Counting Animals That Fly

BY ARLENE HARDER, MA, MFT

How well you do with this Take-a-Break may depend upon how much attention you pay when watching nature programs on public television or reading those plaques at the zoo describing how animals in the cages live in the wild.

And since this is designed to give you a brief respite from your day's activities, whenever you read this, whether it is on a computer screen or you've printed it off the Internet, stop what you were planning to do next, sit back, take a deep breath, and start thinking — but not too hard, for that will defeat the purpose of a Take-a-Break.

If you're like me, it will be easier to come up with pictures in your mind than with the names of animals. Of course, you could count any animal, including humans, who willingly, or otherwise, leave terra firma in a plane. And you could also include people who have had too much to drink and are said to be "flying higher than a kite."

So you see, you can choose the instructions in any way you wish. Once you start counting all animals and all the people you've ever known or heard of who were drunk, your list could take a long time to complete, which may not be a bad idea if you want an excuse to get out of work. Then, when your boss, spouse, or whoever it is that keeps tabs on your activities, comes into the room, you can explain that you're simply working on a project. If you suspect the individual won't be as understanding as you'd like if you said you're taking a break, you don't need to mention what kind of a project it is.

Now, the way you choose to do this Take-a-Break may depend upon whether you need a little break or a longer one today. You could do a really short break by only listing general categories of animals and not specific names, like hippopotamus, though that's an animal that would be hard pressed to get off the ground without assistance. A moderate break, which this is designed for, would require a bit more thinking. A longer break could even include the scientific names of animals that fly.

Anyway, have fun!

© Copyright 2000, Revised 2002, Arlene Harder, MA, MFT