Oklahoma Roots

 text FOOD to number 32333 to donate $10 to The Oklahoma Food Bank.

I was born in Oklahoma, which makes me an Oklahoman by birth right...the only tangible birth right I have. I was adopted and as I navigated through adolescence, I often wondered what was truly mine...who I really was....but I always knew that I belonged to the land and it belonged to me. Oklahoma is my home and my roots run deep. From the red clay to the howling winds.Oklahoma has this beautiful energy. A resting place for America's native people and a settlement for the adventurous pioneers, both the essence of my free spirit. 

I lived in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened.I was so young but I remember seeing the Murrah building. No words could suffice... This was my first encounter with death and possibly hate, and even then I understood. It's amazing the way the grief is seared in my brain. I can see the building, the survivor tree, the fence cluttered with stuffed bears and trinkets, cries of strangers. That never left me, in fact it shaped me, became apart of me....it bonded me to the other Oklahomans... we we're all effected, heartbroken for our people. 

On May 3, 1999 Oklahoma was hit by an F5 tornado and was devastated once again. For Oklahoma kids tornado sirens are apart of childhood. The sounding of the siren is either a noon a test, we often correlated with lunch time or it meant you better get your butt inside. This time it was serious. My parents, our family pets and myself  were all huddled inside our small bathtub with a mattress over our head and battery operated radio on the counter top. The panic that night was real, the fear was thick. When the storm passed and we emerged I saw the most eerie sky I have ever seen. To this day I have never seen anything quite like it. Too bright for evening, too light for darkness. Shingles had been flung off the roof,our trees uprooted and power lines torn....but we were ok, our home was ok. I felt relief which has now been replaced with gratefulness; so many people lost everything that day.

Now I am 2,000 miles away and living in California...you can take the girl out of Oklahoma but you can't take Oklahoma out of the girl. I felt helpless when the storms raged on the twentieth, not sure if my love ones were safe...praying for their safety. Everyone I know made it but Moore and surrounding areas we're devastated.  I'm aching to be home to do something to help my people. I am heartbroken over the loss Oklahoma must face once again. My heart grieves deeply for the victims. Pray for Oklahoma.