Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

May 17, 2007

Today’s Announcements

Birthday Alert!  Today is Pamela Blaine’s birthday.  Please send your cards and wishes to:  Pamyblaine@blaines.us

Donations are needed to help with the operating expenses of running the newsletter and to keep Storytime Tapestry the quality newsletter you are so accustomed to.   

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

~**~**~

Bittersweet Mother's Day

B.J. Cassady
  
        I would take flowers to my mother's grave, but she is alive.
  I would like to visit with her, but she is not all here mentally that is.
  When she does pass on, the funeral will be a service that should
  have been or could have been held several years ago.  The mother
  I have had conversations with is no longer around.  I look upon my
  mother as a child and I am the parent.  I am an only child and this
  is a task that I am grateful to perform.  When I was a baby, I could
  not live without my mother's guidance.  So now I can return the
  favor, no favor is not the word, duty through Love.
  
 Sweet Mother's Day
 B. J. Cassady

       This piece has two titles, the way it is and the way it turned
  out to be.  I went to the nursing home to take my mother to church.
  Not many of the women leave the nursing home on this day.  My
  mother, incontinent, will leave and I will take her to church
  and then to a meal.  I see her and she cries.  We hug.  I pin the
  Orchid corsage on her.  Her face is beaming...  She tells me she has
  told everyone she is leaving for a while...   This is a big deal for her.
      We take the country road to Guthrie and she comments on how
  green everything is.  I probe her memories and hit about fifty
  percent of the time.  She wants to go back home to Emporia, Kansas.
  She used to live in Wichita...sigh.  She lived in Emporia in the 1930's.
  Her mind has taken her on a long journey today.  Today her nursing
  home is in Kansas, not in Oklahoma, but that is alright, we are
  together, mother and her only son and my wife.  She is thrilled with
  the watch she got today that my wife bought her. 
      At the church, every mother received a special gift.  She hangs onto
  hers with tight fists.  She sleeps though the sermon in her wheelchair,
  but that is alright.  My mother will be eighty-nine next month and has
  had dementia for a little over a year.  She still knows me  but the pages
  of her memory are being torn away a little at a time.
  One day I image she will not know me, but I will know my mother.
  Today, today she laughed.  She sang.  She hugged me.  She kissed me.
  Today at times, she was the mother I so yearned for.  The sands of
  time are leaving her hourglass so fast.  The grim reaper is in her shadow.
  The time will come when she will be gone forever.  It will be a day like
  this Mother's day, a day of mixed blessings. 
  
BJ Cassady

BJ.Cassady@af-group.com

~**~**~

Teacher, A Student
 B. J. Cassady

I have never been trained as a teacher.  I just had
common sense.  So when my children's principal asked
me to help out (I was working graveyard shift) with
a troubled child, I accepted.  I do not remember my
title but the job was to try to instruct this child as
he was disrupting the class he was in.  The principle
told me the child would come to school without shoes,
that his mother was a 'working' mother with many
uncles who spent the night at his house.  The family
moved often and the child was undereducated, unloved
received little money and clothes.  He was black and
from the projects.

I will call him Carl.  I took Carl to the library.  The world
unfolded before him....I let his eyes tell me what he
found to be interesting to him.  Animals piqued his
interest.  We got a book and started to read and look
at pictures.  He started to learn.  He started to learn
to read.

From animals to airplanes, from airplanes to the Globe
and explaining the world.  His eyes opened to the
possibilities...of life and education.

The experiment ended too soon.  Carl was going to
move again.  He came to school and tearfully told me
this was his last day at school.  He was a great student.
I never had problems with him.  As he was getting ready
to leave, he dug into his pockets and took out a hand-
wrapped present and gave it to me.  The package, a
simple tissue with a red string contained just a piece of
paper with some words.... Thank you Mr Cassady, I will
never forget you.  The Kleenex tissue I used for my tears
as I gave him a hug.  He turned and boarded the bus never
to be seen again.

I hope the lessons stayed with Carl and I wonder who
learned more, the student or the teacher?
 
BJ Cassady

BJ.Cassady@af-group.com

~**~**~

DO SOME GOOD

By: Joseph J. Mazzella

     For many years now Church work camps full of volunteers both young and old have been helping the poor and elderly people of this area. During the Spring and Summer school breaks they always arrive full of eager high school and college students under the supervision of older carpenters and builders. They work long hours fixing leaky roofs, building porches and wheel chair ramps, and repairing the homes of those who need it. Their only payment is the happy smiles and grateful hearts of those they help.

