excerpted from
by Michael Mitchell
105. Let her steal your nose from time to time. I promise she’ll give it back eventually.
(photo: guzi4real)
104. Staring contests are a great way to pass the time. Making faces at her will give you the advantage in more ways than one.
(photo: unknown)
Continue reading A Weekly Dose of Life Lessons for Dads of Daughters
by Bob Waldrop
The board of directors of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative has appointed Lisa Weissenbuehler president, replacing Chelsey Simpson who resigned due to a move out-of-state.A descendent of Oklahoma pioneers and a native of Tulsa, Weissenbuehler and her husband David were among the first 200 coop members.
She has served as general manager for the co-op and as site manager for the co-op’s northwest Oklahoma City pick-up location. She has also served as producer assistance technician and been a member of the Standards Committee, the Treasury Team, the Producer Care Team and the board of directors.
The Oklahoma Food Cooperative enables customers to buy directly from Oklahoma farmers and artisans using the co-op’s website, www.oklahomafood.coop
The co-op offers roughly 40 pick-up sites across the state, including several locations in the Oklahoma City area. Eighty cents of every dollar spent at the Oklahoma Food Co-op goes to an Oklahoma producer.
Weissenbuehler says co-op membership is the most convenient way for her to shop for local food and non-food items. “The Oklahoma Food Cooperative has made it possible for us to shop online and pick our order up at a site close to our house,” she says. “We buy all our meat and dairy products from the co-op as well as all of our laundry soap, bath soap, shampoo, lip balm, moisturizer, cosmetics and even greeting cards.
Not only are we making a decision to support Oklahoma producers and keep precious dollars in the local economy, I also have the comfort of knowing EVERY ingredient that goes into each product.”
The co-op has experienced rapid growth since it was founded in 2003, and is poised to expand into new markets in the next two quarters.
“The Oklahoma Food Co-op is on track to facilitate over $800,000 in sales this year and has over 4,000 members—that’s huge considering we were only founded eight years ago,” says Quentin Bomgardner, the coop’s vice president for customers. “I am confident that Lisa is the right person to lead us forward.”
The co-op is online at www.oklahomafood.coop
I once worked with a woman who was the youngest of several siblings, all of whom had been sexually abused by their father. She was in her 40s, and struggled with guilt because she hadn’t “done something” earlier to begin helping her family heal from the trauma. She, however, was the only person who had been brave enough to disclose the behavior, and to do what it took on her part to make the abuse stop.
One of our last sessions together involved a fairly elaborate ritual; it was an emotional intervention wherein I took the role of her father and tied up each family member (represented by chairs in a circle) with secrets and suffering (represented by a rope, looped through and around each chair).
As she made the decision to forgive herself for not disclosing the abuse sooner in her life, she took a pair of scissors and cut “herself (the chair with her name on it)” free. It was difficult for her. She was holding on to self-blame because it was one of the few things she felt like she could control from a very ‘uncontrollable’ upbringing.
She then, however, went on to cut the ropes around her brothers and sisters, in order of who she would approach first, as she made the decision to approach them and ask them to think about starting their own healing process. The second to last person she cut free was “her mother” as she decided to forgive the one person who might have been able to protect them from the abuse.
The chair remaining at the end of the hour was the one representing her father. She wasn’t ready to forgive him, and couldn’t sort out how it might even be possible, as he had died about five years before that day. The woman seemed like a different person after that session, and had worked six months to get to that point. She told me she needed some time to think through all she’d accomplished, and to visit each one of her siblings. She wasn’t sure if she’d be back, but she might write someday.
**(BlogHer Community – Start Reading Here…) About 18 months later, she did write. I was surprised when I received her letter. Continue reading Our Relationship With the Dead
I have a cool job. It has allowed me to travel the world and witness first hand events that most people just read about. I really enjoy international air travel in part because they put domestic airlines to shame, but also because of the people I meet and the places I get to see once I get there. Unfortunately, this week’s blog is not one of those stories.
When an OSU professor asked me to travel with a group of students and a representative of an OKC nonprofit, I assumed it would be like most of the international shoots I do…Hot, sweaty work during the day, but a clean bed and a warm meal at night. Wrong Again!
My trip to Sierra Leone, Africa was one of the hardest I have ever taken. One hundred plus degrees during the day…ninety at night, sleeping on concrete, getting bit by mosquitoes throughout the night in the malaria belt, and eating rice. Lots and lots of rice.
Despite the inhospitable conditions I am proud to say the stories I did from there are important and life changing for all involved. This week and next I am going to show you some of the things I saw. I invite you to watch and learn just as I did.
Rob
Here is a “cool things about Oklahoma” list that I keep in my head…
1) Creativity
2) Ingenuity
3) Ability to make much from very little
4) Warm and endearing people
5) Activities of which you want to be a part Continue reading An Event We Think You’ll Appreciate: The Red Barn Boutique!