The Little Touches

I woke up this morning and my head was full of nothing. Well, I wanted coffee but other than that it was a blank slate. Then it happened. That little touch of a warm hand on mine, rough and meaty.

Do you know what so many people miss in life? Those little touches. The unconscious ones that just, well they just happen. They aren't planned like a kiss and don't require anything back, like a hug. It is a natural response where you just want to be connected to someone and you act on it without thinking. There's no purpose other than it feels good.

I remember reading about orphanages where the children never get touched in a loving way. They fail to thrive to their potential and there's no physical reason for it. No one wanted to touch those kids, they took care of them. Fed them, changed them but the little touches don't happen, or very rarely happen for those children.

We need those little touches. Without them we shrivel up and become a shell of ourselves. We don't even really know that we need them because the act itself doesn't really register. When you sniff your newborns head you don't do that because of any reason other than you love the baby smell. When you put your arm around your parent you do that because your body needs to feel a connection. And when you don't have those little touches you shrivel up, and you don't even really know why. You don't think to yourself "I wish my lover would stroke my face." or "I wish my son would put his arm around me."

Sometimes we recognize the urge to give a little touch and stop ourselves. Why do we do that? Is it fear of rejection? Is it because we don't want to give someone else the power to know we care? It doesn't make sense, but we do it don't we? Maybe sometimes it is easier to not give in but at what expense?

I want my life to be full of happy memories and little touches. 

Room 3 (Melissa)

This is an excerpt from a story I worked on many years ago. I found the written version of it (literally in a notebook, done in pen) a few days ago and thought it would be fun to work on this some more. Please be gentle, this is a very rough draft!

I am not sure why I exist in room 3. Honestly, I don't recognize the walls or the beds. Nothing about this place is familiar. This might just be my own personal version of hell, yet somehow that doesn't seem quite right either.

My beliefs center on the existence of God. As a child my mind was flooded with "heaven" and "hell". Somehow I had come up with the idea that all of our names were held in a large, sepulchral black book. This book counted our sins with a black slash next to our names for each sin. Admittedly I probably believed in this book well into my teen years.

Room 3 didn't fit into any belief I'd had or explored in my lifetime.

I knew I was dead. This fact was easily accepted by me even though I had no recollection of the final act. Come to think of it, my life seemed much more surreal than room 3. I easily recalled my children's faces, other people in my life with whom I's had both good and bad relationships and even the career in a local hospital I had for 12 years running the billing department. Still, I couldn't recall other details such as where I had lived or my age. Not that my age mattered, I was dead now. And trapped in room 3.

I awoke in room 3 about two weeks ago. Awoke may not be the right word, more like I was aware again versus being unaware. Room 3 is a hotel room that sits on an interstate in a city whose name I don't recall. What "awoke" me that first morning was a cleaning lady coming into the room.

Her name tag said Irene, she was slightly overweight with blonde hair that was wavy and styled in mullet fashion. Glasses, plain but not unattractive. I notice she is talking to someone in the hall behind her who hands her a fistful of trash bags."Dana, I swear Sammy has something for that skank bar tender. He thinks I don't notice him looking at her like a juicy pork chop but I see 'im!" I hear as Irene walks in the room.

Of course I am astonished that room service has barged into my room without even knocking. Talk about bad customer service! "Excuse me!" I say, quite indignant. Irene stops, looks around for a second with a puzzled look on her face and then goes about emptying the trash cans in the room.

To make a long story short, Irene never responded to my questioning of her intrusion into my room. She left hastily actually and I could tell my scolding had made her leave quickly. I didn't realize that day that she never heard me.

I stayed annoyed with Irene longer than I normally would have because I thought she had so rudely ignored me. Nevermind that her ignoring me didn't make sense. I had made poor Irene so uncomfortable that she never came to clean room 3 again, and that was fine by me. Little did I know at first that it had nothing to do with the words I had said, but more with her feeling of a presence in room 3 that did not want her there.

The first day or two I noticed other odd things besides the rude housekeeper. I couldn't read the words on the newspapers. I tried but it looked like a jumble of odd symbols. I wrote it off as exhaustion and needing new glasses. I also noted that I was abnormally exhausted and I was sleeping for long stretches and several times a day.

In retrospect I can perhaps explain the exhaustion that I was dealing with in room 3. When you are dead it takes more energy and strength to interact with the world around you, much more than when you are alive. Those first days I had used so much energy trying to talk to Irene and trying to read the newspaper that I depleted what little energy I had.

