Festival on the Square in Hayesville NC

We are very happy that the Clay County Historical and Arts Council has accepted Netwest as a vendor this year. That means Netwest will have a booth at the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC on Saturday, July 14 and Sunday, July 15.

President of CCHAC, Janice Padgett, contacted me recently and informed me that NCWN West could make application for a booth. The festival is on the historical square of our town, and each year every inch of space under the old trees around the Courthouse is filled with tents of craft makers. Painters, photographers, jewelry makers, colorful fabric work and iron sculpture catch the eye. Live music is played all day in the gazebo, and the cloggers perform on Saturday.This festival now includes all of the arts.


Writing is a literary art, of course, and for the first time in several  years, we will be there with our popular book, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.


Our members who have published books are invited to bring a few copies for the table. We might hold periodic readings throughout the day. If so, we will post times.

We will also need volunteers, hopefully a few strong ones, to help erect the tent and set up tables Friday afternoon, and take down the booth on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to introduce the public to our anthology and to let them meet the writers in this area.
We hope to have a good turnout of Netwest people that weekend.
 I am already getting excited about the festival. If you have never been to the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC, you should come and enjoy it this July.
If you have come here in past years, please leave a comment on your experience.
If you don't want to post your email or URL, just post your comment and click on anonymous.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

I am a bit too late to take part in the Interntional Women's Day celebrations, but I am proud this is a day to celebrate.

International Women’s Day: 10 ways to celebrate

By Maura Judkis

Happy International Women’s Day! In case you missed the Google Doodle, today’s the day to celebrate women’s accomplishments and advocate for gender equality. In some countries, International Women’s Day is an official holiday. Let these celebrations from around the world — whether they involve cupcakes or lipstick or protest — inspire how you commemorate the day.

I grew up in a time when women were meant to find a man and have someone to take care of them for the rest of their lives, but I also was active in the women's revolution in the seventies. I believe it was taken a little too far, but it seems in our culture, the pendulum must first move way past its mark before it can settle back to the middle.
I saw first hand how women were kept in their place in the fifties. I saw smart women quit the university to marry men who never thought about going to college. I also saw these women regret their actions in later life.
Women have come a long way since then, but some of our young women don't know that women had to work very hard in this country to get the right to vote, to be paid equal wages for the same work men do, and to be respected for their minds as well as their beauty. I was delighted to hear the woman who invented Spanx has become a billionaire on her own with no husband's money and no inheritance. She risked all her savings on an idea and it has paid off for her. Women sell themselves short sometimes, I think, because they have not been expected to do anything special with their abilities. That has not changed so much, I'm afraid.

I'm sorry I could not get the link to this article, but I'm sure it could be googled easily.
I hope my women readers did something for themselves on Women's Day.

How Do You Want to be Remembered?

Perhaps it is because I've lost so many loved ones recently, but I have been thinking about the value of life.
Recently I asked some companions at dinner how they wanted to be remembered. I notice reporters always ask older celebrities that question which means I know you won't be around much longer so what do you want me to say about you when you are gone?

One of my friends said he wanted to be remembered as a good person who always tried to do the right thing.
I am sure he will be remembered that way. He is generous and caring. My other companion said she didn't really care because she would be gone and it wouldn't matter to her.

Have you put much thought to that question? I think all of us who are writers hope that the written word will keep us around a long time. I think it is interesting that the author of the original Sherlock Holmes books seems to be immortal. Louisa Mae Alcott will be remembered for a long, long time I hope. Though few young people of today have a clue about who she was. Perhaps if Hollywood continues to make Little Women movies every decade or two, she will be remembered.
We have immortalized poets like Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson and others, but there are just a few poems by each that are remembered.

Having laid to rest my husband of many years, I was forced to think of how he would want to be remembered. He never told me. I figured his love for music, his witty personality, and his extroverted personality should be the theme of his memorial services. Those are the traits most of his loved ones remember.

I was asked if I knew how I want to be remembered.That is an easy question for me now.
I want to be remembered for making a difference in lives of others, for helping someone accomplish her dreams, for being a supportive spirit in a person's success. 