     Several times in the past I have helped or been helped by these wonderful people. I will always remember one man in particular that had an infectious enthusiasm as he worked. He was both a Church Pastor and a Master Carpenter. He seemed to inspire all the kids working under him with his cheerful spirit. Everyday when I asked him how he was doing he would reply, "I’m doing good!" At the end of the week as his group was preparing to leave I looked at all the homes they had fixed and lives they had touched and had to agree. He was "Doing Good!"

     So many of us want to be doing good in our lives. But do we want to be "Doing Good" in our lives? A nice house, a successful career, and a lot of money might be nice to have, but they don’t compare with fixing another’s home, helping those in need, and having treasures in Heaven. The material things we have here are temporary but the good we do goes on for all eternity.

     God loves us all so much and God put us here on Earth for a reason. I don’t think it is to be doing good in the eyes of the world either. I think rather that it is to do some good in the eyes of Heaven. There is no limit to the good we can do, the love we can share, and the joy we can spread in this life. We need only to begin to live as God meant for us to live with compassionate hearts, caring souls, and helpful hands. Do some good today then. You can change the world.

Joe Mazzella

 joecool@wirefire.com

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

 My Mother's Touch
Cynthia Groopman

Very special and truly golden, was my mother's soft touch,
which was a precious treasure, and to me meant so very much.
It was as gentle and radiant as a smiling springtime sunbeam,
that adorned my world with a tenderness that was sweet and serene.
When I was troubled and suffered great pain,
my mother's magical touch made me happy again.
When my heart trembled with extreme fear and fright,
my mother's touch was soothing as morning dew, full of healing might.
Her touch gave me love and made me feel calm,
and how reassured I was when she enveloped me into her maternal arms.
Her touch was as alluring and charming as a bright smile,
and encouraged me to navigate each sad and weary mile.
Her touch was truly a gift and a blessing to me,
and now that she is dwelling God, she will touch my heart spiritually.


Cynthia Groopman

Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net

Copyright ©2004 Cynthia Groopman

~**~**~

In the Tornado's Aftermath
Cynthia Groopman

Once a little town stood,
A community of houses and children and family did dwell.
Life was going well.
Oh, everything in its path was leveled and gone.
Rubble existed where children did once play,
Tears were heard during night and day.
In its beastly aftermath,
The tornado exuded extreme power and heinous wrath.
 Oh, to the Lord, we all shall pray,
 For hope, courage and faith to face each trauma day.
 In the depths of such despair,
 A glimmer of rebirth will soon flourish with blessed flare.

Cynthia Groopman

Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net
Copyright ©2007 

~**~**~

 A Mother's Day Prayer

Cynthia Groopman

Dwelling so high above,
Please Almighty God bless Mother's with your caring and eternal love.
With smiles and laughter, a rejoicing heart you shall provide,
In a tranquil soul, joy and gladness will forever abide.
Enfold them into your Fatherly arms,
As you always protect them from dangerous harms.
May glowing sunshine mirth adorn each radiant face,
 As birds of bliss sweetly sing in every place.
May each life be crowned with our majestic tapestry,
As hearts dance sprightly.


Cynthia Groopman
Cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net
Copyright ©2006 Cynthia Groopman

Readers Feedback

Storytime Tapestry Angels

Angels on earth, they exist they are out there.  Angels come in all ages, shapes and sizes, civil status, and religion.  Their nature is love and their purpose is giving to the less fortunate of this world.  Storytime Tapestry angels are no exception.  These angels are loyal members who have contributed to the upkeep of Storytime Tapestry newsletter so that Storytime Tapestry can continue come to your email box 350 days of the year.

Here is our Storytime Tapestry Angels: Also, I would like to thank those of you who chose to be a silent angel and gave an anonymous donation to keep Storytime Tapestry up and running.

Clara Westerfer, Mark Crider, Rosanne Catalano, Paula Booher, Kay Seefeldt, Mariane Holbrook, Mary Ellen Grisham, Louise Nomani, Sharon Bryant, Angela Walker, Hart and Helen Dowd, Keith Ready, Ginger Morgenstern, Ellie Braun-Haley, Surinder Jandu, Bob Shaw, Carol Meeks