you actually say to yourself has the ability not only to change yourself, but the world we live in too.  For more than two weeks Harriet and I worked on occupational and physical therapy, and we worked on developing positive messages to reprogram her mind and thoughts.  There is a saying I love to quote, “If information could change people we would all be healthy, wealthy and skinny.  If information could change people.”  We turn information into thoughts and our thoughts into action.  Our thoughts control who we are.

What will you do with your moment in time? It was about a year ago that I first heard this statement and ever since then a switch seemed to turn on inside of me. And yet for the past several months despite all I have been doing, deep inside my soul I have felt like I am stuck. Then I found myself stuck wanting to be unstuck! Have you ever felt like you were stuck and could not tell anyone about it. Maybe you didn’t like your job, the person you were involved with or perhaps your own family was driving you crazy? Everything on the outside looks the same though. Your friends and family do not notice anything, work continues, but somewhere deep inside, you know that you have something that is just waiting to be unleashed but you can’t do anything because you are stuck! Have you ever felt that way? For me I have learned that I need to get outside myself when these feelings happen. I try to do things that inspire me rather than go into myself. In the past ten days I went to see Justin Beiber’s movie, Never Say Never learning many lessons from this young star, celebrated Fat Tuesday, watched the events of the world unfold forever changing life as we know it and then last night listening to the perspective of Dr. Maya Angelou in concert, “When you learn, you teach. When you got, you give.” I feel as if the glue has lost it’s grip.

You would not know that I would feel stuck by the incredible amount of work I have completed and produced during this same time. To give you a quick recap of just my past month, I spoke to more than 5,000 students in the Chicago Area and ended a two week speaking tour in Chicago at Our World Underwater. Dive Into Your Imagination has recently secured a Chicago Public School Vendor License in the hopes of working with Area 2 to bring Ocean Annie and Dive Into Your Imagination Curriculum into more schools and classrooms. Professor Michele Hoffman-Trotter is leading a team of teachers and students as we are coming into the final edits and illustrations of a series of lesson plans for Pre K-K and 1st to 3rd graders incorporating Ocean Education into Science, English and Math lessons utilizing our new books and a variety of programs for 21st Century Learning. This makes me tired just thinking about it! You can contact me to learn more about this new exciting program! After Chicago, I hopped a plane to Utila, Honduras to teach a private production class incorporating video, underwater video and editing skills only to return to the states to attend a PADI Project Aware Beach Clean Up in Seattle. We have posted albums on our Facebook Fanpage of the experiences in Chicago, Our World Underwater, Utila and at the Underwater Clean-Up PADI Project Aware event with Underwater Sports. Before I continue, I want to remind you about our trips this summer for families and share with you some great news!

Join Kids Sea Camp in Utila with Ocean Annie Crawley! Only 3 rooms left in June!
Palau with Kids Sea Camp at Sam’s Tours with Ocean Annie in August!
Explore Coral Reefs Wins Kids First! All Star Award
Dive Into California Wins Kids First! All Star Award!
Speaker Annie Crawley presents at Beneath the Sea March 25th, 26th and 27th 2011
Explaining Japan's Tsunami to Children

I recently read this article and believe in the message.  It helped me through the tragedy we have all been witnessing during the past week.  There are more than 91 countries that have sent aid workers to Japan and every organization I have a connection is working on helping Japan.  I came across this website that is helping children.  Many children were in school and are very familiar with tsunami drills.  Within ten minutes teachers had children on higher ground after sirens went off.  Many children who survived lost their parents and loved ones who were not able to respond as quickly.  If you are considering a donation, you may want to consider donating to this organization.  Here is the article written by Thomas Haller and Chick Moorman that may help you discuss this world tragedy with children.
   
Your six-year-old has just seen video footage of devastating destruction including collapsed buildings, crushed cars, and homes under water, all vivid images resulting from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Your teen sits transfixed watching the numbers of dead and injured mount. At the dinner table your fifth grader asks, "Can anything like that happen to us, Dad?"
 
How is a parent to respond under such circumstances? What should you say? What should you do? How do you deal with your children's fears without increasing them? Is it possible to reassure them at a time when you, yourself, are horrified by the images of intense pain and grief you see on the faces of parents halfway around the world?

Ocean Annie Crawley returns to sweet home Chicago at Our World Underwater at  Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL February 18th, 19th and 20th!

If you are in the Chicagoland area this weekend, February 18, 19 and 20th, come to Our World Underwater, the greatest dive show in the Midwest because we will be there with a team of people committed to Ocean Education! Dive Into Your Imagination will be at booth numbers 1009 and 1011. This year we have a kids corner for both kids of all ages and their parents featuring face painting, whale shark shakers, build a sea lion activities plus we will be sharing our teacher lesson plans for Pre K to third grade teachers and parents! Also, I am going to be giving in booth presentations throughout the weekend too. You will be able to preview our new products and find out about our 2011 travel schedule! During the past week I have been all around the Chicago area speaking at schools and organizations promoting 21st Century Learning Skills, Ocean education and empowerment! To bring me to a school near you, please contact me directly Annie@AnnieCrawley.com Our World Underwater is for everyone interested in snorkeling, scuba diving, protecting our environment, photography and filmmaking. I will be emceeing the Friday night film festival and be giving workshops and seminars throughout the weekend! I really look forward to seeing you in person at Our World Underwater.

Thank you for the overwhelming response to know more about Palau and to see more photographs and video from diving with Sam’s Tours, Kids Sea Camp, meeting the President and the month of bliss in Palau. I will be posting from this trip and Galapagos during the next couple of months but I wanted to get this special Holiday offer to my loyal readers ASAP because of the overwhelming response to our new series, The Adventures of Ocean Annie, Makaio and Fringy the ichthyologist fish! Currently we are offering the titles: Explore Coral Reefs and Dive Into California. Any orders placed today will arrive in time for Christmas and everyone who orders during the month of December will receive a complimentary set of parent and teacher lesson plans as soon as they begin shipping in 2011. We are working on Dive Into Galapagos; Dive Into Palau; and Dive Into Sharks and Rays to be released during the third quarter of 2011, so stay tuned and get started with Explore Coral Reefs and Dive Into California.