As an elementary school teacher, I had hopes that I could make school a happier place for my students than it had been for me. Sadly, a teacher of children that young seldom hears of the triumphs of her students in later years. But now, as a teacher and a mentor for other writers, I can see the outcome of my work. Teaching and working with adult writers is a joy to me. Having my own business and being self-employed is a joy, also.

When I am told that I work too much, I laugh, because I don't do anything I don't want to do. My work is my enjoyment. Learning new ways to teach and be creative  are pieces of my work, and that is fun to me.

How do you want to be remembered? Have you given this any thought? 
 Leave a comment on this post.
Just click on Comments, write in the box and if you don't want to list your email address, etc., simply click on anonymous. You may leave your name in the box with the comment. Just let me hear from you.

A Couple of Good websites

When I find good things, I always share them with my friends. I like Robert Brewer's blog.

http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/ 

He offers wonderful advice for poets and also is making his blog available for guest posts. Robert is an editor with Writers Digest magazine.

He offered a link to Writer UnBoxed. Here is another site with good advice. Check her out.

http://writerunboxed.com/

Fun in Dahlonega Georgia

What a lovely day to spend in Dahlonega, Georgia along with some of my favorite folks. This beautiful little mountain town knows the secret of drawing people off the beaten path. We ate at a new  restaurant, the Corkscrew Café just off the square. The food was excellent. My sister, Gay, looked lovely in blue.

Taken from Front Porch balcony

 The next time we got to Dahlonega, we plan to eat at the Front Porch where the owner/manager from Ocracoke, Island, NC  knows all about seafood. We liked the ambiance inside and loved the balcony eating areas in both the front and back of the upstairs bar and restaurants.

The Birthday Girl - Happy Birthday, Gay

As we meandered through the town’s shops, I entered a lovely store that I first had to give the “smell” test. I assumed the shop would reek of artificially scented candles, but no – in fact they told me their business was to stop indoor odors, of any kind, without chemicals. I had to go and call my friends. “Come see this. You won’t believe it.”

The young saleswoman told us about the lighted stones that, when heated, give off negative ions She said they were salt crystals that when heated by the 15 watt bulbs in the beautifully designed holders actually eliminate odors, dander from pets, even dust in our homes. She told of how customers she knew said their sinus problems disappeared almost over night. People who breathed through their mouths because of sinus trouble found they no longer snored.
This seemed like my answer to a prayer. My companions were impressed. Since I go to their homes and since they also deal with sinus trouble as we all do, we all bought these Brazilian Salt Crystals lamps to clean the air in our homes. Mine sits tonight in my bedroom and I hope it lives up to what we were told.

My crystal is not in a pretty container. Mine is the cheaper one. I'll see if it works before I buy the one I REALLY like.

 We plan to go back in a few months and if these glowing crystals don't work, I'm taking mine back.

JUST FOR FUN

Reading a post on the Blind Pig today reminded me of this light verse I wrote recently. What do you think of real butter vs. margarine?


ODE TO REAL BUTTER

No margarine or simulated spread
can match your taste dissolving on my tongue,
spread over crisp hard rolls,
seeping into crannies of my English muffins,
melting into steaming morning grits.

When I was a kid, you came like magic,
from milk fresh-squeezed from Jerseys,
skimmed cream, shaken in a quart jar,
come butter, Come butter, come butter come.
Papa’s at the gate with a hot pan cake.

Mother crooned, churned, and I knew
that soon the soft spread, washed
and salted, would appear in a crock,
would saturate hot biscuits on my plate.

Oh, Butter, you are the star of my
taste buds, you glow in yellow glory
on my plate.

Like a teenage girl seeing
that Bieber child with butter
colored hair upon the stage,
I weep with longing for you.

In this time of high technology, when people think they cannot continue without the computer or Ipad, or whatever electronic item is kept with them, I think it is sad and even more it is frightening.
Recently my friend said she called her doctor's office with a question. The person who answered the phone said, "I'm sorry. I can't get into your records. Our computer is down."
I still think we need to have a paper backup, especially for important records such as medical reports.
This made me think about what would happen if a doctor in a far distant city was calling about my records because I had been in an accident. Would the woman on the phone tell him, "Sorry we can't give you any information on Glenda. Our computers are down."
I am certainly not against modern technology. I love my computers -- when they work right.
For months I've complained about my server. I could not get Internet most of the time. I paid for it, but could not get it upstairs in my office. My laptop has been completely gutted and no virus lingers - nor do most of my programs they took out.(I learned that is the cheap and easy way to get the bugs out, but it is not necessary.)