More to come later, my hands are tired from typing now. Eventually our "ghostly" friend meets the next live person to occupy room 3. And discovers how to communicate as well. 

All content is property of the author and cannot be reproduced without express, written consent.

It's been awhile (by Melissa)

It has been awhile, hasn't it? It is time to fire this blog back up though and start writing!

I have a few topics in mind to write about and hopefully will post them soon. I have done absolutely no writing in months, unless you count work (and I don't). I got a note from Lindsey of NanoWriMo though and am seriously considering doing the summer session. I keep meaning to do the yearly big writing ordeal but... well no excuses. I just haven't.

I was actually talking to someone about writing the other day and told him I have a hard time tying everything together when writing longer things. I have never (embarrassing to admit) finished a novel. Started them, sure! Even got pretty far into them. Endings are hard.

So for the other writers out there I have a question for you. What do you find the easiest when writing? Plot development? Character development? Maybe you find writing from the mindset of the opposite sex to be difficult. Tell me all about it.

Advice welcome too from or for any other writers on how to successfully finish a longer story.

And lastly, more info about NanoWriMo can be found here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Because everyone needs a Lullaby....

This story was inspired by Adele Enerson the writer of Mila's Daydreams. She wrote and sang a song just for Mila her daughter and I loved and still Love it, in the wake of a negative pregnancy test and the hope I still have to conceive I am going to re-post this here for all the children who are loved and bring Magic to the lives of their parents.

The Lullaby

The child was magic. Everywhere she went flowers bloomed, dreams became reality, and when she sang creatures danced. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her as she looked to be the ordinary child, red of hair, fair of face, delightful, but contrary disposition, a child not rare in the world but utterly magical.

Alim was her name she was bright, strong, loving and old of soul. She loved to sing, but in her singing was when her magic gained flight.

One day while Alim was playing in the forest, out of sight of her house, she started to sing a lullaby that had no words. As she sang she started to twirl and all around Alim the woods came to life. The sun was high in the sky giving the woods a golden glow and a mist started to form at the base of the trees gilded with the sunlight and alive with the purple aura of magic. Alim was unawares of the happenings around her for she had closed her eyes to the song and sang from her heart.

In the clearing of the woods where Alim had wondered the sun framed her burnished curls as she twirled in her white dress around and around eyes closed, hands spread all the while humming her lullaby. What a delight she was to behold.

Alim’s mother noticing that she was out of sight of the house went in search of Alim and while walking through the wood found that all was silent but for a gentle dreamy hum of a lullaby. “Alim?” she said softly and followed the sound.

As she walked she also noticed that the creatures of the wood were no where to be seen. There wasn’t a squirrel in the trees or a rabbit underfoot. Not even a bird singing loftily above her head. She stopped and looked around, curious, dumfounded, and still hearing the strange lullaby hummed softly by her child.

She continued to walk; this mother of magic, when she came upon Alim in the clearing and her haunting lullaby, what she saw made her catch her breath soundlessly in wonder.

Alim was twirling and humming a song that flowed from her heart and out of her throat. It had no words that she knew of just sound and feeling. She didn’t know when it would end, or if it would never stop. She hummed and then she opened her mouth and she sang and it was beautiful.

Alim never opened her eyes as she sang and twirled but all around her the animals of the wood were dancing in the mist. The purple gilt of the mist had given the creatures and Alim a wondrous sense of mystery and fantasy. It was a child’s dream come to life. Bears in tiara are waltzing with rabbits in tailcoats, fawns in gowns gliding around the clearing like ballerinas, and squirrels in top hats providing musical accompaniment to Alim’s song.

Alim’s mother was in awe of what she saw in the clearing with Alim at its center. It was as if someone dreamed.

Alas as all dreams do, though, it came to an end, and as the last cords of Alim’s song came to a close she twirled one last time and sang softly as she opened her eyes to behold her living daydream of an Animal Ball.

Thinking About What You Say (Or Write) By Melissa

I am going to tell a story, it doesn't matter if it is fact or fiction. What matters is the story it tells. I hope people listen and think. Think about what you say, and what you write before you say it to children.

Shannon was nine when her step father went into AA. Or was it NA? She wasn't really sure. She knew it was supposed to help him get better and it didn't really work. He was still angry. Her world was still torn apart. The home still felt ugly.

