Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

June 13, 2007

Today’s Stories

~**~**~

We Don't Know

Sharon Bryant

I met him two years ago.  He walked into my work place with the biggest grin on his face and said, "I hear you have homemade milkshakes."

I told him I sure did, and he ordered a chocolate one. 

He's in his 30's, quite handsome, sparkling eyes, nice build and a beautiful smile.  You can't help but notice he is missing his left arm at the elbow.  He's had his wife with him and his two little children sometimes.  They all love milkshakes.

I knew he'd been having trouble.  I never knew how he lost his arm.  I figured if he wanted me to know, he'd tell me.  I knew he had been in the hospital for the past year off and on.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him.  "Well, they took me off dialysis just recently," he said. 

So young to be having dialysis I thought to myself.

"They took me off chemo now and I'm grateful for that," he said.

It was then I asked him why he was on chemo.

"It all started when I lost my arm in a hunting accident a few years ago.  I had nerve damage done to my arm which traveled into my neck," he said.  They gave me a popular drug for the pain.  The drug which was an anti-inflammatory, began to eat my liver up, causing liver cancer.  Then I had the tooth filled and hepatitis settled in after we found out the dentist used a dirty tool to work on my tooth.  Between the hepatitis and the liver cancer, I had to go on dialysis.

I looked at this man who used to be a regular in the shop.  I know when he doesn't show up for a while, he's not feeling well.

He was shot while hunting one day.  I can only imagine what his life was like when that happened.  Then all the problems created from the nerve damage when his arm was amputated.  Not to mention the pain he endured with his arm, then in his neck area.

Then one day he went to the dentist to get a tooth filled.  Something we've all done.  No one knew the dentist did not clean his tools correctly.  No one knew the damage that would come with that mistake.

No one told him the meds he was on would eventually "eat" his liver and cause cancer. 

He told me he never wants to take another medication the rest of his life.  "Don't ever take any anti-inflammatory drug if you can help it," he told me.  "It can kill you if you have to take them regularly."

It reminded me of a problem my husband ran into a few years ago.  He battles gout.  Some people think, mistakenly, that gout is caused by drinking.  That is not true.  My husband is not a drinker.  Gout is caused by a build up of uric acid in the body.  The acid does not break down normally and it will deposit in any joint in the body.  The pain is terrible.  Most people start to have problems in the big toe area, but gout can settle in the knee, elbow, finger joints, etc.

A doctor once told my husband that he could give him a tiny pill that would take care of gout the rest of his life.  "You won't ever have another attack with it," he said.  "But it will eventually eat your liver up and you will not live a full lifetime," he said.  My husband decided not to take the pills.

After hearing what the man told us this week, my husband is glad that he refused to take the pills.  Gout can be treated with the right foods, but there are so many things that gout can be triggered from.  Gravies, pastries, mushrooms, beans, many vegetables, red meats, organ meats, etc.

Just about weekly I see a new drug being introduced on the television.  I think to myself, "And just what kind of problems is this going to create down the road."  We have all seen many drugs enter the drug market, then be removed not far down the road when they find out they can be dangerous to human consumption.

My husband has irregular heartbeat.  Monthly he has to have blood work done to see if his blood is either too thick or too thin.  He is on a blood thinner, warafin or the generic which is coumadin.  It is made by the Dupont  company.  I found out it has rat poison in it.  I called the Dupont Company to verify this.  I was horrified knowing after verification from Dupont, that rat poison is being given to humans.  I was informed that the dosage is small.  I have problems with that.  To me, poison is poison.

We don't know what any drug company is putting into these so called miracle cures today.  We don't know what's being put into our packaged foods today.  I look at the back of a package of prepared foods today and I can't even pronounce the ingredients.  I wonder, "What are they feeling people today?"

I love to cook.  I don't buy boxed foods.  I remember a doctor told me many years ago, "If you can't pronounce the ingredient, don't eat it."   The food may look appealing with the photo on the front of the box.  As humans, we are always looking at things that are appealing to us.  But we never think about the danger that appealing look can do.

Years before all these packaged foods became available, before man began experimenting with everything, Indians lived on this land.  They survived off this land.  They had no dyes to put into their foods.  God made this earth plentiful in the beginning.  Yet, man is destroying so much.  God gave us trees, plants, and water.  I don't believe He intended for man to create the chemicals today that are destroying so much.  I don't believe He intended our food source to be the problem it is today.  For what is happening today........we don't know.

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net

~**~**~

 Temper

Bill Walker

missourisage@yahoo.com

Temper, everyone has a temper, I think animals also has a temper.  Everyone has a boil over point.  Most people can control this thing called temper, but at some point there is a let off steam. You will hear of people saying you must learn to control your temper.  You just blow up about most any thing, and it caused a lot of trouble for all that has to put up with you.

Well I can think of many times in the Bible of loss of temper. In one case there was a lot of time for a cooling off of the temper, but the control of temper never came about. I know there is more cases of loss of temper told about in the Bible, but three, or four is enough for to days class.

