Meet Jaime.

I moved to San Juan Island in 1984, because it’s a great place to raise my kids. It’s a small town where everybody knows everybody. After my daughters left, I had empty nest syndrome and started filling my house with animals.

I think getting those feelings out is the biggest part.

There’s an anger level I’ve never seen before in our country.

People are very edgy and quick to display their emotions or their anger. And I think a lot of anger comes from fear. And I’ve just seen that escalate.

 People just have to open their hearts to change and open their hearts to everybody’s point of view.

 I am very empathetic, and I’ll cry along with anybody who’s got issues. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but people seem to open up to me because there’s just nothing I won’t talk about or get into. I think probably one of my biggest problems is I try to help too much. My own daughter once told me, Mom, you don’t have to solve my problems, you just have to listen when I’m down or sad. I struggle, I think my empathy is one thing that hurts me — I get too sympathetic and too sad for other people. I want to fix everybody.

 Whenever I’m depressed or sad or even happy, it helps me to talk. And so I think listening is the most important thing you can do for someone and maybe not butting in and not offering solutions, but just letting people voice their opinion and their needs — just to be able to get it out. I think getting those feelings out is the biggest part. It’s not so much asking for help, but just being able to say it and have someone listen and value what you’re saying.

 The biggest part is having people — and people appreciate that you listen.