At my wit's end, I called a responsible man who makes house calls for computers. His name is Bob Williams and he lives down the road a piece from me. He sat down and I gave him my history with the computer from the time it quit communicating with my printer to bogging down when I try to get e-mail. He worked and worked and finally said he could not find any reason it would not recognize the printer. Bob got up and turned the printer around. He pulled the AC cord from the back. He then put the AC cord right back. Voila! Now my computer and my printer are speaking again.
Next he went downstairs to see the modem. He said let's try moving the modem up higher. He untangled some cords and set the little black box on the top of the wall cabinets.
He also rearranged the lineup of my networks and now I have Internet popping in quickly, and I can print with no problem. 

Someone suggested to me today. When the computer malfunctions, get down on the floor and crawl around unplugging and replugging everything. Then, if it won't work -- Call the computer man.

The problem is I can't get down there and crawl around, and if I tried, I'd have to call someone to help me get back up.(Ha)

Oh, Barry. My technical man! You could have saved me forty dollars if you'd been here.

Critique groups and how they work

Robert S. King, owner and former director of Future Cycle Press is also an awesome poet. Today he was a guest blogger on Writers Circle. His subject is Critiquing Poetry and the article is excellent. I recommend it even if you don't write poetry.

I had not attended our NCWN West Poetry Critique group in a long time, but this month I went and took a poem for critique. I found one of my students, a new member of Netwest, also at the table. This was my student's first time with this group. I had told my classes how the Netwest critique groups worked and that no one ever felt threatened or defensive because we always talked first about what we liked, we did not talk directly to the writer and ask questions or begin by saying, "you should do this or that." We discussed the poem among us and then the writer has the opportunity to respond or explain if anyone needed an explanation.

One of the first things I learned years ago when I took a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.
Never, never start your sentence with You should or I think You should. Beginning a sentence with You is like waving a red flag at a bull. It sends a signal that often causes a defensive attitude.

That is why the critique method we learned from Nancy Simpson many years ago still works best.
I saw right away the group was not following the outline we had always used and the first two poets felt threatened or felt they needed to defend their work. Anger rises in people when others tell them what they have done is wrong. But -- if the group had talked about the poem and not the poet, had expressed what they liked about the poem and then questioned words or lines that might be made better, the poet would not feel defensive, would not feel anger rising. The poet would take those suggestions and make notes and later she would go over them and decide for herself if she wanted to change her poem or whether she liked it as it was. After all, it was her poem to do as she chose.

When individual members of the group begin to ask questions of the writer of the poem, this can become a long and time-consuming discussion. An example: Why did you mention those other people. They aren't necessary for us to know about. What were you trying to tell us?
This can dissolve into an argument where the poet is defending her thoughts and words because she feels threatened. Those of us who have been around a long time, have grown a thick skin, can handle that better than a new member of the group.
When it was my time to read, I asked that we go back to our original way of critiquing where I would be silent until all the comments were made about my poem. I learned that others agreed with me - my title was not good, but most of my poem was pretty good. I took their comments to heart and later, after some revision I submitted my work with a new title.
I believe it is the responsibility of the facilitator to make sure new members are welcomed and  introduced prior to the meeting starting.  The facilitator should, at every meeting, go over the guidelines for critiquing in the group, especially when the meeting is open to the public. Strangers often show up to test the waters to see if this group is friendly, helpful in a civilized manner, and generous with their efforts to improve and enlighten the poet.

I look forward to going back to our Netwest Poetry group next month. We have some wonderful writers and poets who can offer great ideas to improve our work. I take advantage of their experience and their knowledge. It has helped me for years.

What is MCS and what is all the fuss about it?

Recently I wrote about following your passion. I often write about multiple chemical sensitivity. I am passionate about educating the public about the dangers of chemicals we (our culture) use every day. Even those who don't think they are affected by the synthetic chemicals in all of our products and our food, should take note. Ask yourself why the manufacturers of household and personal care products don't list the chemicals used to make the fragrance in products. They are not required to list anything but "fragrance."Those chemicals in fragrances can send someone to the ER because that person can't breathe, or becomes dizzy, vomits, or becomes mentally confused.