Part of AA (we will go with AA since we don't know which it was, but we do know he was addicted to both drugs and alcohol as evidenced by the track marks on his arms, and elsewhere) was he had to keep a notebook. Children are curious, and too stupid to know that sometimes what is inside of notebooks, even carefully hidden ones, can destroy their emotions. That is what happened to Shannon when she read her step fathers notebook.

Even though her father was not exactly kind to her most of the time, she clung to the times when he was. Children are awfully forgiving creatures. They have to be in order to survive the land of playground politics. In Shannon's mind her step father was just angry sometimes, like Robert at school who sometimes pulled her hair or called her stupid. And... maybe she just was stupid. She just made herself not feel it when they said those things. She only let herself believe the hugs, and when he said "I love you."

But she found his notebook and read, being the curious child that she was. She knew she shouldn't. She knew he would be angry. She knew he would probably spank her, or worse call her awful things. He'd once taken books from her because he didn't want her to get ideas from the content in them, saying they were too "adult" in content. Reflecting as an adult, it's interesting to her that the book was Mommy Dearest.

There were things about God, and forgiveness. Asking for it, so on and so forth. Lots of things that a young girl didn't really understand, but there was one page that will be forever burned in her memory. It was the day she read in his notebook that her step father hated her. It was on a page of things he wanted to "confess". Not that he had done awful things to her, or her mother or to countless other people. It was that he hated HER, that he wished SHE wasn't alive. That he wished there was only one child in the household. That he couldn't stand to look at her. And on and on, in a paragraph forever etched in her brain.

Forever etched in her brain.

Today I ask you to think about all of the Shannon's in the world.  There are thousands of them being told by the people they love that they wish they had never been born. They are being made to feel like they aren't worthy. They don't feel they should be alive. They feel like mistakes, unloved and unwanted.

Hug your children. Please tell them that they are awesome. Tell them that you are glad they are alive.

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY AND WRITE.

Sharing Some Writing (by Melissa)

These are just random excerpts or writing I have done. All of it very short and none of it submission to a magazine worthy. But, it was fun to write nonetheless! Feel free to share yours, or links to your own websites of collections of writing as well. I love to promote other authors and my co-writer Emerald Hall is also a wonderful writer so I hope she submits some of hers as well (hint hint Emerald).



One:

I slink around the bend of the chair and hope, just hope she will reach down and touch me. I watch as she lights her cigarette and then looks in my direction. "Oh you scared me!" she says as she reaches down to stroke my head.
Today has been a good day. The sun was bright so I basked in the yard on the warm grass. As I stretched I purred and felt the hard grass between my toes. Who knows how long I slept in that sun, but I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.
The rest of the day I hid from the kids. But even that was fun! When the youngest came near me I would bat at her (not to hurt, just to scare) and then inwardly feel pleased when she cried to her mother. "Bad kitty!" doesn't mean much to me. That's just what she says when I have been having a little fun at the tiny humans expense.
And yet as I watch her put that cigarette into her mouth I inwardly plead to her to pet me. I slink between her legs and purr. But she is still mad, and now I feel aggravated that she won't scratch an itch that I just can't seem to reach.
So as she sits in the lawn chair I bump her three different times with my head. Still nothing. The lady is making weird sounds, kid of like a kitten mewing and this aggravates me. I want her to rub me damnit!!!!
So I reach up and swat her with my paw, only allowing one claw to actually catch on her. She yelps, laughs and then says something like "Well at least you need me." as she reaches down to pet me. Her face is wet, I notice, as she leans in and rubs from my head to my tail.
People are odd.

Two:
Oh yes, do you ever wonder what it is like to feel as though you were going mad? Well I will tell you. Sometimes it is seeing yourself in the mirror but thinking it is someone else. Other times it is sitting at your desk and feeling like the walls are closing in on you. You can't breathe. You can't think. But you think too much.

I am so tired of this. Tonight I don't know if I could have kept up my mask of normalcy around other people. It is what it is but I try to hide it.

I don't think I could have for that 20 or so minutes that I thought I would lose it. I wanted to ball up in a corner. Not to cry, I have no tears anymore. I am numb except to feel fear and adoration of my children.

I thought about my best friend. She is more like a sister, in fact she is exactly like a sister to me. I thought about when we get older. Will I be able to take care of her? Will she look out for me? I can't imagine growing old without her. It sounds like I am in love with her, but she is a soulmate not a lover type for me. This is the one person who I feel most myself around. She understands and we don't judge each other no matter what.

So my ascent from darkness was thinking of us as little old ladies. And not regular old ladies. We will be the ones in the nursing home talking about the hot young orderlies.