God has a temper, he does get upset with his children, and there has been a few times his children has found out just what a temper God has. 

You will need to read Genesis, chapter 6 and 7.  God seen mankind was walking a different road, then the planed road. A case of we don't need you God.  Let us alone and we will do our things.  Eat, drink and make merry.  God seen one man and family still walking the road that was planed. He told him to build a ship. The ship we now call the Ark. A ship to carry the few, and the animals to safety. A unsinkable ship, never another ship that can say I can't be sunk.  Mankind has tried, but so far all ships made since that time seems to have a problem, can sink. I believe God showed he did have a temper in this case, he lost it for a time with what he seen.  There was a amount of time while the Ark was being built, he could have had second thoughts, but he didn't.  Mankind had made him upset, and the boiling point was reached. 

Then we need to read Genesis, chapter 11.  God again got a little upset with this building  plan of mankind.  This time he just confounded the people with a speaking problem.  But maybe we could say his temper showed a bit.

Moses has to beg God not to destroy the people.  Moses made an offer of blot him out of the book of life, and not destroy the people. Your going to need to read the whole chapter 32 of the book of Exodus to get a grip on the temper of God. God was all ready to bring down fire from Heaven and destroy the whole lot right there.  Moses was a meek man, But he also had a temper.  Here he comes down from talking with God, to find the Golden Calf.  Moses blew up, and busted up the stones that the laws were written on.  Yes Moses did have a boiling point, and the sight of the Golden Calf the people had made caused him to loose it.

Jesus had a temper,  don't tell me he didn't blow up and show his temper. Matthew 21; 12 and 13.

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all  them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the table of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves.

And he said unto them, it is written, My house  shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Yes he had a temper, he became upset with what he seen taking place. He marched in and every step he got madder, he blew up. He reached his boil over point, he tore up the tables, picked up their camp stools and gave the whole works the heave out the door.

We know there was no other time that he blew off steam, so he did have great control of this thing called temper.  This one time, what he seen was just too much, he blew.  But then we read on.

Matthew 21; 14

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple;  and he healed them. 

So you see he cooled down quick, and healed those in need. 

Yes I believe we all have a temper. Even God, and his Son Jesus has a temper.  There is a boiling point.

Tinker and Poo; The Boys Write

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-35741-5

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Poetry Corner

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Infinite Love

Janice Bumbalough Marler

Lord we’re walking

Through some dark and lonesome valleys

We need your infinite love to carry us through,

We’re faced with so many trials

Don’t know just what to do

Lord we need your infinite love

We need you to carry us through

Lead us out of this valley

Lead us home to live with you

Infinite love, infinite love

Carry us through, carry us through,

Let your infinite love carry us through,

Our lives are filled with sadness,

No matter what we do,

 Fill our souls with joy and gladness,

Carry us through, carry us through,

Lord we need your infinite love,

We need you to carry us through,

Lead us out of this valley,

Lead us home to live with you,

Infinite love, infinite love,

Carry us through, carry us through,

Come Infinite love and carry us through

So many hearts are breaking;

So many lives are torn into,

Send us your amazing Comforter

And carry us through, carry us through

Lord we need your infinite love,

We need you to carry us through,

Lead us out of this dark and lonesome valley

Carry us through, carry us through,

Infinite love, infinite love

Carry us through, carry us through,

Come infinite love and carry us through

Carry us through.

Dedicated to all those who have lost loved ones

Or are carrying a heavy cross

© Janice Bumbalough Marler

May 1, 2007

poetrybyjan@aol.com

~**~**~

 The Misty Fields

Abram Friedland

As the dew dries away

In the marching of the day

My march is beginning

I have a list of haunting tales

And a list of places and people I failed

I want to make it right again

I can take the prize

I may not be so wise

But cockroaches lend wings to my heels

Out there on the misty fields

Where I laid low my own stature

I can see the blood I spilled

My own blood

And my own anger

At what I never understood

As the sweat of my brow makes wet the dirty grounds

I realize that my own sorrow

Is my own fault

I can make this right again

I don’t want to fail again

Be with me oh Lord

I can forget the snow

I can pretend the sun is shining

And I strip down to shorts and t- shirt

And ride away towards the pits

But you can blow my shins away if you want

For you own sake, I hope your aim is good

You don’t know what possesses me

Shoot arrows at me all day and night

I can keep riding

And someday I’ll forget the pain

And make my life right again.

By Abram Friedland

abramfriedland@videotron.ca

 ~**~**~

Readers Feedback

 Sharon, I think we first came in contact because of a story about losing my first wife.

Ginny and I both know that pain. It’s what brought us together.

To lose a child? I can’t imagine that pain.

Then again, maybe I can - in a way.

That’s another story to be written soon.

Mike

Michael Smith
To read my stories or to sign up
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Keep on waving

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