Pendleton Is OhMe's Town

Dear God/ess, As everyone here can imagine, OhMe's flower garden is spectacular. Here is a sampling of one such perfect specimen!

A river flows past Nancy's house, too. It has brown water and looks like it can get mighty fierce in spring storms. I do have a picture of it but thought this flower is something within OhMe's control. As we all know, sometimes the rivers of life can get out of hand.

Om, Peace Amen

Dear God/ess, Finally Joan4 and I meet at the Charlotte North Carolina Airport. Joan wore an orange Dr Seuss hat and carried around a sign that said, "Kate Loving Shenk--TFR (Tate Family Reunion) 2010!" People tried to ignore the hilarity, and some even succeeded!

Then one by one I met Joan's family. Whitey, Joan's husband, is one unique human being. He is funny. He loves trivia. He is an ace golfer. He is a practical joker and loves to tell the stories of how he fools his friends and family on April Fools, also Joan's birthday. He loves to call the zoo on that day and ask for Mr Lions and there's someone who always falls for it.

"There's no Mr Lions here."

Whitey taught me how to hit a golf ball today, too!

Joan and I originally met on Pat O' Bryan's online University in 2007, but I only remember seeing her picture on the site. When Pat decided to sell his first published book called "Your Portable Empire" on Second Life, many of us from the Pat O' Bryan Online University decided to help Pat sell his book there as well as hang out in one close knit Master Mind and learn everything we could as fast as we could about Internet Marketing.

My friends there wanted me to meet "MoonVine." The name of my avatar on Second Life was "Mooie Infinity."
I remember meeting Joan aka Moonvine on Second Life for the first time. Immediately it was obvious that we spoke the same language: The language of the heart.

After doing Moon, Moo and You: The Collective Wisdom together for over a year, it seems right that we would meet in person.
And so the moment is here and we are acquainted in flesh and blood reality. North and South come together to heal the treasured wounds of another century.

The karma we both felt as our online relationship deepened now takes on new dimensions as we meet and talk long into the night, admire the family dogs and discuss family dynamics.
Maggie is pictured here, protector of family and friends, lover of life and of children.

Om, Peace, Amen.

Dear God/ess, The plan was for Nancy Tate Hellams to create a flat squid-Lou. And she did, pictured here. We've been taking her all over Pendleton, South Carolina, including the Tate family Reunion, because we owe Squidoo for reigniting the spirit of creativity and ingenuity so we can continue creating hundreds of lenses and feel apart of the Squidoo Community.

Joan and her sisters are orchestrating their family reunion, but this is also a Squidoo reunion. I am hoping that more and more of us meet face to face as these next few years enfold!

The power of two minds meeting in three dimensional reality is a powerful phenomenon. Our radio show "Moon, Moo and You: The Collective Wisdom," has a life of its own. Joan and I owed it to ourselves to introduce who we are in the flesh to each other and to the world. We show up to do those shows every week at 6 PM. I know that the continuing authenticity of the show depends on Joan and I meeting in real life.

I imagine now that our show(s) will enfold in a different way. The vibrations may be subtle to all of us, but a different and truthful nitty gritty will over take the airwaves from here on out. We've undertaken to take the next step in the enfolding of the show's evolution. We may not know what that looks like at this time.

We will know in the next several months, if not weeks.

What beauty there is in stepping out of routine and doing something entirely different, meeting people I've heard about for several years and dancing to the tune of their music for a short time.

Savoring the moments, the trees, flowers and Southern breezes is an exercise in tuning into the eternal flow of life. Routines need to be abandoned every once in awhile. Eat only when hungry. Sleep only when necessary without a need to tailor these to meet the demands of a work place or expectations from family and friends.

We need to step away from time to time to participate in the infinite Flow of Life.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, Life is interesting here in the South. I notice a respect between people that's different here than in the Yankee North.

Adults even say "Yes, Ma'am," or "Yes, Sir" or "No, Ma'am," or "No, Sir," to their children as well as each other. People don't like to be called Ma'am or Sir in the Northern part of the United States, generally speaking. I try to think why that might be. Do people think they are being disrespected, even though the opposite is true?

Two of the adult gentleman were discussing their experiences in the Vietnam War. They discussed the perils of being bitten by the "two Step" green snake: two steps after you were bitten, you were dead.

One of the gentlemen was a pilot in Vietnam during the war. Tomorrow he is going to a reunion of his squadron. While they were together in the war, they did not wear traditional green fatigues that every other soldier wore.

They wore confederate soldier uniforms complete with a western cowboy style hat. He even brought the uniform down to the room to show it off to everyone there.

Both of these men were liberal Democrats!

So much blood was shed during the Civil War all over the South. You can feel the history of the pre-war South and the life style that went with that. Life is slow. People speak without haste.

Lots of love is poured into the words that people speak here. The Tate Family Reunion is an encapsulation of time. People in the family were dedicated about showing up to this family gathering. Sweetness and gentleness flows from person to person and all across the generations, to the ancestors who have passed, and to the generations yet to come.