While that is all fine and dandy I still hate the paranoia that overcomes me sometimes. The detachment. All of it.

I think about going back to work, but what would happen if I freaked out like that at work? I have been severely paranoid at work on more than one occasion. I have thought someone was looking at me too hard, thought they were talking trash about me. I secluded myself and made very little contact with my co workers. I read books during lunch so I wouldn't be bothered. But I don't think could have handled it if I had been at work tonight.

Wondering if I didn't overdo it today. I went out to lunch with my best friend. We talked and it was okay. Then I went and did a layaway for the kids Christmas presents. Still was okay, somewhat better than the last time I went out Christmas shopping last week. But tonight, holy hell I felt like I was going to fucking lose it. Oh, I went to the grocery store tonight too.

I had an image of me driving off of the bridge on the way to the grocery store. I do not WANT these thoughts. But I laughed to myself, for some reason I found it humorous. I hate when those thoughts pop up. They scare me, and yet they occupy my mind.

I try to occupy my mind at all times. If I do this then the scary thoughts are less frequent. They still happen but at a much slower pace. That is something that I can deal with. It isn't fun but it isn't... I don't know how to describe it.

Took 4 benadryl tonight to help me sleep. It somewhat worked last night. I still woke up SEVERAL times but there was improvement.

I am going to be really low key tomorrow. I think I need it.

Three:
(from my book Ancients which I have copyrighted all content, though it remains unfinished at this point)
Third Chapter:

Jake looked at the beautiful redhead sitting on the rock. The sun sparkled off the multifacets of red and blond and her eyes twinkled in the light. As always his breath was taken, thinking she looked more like an Egyptian goddess than a human being. “Come on Keltie, it is safe. Are you going to chicken out again?” he asked over his shoulder.

The harness was on tight. Almost too tight. Keltie looked over the falls and saw the rushing, cold water beneath her. She was scared all right. This was a very long way down, and how strong was the harness REALLY? “Jake, I don’t know about this.” She said, eyes scared and wide. Inside she thought “A bungee jump? Really? Does he want to die?” as she paced back and forth.

Jake became impatient. “You said you would do this. Come on, it is totally safe. Look, I have done this a hundred times at least. You fall and then the cord stops you. Completely safe.” He motioned to the cord attached to the harness.

Keltie was not scared for herself. She was an ancient, she would never die. The thought of being a survivor made her terrified. She had been in that place before. Watching as someone elses life ebbed away, knowing she would not join them and knowing she couldn’t do anything about it. “No Jake! Don’t!” she screamed as he smiled and jumped off the side. Without another thought she jumped as well, following Jake in fear for his life.

“MOM NO!” she heard the screaming whisper in her head as she felt the cool rush of air. Kelties eyes streamed with tears and her breath was gone. Closer, closer the ground came and all she could think of was protecting Jake. In the chaos of wind and motion she focused on his bungee cord with all the power she had. No sound came from her as she murmured the ancients prayer for safety. Her heart beat and she never felt the bounce of her own cord, the jarring semsation of going up and then back down and up again. All Keltie could do was concentrate on that damn cord, with tears streaming down and up her cheeks.

A flashback of Wyn’s  lifeless body flashed before Keltie’s eyes as she passed out. In her blackness she felt the cold hand of the 16 year old girl. She had only wanted to marry. Why did they kill her? Keltie could feel the soft cotton of the dress, the silkiness of the veil. The smell of her daughters blood. 

Keltie awoke crying, laying on the grass next to the top of the falls. Before she could think about it she said “She never called me mom.” and started bawling like an infant. Jake looked confused and distraught as the beautiful woman in front of him gulped air and cried. Even after five years there were things that Keltie kept locked away from him, but who never called her mom? Deciding to ignore the comment he scooped Keltie into his lap and cradled her much like a father would do with an inconsolable child.

Keltie felt Jake murmuring to her that everything would be okay, but she didn’t hear the words. She heard the screams of her fellow clan and the sound of metal piercing flesh. This lasted less than a minute, but it felt like a lifetime. Once she felt composed again she wiped away the tears and turned to Jake, glaring.

Oh no, what must he think? I just passed out and mentioned Wyn.

“Are you fucking crazy Jake? I told you not to do this! I thought you would chicken out! You!” she yelled while slapping his chest in fury. Jake stood up abruptly and Keltie spilled from his lap in the process. “Why would I chicken out? This was MY idea. I invited you because you didn’t want me to be alone! In fact, you seemed excited!” he bellowed, angry and confused.