This is an excerpt from a MCS Fact Sheet

Major Public Health Concern

• At least 45 million people in the US report sensitivity to various chemicals.
• About 3 million Americans are diagnosed with MCS.
• MCS affects people of all ages, economic status, race, and both genders.
• Chemicals that people with MCS react to are toxic and affect everyone to some extent.

Medical Findings
• Brain scans show reduced blood flow to the brain when people with MCS are under chemical exposure.
• Physical variances identified in MCS include brain inflammation, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, cardiac and airway disease, and auto-immune disorders.
• Mast cell activation and disorders of porphyrin metabolism have been linked to MCS.
• Genetic variations relating to detoxification processes have been linked to MCS.

The Cost of Environmental Illnesses
• Annual expenditures for health-care and lost productivity due to MCS are estimated at $71.8 billion dollars per year.

• Indoor and outdoor environmental exposures can trigger reactions: perfumes and fragrances,cleaning solutions, scented laundry products, pesticides, herbicides, paint and building materials,
gasoline and petroleum based products, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives.

My First Entry in a Photography Contest

I entered my first ever photography contest. When I saw all the entries here, I was amazed at the beautiful pictures based on the theme White.

February's theme is "Food."  Sam Hoffer's husband should enter this one. He makes the gorgeous pictures for her food blog www.mycarolinakitchen.blogspot.com

Visit the Retirement Chronicles to see some of the finest photography I've ever seen.

No Cussing and No Bullying for McKay Hatch

I find it uplifting to see that the post on McKay Hatch, the young man who started a "No Cussing Club" at his school is still one of the most popular posts on this blog. I dropped by his website recently to see what was happening with him and learned he is quite a busy fellow.He has more than 20,000 members in his club and he also takes on bullying in schools.
I know we have good kids out there, but we only hear about those who get in trouble or commit crimes. I am impressed with McKay Hatch who stands up for the good and decent kids.  Go McKay!

click here and see for yourself.

97 Years Old and Keeping On

Today I had the pleasure of visiting with a dear cousin who is 97 years old! The best part is she is not bedridden, she is sharp as a tack and was able to climb up into my SUV even though she uses a walker since she fell and broke her pelvis a while back.
She has broken both hips and recovered. I think she is absolutely amazing. She is a joy to talk with. She knows all the news in the family and filled me in on her children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews. She lost her husband a few years ago and a brother recently.
When asked about her longevity, she said she just keeps on keeping on.

The laugh lines around her sparkling eyes are the only noticeable wrinkles. She gets her hair done every week and looked beautiful to me.
"You look more like your mother every time I see you," she said to me, "and that's a compliment."

I know it is. After our delicious lunch, she gave me directions to the old Gillette Cemetery that was founded in 1850. Her husband is buried there and a head stone awaits her name next to his.
She showed me the Gillette Baptist Church, and I learned that she met her husband to be at that church when they were very young - so young she can't remember the first time she met him.
After we had spent a couple of hours together I took her home where the young woman who lives with her had begun to worry about her. But I believe my cousin could have gone on another hour or two showing me more historical sites in the area.
She could be a role model for all of us. In fact, I left feeling more energized than I have in a long time.

Mothers and Babies and Cousins

Since this blog is titled Writing Life Stories, I'll share one with you tonight.

 One of my favorite relatives was my adult cousin Vivian.  I can see her now -- always smiling and telling humorus stories. When she and her mother came up from Florida to visit our family on the farm, my brothers begged them to sing. The mother and daughter sang in perfect harmony old songs and some of the popular songs of the day.

Vivian's mother, Annie, played guitar, her eyes twinklng when she taught us funny songs like the one about the man served tough meat - "He sawed and he sawed, and he couldn't make a mark, He sawed and he sawed and he couldn't make a mark."  We sang for days after our aunt and cousin drove away.

