Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

April 26, 2007

Today’s Announcements

Dear friends/family,

Medication is finally kicking in and hopefully, I will be online more as time goes by.  I have missed  you all and I pray that all is fine in your neck of the woods.  Also, thank you for the prayers and the keeping the emails at a minimum as I just was not up to being online too long at a time.  Now back to the grind?  haha   Normie: hoopla214@yahoo.com

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Please note that Storytime Tapestry is a free newsletter to members and there will never be a cost for the newsletter. Donations are purely voluntary and no member should ever feel guilty for not making a donation at this time.

Today’s Stories

~**~**~

GREATEST WONDER OF ALL

By: Joseph J. Mazzella

     With the arrival of Spring the forested mountains of my home have come to life once again. Everywhere I look I can see a thousand shades of green. The apple trees, dogwood trees, and cherry trees are full of white and pink blossoms too. On the ground golden buttercups and dandelions are everywhere. The flowers in my flower garden are stretching up to greet the morning sun as well. The bumble bees and beautiful butterflies seem to be dancing in delight above them all. The air smells Heavenly with the sweet scents of all this new life. Carried along on the breezes as well are the sounds of birds singing, children playing, and wind chimes tinkling. It is a blessed time. It will not be long either before Spring will give way to the hot days and rich growth of Summer. Then the wonderful fruits and colorful leaves of Autumn will follow. In the coming seven months these hills will see more joyous life, more loving beauty, and more inspiring wonders of God than my simple words could ever share.

     As uplifting, heartwarming, and inspiring as nature can be, however, I take my greatest happiness in knowing that there is something even more wonderful. That something is us. We may not realize it or wish to believe it, but it is true. If we choose to we can share joy that is more beautiful than all the flowers in Spring. We can give love that is more wonderful than the sunniest Summer’s day. We can live a life that is more glorious than an entire forest in Autumn.  We can bloom where we are planted every single day of our lives. We can produce good fruits even during the worst weather. And we can plant seeds of goodness and delight in our souls and in the souls of others that will produce a harvest that never ends.

     We live in a spectacular world of God’s creation. His greatest wonder of all, though, is us.  May we always live our lives in love, joy, and glorious oneness with Him.

Joe Mazzella

 joecool@wirefire.com

~**~**~

 It’s All In a Name

Jeannie Nelson

_. One of my neighbors, whom I have known the better part of 15 years, never calls me by my proper name. Instead of addressing me as "Jeannie," "Jean," or even "Mrs. Nelson" or "Ma'am," this neighbor prefers to call me, "Hey, Lady!" 

My neighbor has an old timey formal quality about him when he addresses his friends. The guys are all "Mr. Don", "Mr. Paul," or "Mr. Fill-in-the-blank," and the woman are "Miz Such-and-Such." It's quaintly polite, endearing and oh so nostalgic; so how do I rate a mere "Hey, Lady"?

I suppose it's not the worse thing I've been called in my life. When my children were smaller, their friends used to call me "Bobby's mom" or "Ronny's mom". Children who were raised to be exceedingly polite would call me "Mrs. Bobby's Mom."  As my sons got older, their friends ditched the "Bobby's Mom" moniker for something that sounded like a grunt.

"Oh hey, Miz gRrunt-nhnhNn. Word?"

"Word, Jimmy," I'd reply back. "Thanks for asking."

When I wasn't being "Mrs. Bobby's Mom." I was being addressed as "Rollie's Wife."

"Hi, Miz Rollie's Wife," people would say, "Nice to meetcha! We just love Rollie, he's such a great guy and blah blah blah. What did you say you name was, dear?"

"Jeannie," I'd smile back.

"Oh, OK, well, Miz Rollie's Wife, we did so enjoy meeting you. Your husband is simply divine, he's the greatest! You should be so proud of him! "

When the kids got older, I found time for community service work. You would think that away from my family, people might finally address me by my real name. No such luck. I'm now called by such dignified names as the "Rummage Sale Lady," the "Recycling Lady," the "Food Bank Lady" and the "Lady Drama Coach with the Loud Mouth."

Once, I overheard this conversation about me while standing in the school parking lot.

  "Oh, sure, you know That Lady! She teaches 4-H now, but still works down at the foodbank; forever pestering people for more donations. But she does have that cute hound dog, Freckles." 
  "Oh, yeah, sure, what's her name now?" the second person asked. 
  "I don't know, everyone just calls her the Volkwagen Lady. Or Annie's mom. Or the lady with the real messy hair."

I'm thinking of changing my name, in hopes of coming up with one that people might possibly remember. Rollie tells me I might as well spit in the wind, for all the good that would do. He's probably right, unless I change it to Lady.

Hm. Lady Nelson does have a nice ring to it. Knowing my neighbor though, he'd probably still get it wrong and decide to call me something silly like "Lady Hey Lady-O". Unfortunately, that's precisely the sort of name people WOULD remember; I can hear it now.

"Hey, there she goes! The Lady with the cute dog and the wierd name." 

"Lady Hey Lady-O? Word!"

"Word."

Jennie Nelson

claajke@msn.com

~**~**~

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

 Starlight
Cynthia Groopman

Ribbons of velvet, crown the beautiful night sky,
As the stars dance with a twinkle in their eye.
Rays so bright,
That add sparkle to the darkness of night.
Beaming all around,
Starlight makes a lovely joyous sound.
Enlivening the moon's smiling face,
starlight majestically touches every place.
For starlight is God's gift from heaven above,
Which is a great manifestation of his overpowering,
Profound and gentle love.
Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net

Cynthia Groopman

Copyright ©2005 Cynthia L. Groopman

~**~**~

 Oh, Little Bible Of Mine

Cynthia Groopman

Oh, beautiful little Bible of mine,
With words of comfort, solace and joy,
My soul is bathed in eternally enriched spiritual and glowing sunshine.
Filling my heart with exquisite mirth,
Thoughts eminate full of happiness, renewal, optimism and rebirth.
As I turn each hallowed page,
Strong and enthusiastic I am to enter life's stage.
More precious than glittering jewels of rare rubies, diamonds silver and gold,
The Bible relates the greatest and most sacred inspiring story every told.
Thus, little Bible of mine, in every message that I read,
Is kindled in God's torch of Divine light that will forever radiate and shine.


Cynthia Groopman
Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net
Copyright ©2005 Cynthia L. Groopman

 ~**~**~

 Death
Cynthia Groopman

For cruel death, you are indeed a vicious villain,
Casting such power and furious might,
Lurking with hostility during long days and nights.
You suddenly appear in a brutal blaze,
Inflicting terror and blight onto life's stage.
Oh, heinous death, inflicting us overpowering anger and vengeful hate,
Arriving unexpectedly, giving no chance to tarry or wait.
Ferocious death, your sound is as piercing as a fierce lion's roar,
As you torment us by knocking at every innocent person's door.
Death, must you continue to torture us so?
Darkening life's sky casting shadows over sunshine's glow.
Oh, horrible death, you exhibit anguish and cause so much harm,
Extinguishing the amber's of life's light that was beautiful and calm.


Cynthia Groopman
Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net
Copyright ©2004 Cynthia Groopmam

Readers Feedback

My feelings on the subject though Billy,  You are perhaps being a little hard on those learned types who have worked so diligently to obtain those letters. 

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