That was until Margo saw your death.

“Yes, I was. But no wait, I wasn’t. I don’t know how to explain this. I just feel scared, scared of losing you. Scared of losing the one person who loves me for me. And he wants to throw himself off a cliff and dangle by a mother fucking string?” Keltie yelled, holding her arms wide out in disbelief.

“I can’t handle this Keltie. I love you, but this is who I am. I like to bungee. I like white water rafting. I like riding horses. All these things that scare you and you cry every time. But this is the damn icing, passing out and then beating on me for doing something you KNEW I was going to do? It’s insane babe, completely insane.” Jake said in a loud voice, pacing back and forth angrily.

Keltie felt as though icy cold water hit her entire body. Insane? She composed herself as best she could. Wiping away the tears and running her hands through her hair, she slowly rose facing away from Jake. “Jake, I am going to call you later or something.” She said as if in a fog, digging the keys to the jeep out of her pocket. “I’m sorry Keltie. You aren’t crazy. Look, I didn’t mean that.” Jake said, trying to put an arm around her waist and draw her to him. Keltie stepped away and put a hand up, wanting him to not touch her at the moment. Jake looked confused, and angry all at once. Without another word Keltie turned around and walked to her Jeep.

That's all for now folks, but I look forward to reading others submissions! 

Holistic....The New 4 Letter Word? By Emerald S. Hall

Hello and welcome readers! Long time no read, eh? Sorry for the one post and run that happened last time. I've been dealing with some illness, fatigue and personal issues, but TODAY I feel the need to WRITE!

It's like a super power when you feel the NEED TO WRITE well... you then must write, lol.

Today I would like to discuss the word Holistic and its connotations. Recently (as recently as 2months ago) a friend of mine and I started going to a Holistic Mom's meeting. At first we thought "Oh My God" a place were we're not going to be looked at strangely and have like minded conversation, YIPPEEEEE

Here's the Holistic Mom's Southern Oklahoma's chapter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hmnsok

National Website: http://www.holisticmoms.org/?gclid=COWV2pfozKkCFRHGKgodkiaXNg

Then we got to the first meeting and it w

ent well aside from having to defend our home state, which is Oklahoma, since the other member (yes there are only 3members and the host) and the host are both originally from California. To them

Oklahoma isn't a very good state for going Green, even though we're country and backwoods and use homemade solutions for damn near everything, or eating Organically, even though you can't travel through a town without seeing umpteen farmers stands or a local butchering store where you can just walk in your cow/pig/deer/ho

g to be butchered and taken home to Mama for cooking, or doing much of anything really but the host wanted to start a Holistic Mom's Network chapter for Southern OK for like minded moms such as she.

First meeting went surprisingly well, even if there was some OK bashing going on. Me and my friend defended our state and even gave them options for buying fresh and organic vegetables aside from shopping the local Walmart. We left that meeting full of optimism and goodies, hopes for meetings to come.

Our second meeting didn't go quite as well

as the first, lol. First let me say that for me and my friend to get to the meeting we have to travel 2.5hours away from our homes to do so until we get more members that live in our area it’s a bit of a travel.

Our second meeting was supposed to be over Green Cleaning and we were supposed to make our own cleaners with vinegar and water and a little essential oil for fragrance and antibacterial purposes. (Lavender is a good antibacterial and calming too) We were all supposed to bring spray bottles a

nd the host would bring some supplies for u

s to use. Well that got scrapped because our meeting place got moved from the Library's annex building to the library proper in one of the meeting halls and the host was told that we couldn't have liquids in the library. Well we get there and she was told by the head librarian that the hall we were using had a kitchen and yes we could have brought our liquids if we wanted.

Well bummer to late now we were already gathered and ready for a meeting of minds. I sat my 4 year old dd down with a few books (from the library) and told her that she needed to be quiet because we were inside a library and libraries

we're places where everyone used their quiet voices.

My friend had her 1 year old with her and set her up with a snack and her learn to walk toy along with some other quiet toys.

The other member had her 2 girls with her who were around the ages of 5 -7. The girls while cute and very polite proceeded to run circles around their mother and shriek inside the library. Where was their mother you ask? Well she was right there. She never said a word about her girls running around the library playing tag/chase me or what have you. The only time she bothered to reprimand her children was to tell the o

ldest to stop interrupting our conversation.

The whole meeting didn't last more than 30mins. The host gave us all some typed pages that had some ingredients on it for the green cleanser. We talked about ways that we already clean green, and that was pretty much it. Oh yeah plus the Oklahoma bashing.

