Where Would I Be Without the Worldwide Web?

I can honestly say that I would not be who I am today if it weren't for my access to the worldwide web. When my husband and I lost our home and our community to the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, we became nomads. We lived in an RV, traveling to New Orleans to help friends recover, and traveling to the west coast of our country to soothe our souls during breaks in our work with friends.

This approach to surviving the loss of everything but our physical lives was made possible by the fact that I could keep in touch with insurance companies, health care providers, and our friends and family members while on the road. Internet access enabled me to pay bills, locate areas to park overnight and places to eat our meals. Using my phone as a computer modem, I set up the passenger seat as an office on wheels. My husband called it "command central."

After having no place to call home for nine months, my husband wanted to settle into a community that was above sea level. He and my daughter conspired to land us in a secluded Appalachian Mountain area in the Cherokee National Forest of Tennessee. I had always been a small town girl, but had never aspired to be a farm wife. My husband grew up on a farm, well above sea level, so I suppose he felt like this was a homecoming.

The area of Appalachia is beyond belief beautiful, and I didn't even think to check on internet access before buying our new home. After settling in, I felt like I had been planted in fifty years back in time. I thought that, surely, there were no areas on earth that had no mobile phone coverage. After weeks of asking, I was finally informed that cell phone signals travel on "line of sight," and that the mountains blocked all access.

Desperate for ways to connect to the wider world, I began to research ways to access the internet. I was told that the only way was through the unreliable telephone service. I signed up for their dial-up service, knowing that the lack of speed would, in short order, make it not worth the effort to use. It seems that rural mountains inhibit most modern technology; it was 1949 before our area got any electric because of the expense of running wires through the mountains. The post mistress for fifty years, Mamie Murphy, took it upon herself to sign people up for electricity. Upgrades on telephone lines are still problematic.

When I obtained work as an publisher, editor and writer, I decided to do something about our technology, so that I could communicate with printers, without having to drive prohibitive distances. At great expense, I acquired satellite internet service, which served me fairly well for two years. When the day came that the telephone company offered DSL service, I immediately called to make it happen at our house. I was informed that only those living within a certain distance of the telephone service box for the hamlet could acquire this faster speed, and they would have to check on my eligibility.

It was like a miracle in my life when I was notified that I barely meet the criteria for inclusion in DSL service area; my home is exactly one mile, as the crow flies, from the line of demarcation. One mile was the magic number. I immediately ordered the new service.

Almost all my communication was now done in written form and sent out over the internet. I was able to have others work with me in editing, formatting, and printing, from five hundred or more miles away. Access to the internet expanded my worldview, as it is like having the combined Library of Alexandria and The Library of Congress on my lap. I can now continue all my relationships from wherever I happen to be, and have made new friends, through World Pulse, thousands of miles away, with whom I speak on Skype and chat on Facebook.

The internet allowed me to realize my lifetime dream of becoming a full-time writer. I am firm believer that women must stop letting our words disappear into the ether, as spoken, not written wisdom. I have spent most of my time since losing what I thought was my permanent life situation in encouraging women to write what they think and why. I believe we can be creators of sacred scripture, if we only take the time to write it.

Finding World Pulse online opened up to me a world of women that are already following and promoting my personal passion. It is with great joy that I contribute my time to encouraging the writing of the wisdom of women with World Pulse. My dream is that it will be through the worldwide network of World Pulse sisters that we will prepare a path to peace on our earth.

I still visit my Appalachian "family" and am working on a history of their matriarch, now 94-years-old. Because my "Mountain Mama" has no internet service, I am grateful for the desktop computer and high-speed internet access offered at the public library, eleven miles "down the mountain." Because I have the will to communicate with others in written form, I will always find a way.