I was about seven years old when Vivian and Aunt Annie came and brought Vivian's new baby girl, Pamela. I could hardly wait to hold her. As soon as Vivian stepped out of her automobile holding the blanket-swaddled infant, I began pleading.
"Can I hold her? Will you let me hold her?"
I had been waiting, not too patiently, since Mother told me the baby was coming to our house. Now I expected my cousin to hand over her precious child to me.

Vivian, a new mother, spoke to me in a firm voice. "No. You can't hold her yet. You're too little." She turned to walk into the house. "You might drop her."
She had no idea how disappointed I was to hear those words. I already loved the baby even though I'd not met her. I could see her tiny fingers curled like pink shells and I wanted to feel them in my hands. Her hair, fine and more delicate than the hair on one of my baby dolls, intrigued my child's desire to run my grubby fingers through it.

But Vivian said no touching. I'm sure I'd have been as protective of my first baby, so I can't blame my cousin. Finally Mother held the new baby, and she let me sit in the chair with her so I could be close to little Pamela. I remember breathing in the  smell of  baby powder and baby lotion - seems it has always been the fragrance connected to little babies.
"See her smile, Honey? She likes you," Mother said, knowing how badly I wanted to hold the bundle of blanket and child, and she didn't brush my hand away when I reached out to timidly touch Pamela's soft arm.
Why do we remember things like this from so many, many years ago? The small child still abides inside me, and I feel those same strong urges to touch and hold that baby. Being denied by my dear cousin, hurt me at the time, but as I grew older, of course, I realized the maternal feelings of a new mother, the fear for her baby, and the possessiveness new mothers have when first holding court with their infant.

My mother, who birthed seven children, knew the ways of a new mother, but she also knew her child had been as anxious to see the new baby as she was to see what Santa left under the tree.
 She made the experience work for both the new mother and for me. Was it a mother's intuition or simply the wisdom and maturity that comes with age?

I'll have dinner with that baby, now a lovely woman, this week. I look forward to giving her a big hug and her mother and mine will be with us in spirit.

The words mother and cousin are words that provoke certain feelings. What do those words bring to mind for you?

Mary Mike at Writers Night Out

Tonight, January 14, I attended Writers Night Out where my good friend, Mary Mike Keller, was featured reader. She did an excellent job and looked beautiful. She is one of my favorite poets, but you aren't likely to see any books coming out with all of her work. She seldom submits her poems but enjoys writing and sharing them with her friends at readings and with her family.

I call her Mike, and although we are distant cousins from our Posey lineage, sometimes I feel she is more like a sister. Don't you enjoy having a special friend to whom you can talk openly and pour out your heart to her and know she will keep it to herself? Mike is the kind of friend who lets you cry when you hurt and doesn't act like it makes her uncomfortable. She doesn't try to change the subject because she doesn't know what to say.

Mike has felt sorrow herself and seen pain in others. She doesn't shun feelings. She embraces them.
I have learned over the years to let myself feel all the emotions welling up in me, hurt, pain, sorrow, and happiness and joy. I give myself to my feelings and let them out. I'm told that makes for a healthier person and I truly believe that. Keeping pain, fear, guilt or anger pushed down inside for too long causes physical and mental illness.

We all need friends like Mike who have such empathy. And we need to be the same kind of friends to others.

Snow fell last night and covered our woods here in the mountains of NC. I snuggled under my covers with Tiger the cat on her blanket close by. On the floor in their little beds, Smokie and Sunny, who are visiting me this week, curled up like furry balls.



Smokie and Sunny sleeping in their little beds



Tiger on her blanket


I am one who seldom gets cold. I like cool weather and usually, unless the wind is blowing, I don't wear a coat even in winter. But when the high temperature is in the twenties and the low is way, way low, yes, even I get cold.

Life is slow and this is the time to stay indoors and clean out closets, de-clutter our lives before warm weather sets us in gear again to begin our activities. I talked to a friend today who is doing just that. She said she was drowning in paper. Don't we all know that feeling? Since computers came into our lives, we are using more paper and collecting more paper than ever before. Why is that when our goals are always to "go paperless?"

On Sunday of this week, a friend, Rebecca, is coming to visit for a while. She is going to help me get organized and de-cluttered. She has a very big job ahead of her, and she might throw up her hands and say, "enough" after a week.

She plans to start her own business, helping people organize their closets, their offices, and their homes. She can practice on me.