One thing we did talk about was that the word HOLISTIC is pretty much a 4 letter word here in OK mostly because its associated with Chanting

hippies, lol. I didn't understand at first what they we're talking about because I had yet to encounter anything or anyone with bad connotations on the word Holistic.

The host and my friend started a discourse about the bad responses they've been getting on the word Holistic and me and my friend discussed it later only to not that it’s really the bad connotations associated with the word Holistic that people in our area are put off by. Why there's a bad connotation on the word Holistic, I have no clue. Probably all the drugs in the 60's and 70's, lol.

My friend told me about the responses she received on Facebook when she first posted about the Holistic Mom's meeting. She got a response that stated "yeah, I have a cold, why don't you put hot rocks on me and chant it away" or some such nonsense. The other responses she got mostly dealt with the fact that she's a Nurse so being Holistic is pretty irony for a "pill pusher", lol.

Her response to the naysayer’s was to po

int out that Green living or Living Old school was the cheapest and best option for her family. For example they cloth diaper their baby girl and by doing so save more than 2hundred dollars a month on diapers. They've recently started using cloth wipes as well and that saves them another 25-50 dollars a month.

You'd think it costs them more on the laundry front but really and truly it doesn't they do the diapers and wipes along with the baby's other laundry the only extra attention the diapers receive is that they're pre-rinsed with vinegar in a pre-wash cycle. I think their total water bill is around 60-70 dollars a month.

Not only that but in going to this Holistic

Mom's meeting I've realized that most of the things I do (that is how my Granny did them when I was little) is exactly what they're talking about.

The only time we go to the doctor is if there is a persistent fever I can't get rid of with Green Tea, Asprin, Motrin, Croup tent, and Eucalyptus steam.

My dd usually only goes to the doctor for her yearly checkup. I had my first antibiotic in more than 5 years a few months ago.

When I was little we never went to the doc

tor except for serious things like the Flu or broken bones or something.

For a cold my Granny would give me "Broom Weed" tea (which I’m telling you is some nasty stuff man N.A.S.T.Y.) but it did the trick. Scary looking stuff too. Because broom weed is a weed with yellow flowers with long stick like stems and you stick it in a pot and boil it then add honey and a teaspoon of spirits and drink, (ew ew ew ew ew blech, nasty*shudders*) but it did the trick usually a couple doses of that stuff and you we're cured.

Here's a website if you want to see it.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=AMDR

YUCK!

Not only that but when I was little we had a garden, and chickens and never had to go to the store for veggies or eggs or chicken. We went to the store for things like sugar, flour, beef, and pork (unless someone killed wild hog). We never bought fish or crawfish, as we had very nice ponds for fishing and crawdad fishing and my granny would send my brother and cousins fishing and send us girls crawdad fishing.

During the summer we'd pick black berries for pies and

jams, trade pies and jams, eggs and vegetables, with neighbors who had plum trees, or peach trees, or pear trees.

This is what they call living holistically, but this is what we call Living.

The only bad thing about an Oklahoman is that we don't like change very much, lol. We have the quintessential "If it aint broke don't fix it" attitude and same can be said for MOST of the rural states where progress is Years in the making.

It's not that Oklahoman's don't want to LIVE GREEN or LIVE HOLISTICALLY it's just that's not what we call it. We say "well that's how my Mama did it" or "My Granny raised all her kids like that and it worked for her" or "This is the way I was taught to do things" and we continue to do it that way.

Once taught it can't be untaught its just the way things are and when you live 30mins or more from the nearest town, grocery store, or store period, you tend to get along with your neighbors and do for yourself.

Because that's basically what Holistic living is its DOING for yourself and your family in the cheapest and less modern intrusive way possible. It’s doing the way grandma did it and passing down traditions.

If they would present it that way for Oklahoman's then we'd get more members as is my friend and I aren't sure how the next meeting is going to go or if we're going to stick around for many more meetings. The women are nice but as usual our Oklahoma tendencies come back to us and we're thinking "we already do most of what she's talking about, and anything else we can look up on the internet or ask a grandma, why are we driving more than 2 hours for a half hour meeting?"

Holistic isn't a 4 letter word though it does have 4 letter connotations, it's simply Living Traditionally.

Are there anyways that you all live traditionally? Have you thought about going Green? What things have you done or thought about doing to go Green? Is going Green or living Holistically or Living Traditionally anything you ever want to do or try?