Families are funny sometimes. The great history shared between siblings, cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and grandparents penetrates the memory of each bodily cell and atom. It can be released. We don't have to remain in the image of how our families have always defined us.

We can define ourselves anew.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, The Tate Family Reunion is unlike any family reunion I have ever attended. This family wants future generations to remember their roots. They struggle to reconcile the "War Of Northern Aggression," or "The Late Unpleasantness," because they remember their grandparents who were still very bitter about what happened because of the war.

One of the Tates gave a talk on the Tate Civil War Ancestors. The main question asked was: "What motivated each one to go to war?"

For some it was the conscription laws. Many were drafted to go. For others, it was adventure or escape because they were poor farmers in rural areas.

Did they believe in the cause? None of the family who served in the war were slave owners. In fact, most southerners did not own slaves.

I don't think many of us know this fact.

One of the cousins said, "I did not know the South lost the war until I was in the fourth grade."

Later I asked her, "What did you think when you were taught the South did NOT win the war?"

She said she was confused and hurt because she knew the wounds were running deep from that time in history AND that these wounds were directly effecting her.

The aftermaths of the war left the South in political and economic ruin, while the North boomed after the war. This experience of such far reaching poverty and loss created an even greater divide between North and South. I know these divisions can be healed, but only when we consciously bring them to the forefront for healing.
I also have a picture of Squid Lou over seeing the grave-site of Bernard Elliot Bee in Pendleton, South Carolina. Bee is famous for giving Stonewall Jackson his name.

He said, "There he stands like a stonewall," and was shot immediately after he made this famous statement.

I've noticed that the "War of Northern Aggression" is still very much on the minds of people in the Southern United States.
I believe it's time for me to read "The People's History Of America," by the recently deceased Howard Zinn. The book is about American History seen through the eyes of ordinary people, for it is the ordinary people who suffer the most by decisions to go to war.

As my mother, Kitty Loving Shenk always used to say, "If no one showed up to fight the wars, we would have peace on earth."

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, Here is beautiful cousin Jean with Nancy. Nancy really lights up around her family, as this picture exemplifies. Jean is a real gem. She collects Teddy Bears! She tells funny jokes! She has a merry laugh!

Her daughter Emily gave the honest talk at the reunion about what motivated some of the Tate Ancestors to fight in the Civil War. As a Northerner, I was amazed by the way my new friends hung on to the Civil War experience. As it was pointed out to me, the word "Confederate" means: "We Will Never Forget."

If we do indeed forget history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, Here we sit on the bench that the town of Pendleton dedicated to Dear Nancy OhMe. I believe this is the bench where the town of Pendleton named OhMe the queen Of Squidoo! At least, that's what my imagination tells me.

Pendleton is ripe with Tate Family memories. I saw where the Tate sisters and brother Mel grew up and the hike they took, walking to school. I missed the journey to the family and ancestral cemetery.

Strange--Now I wish I had gone.

But Joan and I were there in spirit.

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, This lens is dedicated to Nancy Hellams and 100% of the proceeds of this lens goes to Barrett's Place, or Friends Of The Park (FOTP).

Let us embrace all the children and keep them safe.

Let the park remind us to play and become child-like again!!

Om, Peace, Amen

Dear God/ess, I've been wanting to make a lens ever since returning from South Carolina. And I wanted the lens to be an honorary one for Joan's sister Ohme of Squidoo.

Making the lens was very exciting because I knew it would make her happy. Synchronistically, Squidoo is having a contest whereby people donate all proceeds from the lenses they make to a charity that Squidoo recognizes.

So not only would I be able to make a lens for OhMe, but I could also donate all proceeds to her favorite charity, which she so tirelessly worked to establish for the Pendleton Community and also for Squidoo.com.

The name of the lens is "Pendleton Is OhMe's Town." After I spent a few days there, I felt like it was my town, too. Seeing the town through the eyes of the entire Tate clan brought the town into a multi-dimensional focus: past, present, future all at once.

And what I most enjoyed noticing was how everyone in that town loved Nancy Tate Hellams aka OhMe. They spoke of her in hushed appreciation. The Tate Family Reunion parade was certainly highly anticipated. Even if there had been a downpour, we still would have had to march through the little park in the center of Pendleton, SC, because all the people expected it who were looking forward to it.

One gentleman joined our parade because he said he didn't have a family of his own. Naturally, he was embraced by us all.

Everyone had a history, it seemed. The town is so small that everyone knows everyone else. Small town life is not for everyone, but everyone there was obviously thriving on it.

You can learn so much about human nature by observing small town life.

I lived in a small Northern California town years ago where the sense of community was deeply satisfying. Every week, we would meet at someone's home for a potluck. The sense of reciprocity was tremendous. The slowing down of time as people appreciated one another, without rushing, just a relaxed sharing of food and comradery was precious because it did not last forever. We tend to think times like that will never end. I felt great sorrow when it did end.

This prayer today is dedicated to Nancy Tate Hellams aka OhMe.

This lens was created with such ease because of your wonderful presence in my life, and to the whole of Squidoo!

Om, Peace, Amen

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