Speak Softly… I hear many people say these days that they wish for a simpler time, when people visited with their neighbors, when the front porch was the place to be, when people spoke softly and were kind to each other. A time when kids played together outside after school and weekends, and the storekeepers knew you by name and what you were looking for. 
I think that time is still here, but in this modern world, where people are chronically busy, when kids often have to stay inside to be safe, where there are many single parent households and/or 2 parents working it gets much harder to see it. Supermarkets and super stores have replaced the 10 shops that were formerly downtown, eating out is more a way of life than a celebratory treat. I raised my children in a town of less than 400 people, there were no fast food restaurants, all the kids played outside and were expected in for supper when the 6 p.m. whistle blew, if I was at work there were a dozen people keeping an eye on my kids. My kids make jokes about their childhood now, we got divorced when they were 14 and 11 and moved to a much bigger town, they always tell their friends they were raised in the 1950’s. In a lot of ways it was a pretty good life, most of us went to the same church, after church in the winter we all had big snowmobiling parties with a bonfire and hot chocolate and hot dogs, in the summer we grilled in each other’s back yards, we had a lot of fun. 
I know it is impossible for most of us to live in that small of a town, but it is not impossible to enjoy parts of small town life. Start a book club, or a knitting group, if your church has study groups attend one with people you have something in common with. If you miss having good neighbors BE a good neighbor. Say hi on the street, bake cookies or bread when someone has a baby, make a casserole when a friend is in the hospital. Play outside with your kids, go to a park and admire nature, look for treasures, like an oddly shaped pine cone, or color of rock. Discuss clouds, lay on the ground and look for shapes in clouds or shapes in the stars. Get a jar and chase fireflies. 
We have changed our own society, and we are the only ones who can change it back. Love and hugs. Edited By: Ellie Aug 4th 14
