Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

August 7, 2007

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Helen Dowd

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Today’s Stories

~**~**~

 FLOWER PLANTS AND ME (June 2007)

By Georgewaters Ojeigbe – Lagos, Nigeria gojiegbe@oregun.jhplc.com

I am a lover of nature.  I love the flowers especially.  I love the trees, the rivers, the lakes, and the oceans.  I also love the hills and mountains, valley and the steep slops.  I can not tell well enough how much I love the creator’s artistic impressions on our planet earth.

I have heard of some religions believing in receiving signs from nature.  Culture like in locality of Africa also believes in messaging from nature.  But it depends in the way one is trained to understand the meanings and signs from nature such as birds, plants, winds, the oceans and it kinds and the sky also.

For years I have understood plants to be ones watchful eye.  I can tell when ones live is nearing the end by studying the plants around the person.  I can tell the degree of my relationship with others by merely monitoring the flowers around. 

I always have a new flower planted each place I get to.  It tells me if I am flourishing.  It let me know if my neighbors are truly friendly or just fouling.

I once worked somewhere which I had a flower in a verse and it thrived well for a year plus which I worked there.  I never added any thing special other than just water.  It crept on the table and never changed it color and it remained greenish for the period I worked in the office.

After my resignation from the company, I did not take away my flower and it was taken over by my successor.  I visited my former employer three months later and behold I met the flower already dying.  I asked my successor, she complained she did her best to keep it from dying.  Then I knew something was wrong.  Not too long she was sacked by my former employer.         In order words their relationship was not cordial.

Five years ago, one of my colleagues, now late, had a flower verse stationed on his office desk.  One day I got to his desk to discover the flower was dying.  I jokingly asked him to replace the flower which he never did.  To me the flower showed the poor health of the man (even though he pretended to be very much okay).  We learnt of his death barely a week after my observation.  The doctor told us a funny story about our late colleague which we never knew of.

At my former house I had flowers planted around my flat and it grew well to the amazement of neighbors until it started changing after nine years.  They began to die despite my caring.  I knew something was about to happen.  Not too long, my landlady did some annoying thing which made me to relocate, although I was not surprised because I already knew something was amidst since I got the sign from the sudden change in my flowers. 

One of my former neighbors tried hard to raise flowers but to no avail.  She brought them down to my flat and they grew but as soon as she retrieved them from me they started to die again.          Her flowers spoke to me and I understood the meaning.

I have learnt over the years the flower language, it signs and wonders. 

Our creator is worthy to be glorified for making flowers available.  If the garden of Eden was never lost, I think we would have been having a better response from nature.

THE END!

  ~**~**~

Fears
Bill Walker
missourisage@yahoo.com

Fear, I think we are born with fears, I would think all creatures might be the same. All through life there is always some little fear of something. Fears may come and go depending on what is going on in a person’s life. I dare say, there are few days in a person’s life there isn't some small thing that has a bit of fear to it.

I was faced with a fear the past few days. I received a notice from the state of Nebraska. Seems there are people on the payroll of Nebraska, that haven't anything better to do then hound old duffers like me about a thing called driver license. Well I guess old duffers starts when you're a young duffer. It has been a long time ago I was a young know it all duffer. Now I am an old duffer, and found out I never knew much any time of my life.  When I got this form to fill out and get myself to one of these places to see if I could get a renewal on being able to run over little old ladies jay walking cross the street, it put a bit of fear in me.
Now if I answered any one of the questions and told the truth, there was no way I was going to get a renewal on running over the jay walkers.  The last question was do you feel there is no change for the worse in your health problems. You know have you been sick in the past year, and you can still see 10 feet in front of you? Things like that.

I wrote a short note on the answer to the last one. I said, heck no, my health got up and went, that is if I forget to take the pep pills. If I take the pep pills, no female jay walker is safe, I will get them all. The lady that looked the paper over, started laughing when she
got to my answer. She asked me if I could read some numbers back to her.
Stuck my head in this black box. I told her what numbers. She blinked a couple lights, stamped on the paper something, and said get out of here. I looked at paper going out the door. It said give this old goat a new license, he got little old ladies to run over that
is jay walking I guess I lost that fear for a while.

I heard a good story while back. Seems the church was packed one Sunday morning. The door opens and in stepped old Satan himself.
He let it be known who he was.  Every one flew out the door, leaving one old man. The old fellow just sat there. Satan walked up to him, and said, you don't fear me? The old man said, why should I?  I married your sister, now she is fear. You're a piker compared to her.
Tinker and Poo; The Boys Write
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-35741-5

~**~**~

Yester-Daze

Leeuna Foster

You know what my idea of a good day is? It's any day that I don't find my name in
the obituaries. Sometimes I'm reminded of that old country song, "I'm Hangin' By a
Thread And You Hold The Scissors".  The days keep flying by so quickly I often need  Dramamine for the motion sickness.

Each time I round a corner I'm afraid I'll bump into myself coming from the opposite direction. And so it is with most of us in this fast-paced get it done yesterday society. We have become a generation of hurriers.

I don't know why we humans think we need to get so many things done in one day;
there's always tomorrow, and if there isn't, then we won't need to worry about it
anyway. I remember when my sister and I were children, growing up in the fifties. Is
it just me or did the days seem to last a lot longer back then? And that was before
daylight savings time was invented.

We had few of the modern conveniences we have today. Nothing was automated,
everything was done manually, and it was done by a real live person and not a machine. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry back then. People had time to sit down together to talk and visit. I remember in the evenings when friends and family would gather on the front porch to rest and unwind after a long day. The grown-ups talked about grown-up things, while the children chased lightening bugs across the yard, jumped rope, played tag and Red Rover. The sky was further away and the stars were a lot bigger, the air was much fresher and ten o'clock was late. We were usually yawning and tired by the time the good-nights were all said and everyone had gone home. We would go inside and get ready for bed, happy and exhausted, secure in the knowledge that we were loved.

Everything that needed doing got done back then and yet nobody hurried. Time, for
us, wasn't measured on a clock. Instead it was measured by how long we could jump
rope without missing a step, how many wild strawberries we could find or the number
of fish we caught in one day. Time was making garlands of daisies and buttercups
to wear as jewelry, building a playhouse in the wood shed, holding the warm wiggly
body of new puppy or kitten, or discovering baby chicks newly hatched. Time wasn't
something we saved; time wasn't wasted; time was well spent.

I remember waking up early, while the dew was still heavy on the ground. Walking
barefoot through the soft grass, picking Morning Glories before they closed their faces
against the sun. Golden honeysuckle grew wild along the Nolichucky and its sweet scent filled the air, unequaled by any perfume that could ever be made by man. Butterflies added splashes of blue, yellow and brown among the white blossoms of the Mock Orange in the corner of the yard. If happy had a smell, this would have been it. If time could be relived, this would be it.

As is only natural and always expected, times have changed since my childhood.  Of course every generation says that and I'm sure it holds true for all.  I wonder if it is the fact that we were children, without the cares and responsibilities of adulthood, that makes us think life was a lot more simple back when.  I wonder if the children of today will look back on this time and remember it as "the good old days".

I smile now, remembering  how my grandma would always say "Lord ha' mercy. How everything has changed since I was a young'un. This world is going to the dogs and the children nowadays are nothing but little hellions"   I suppose we all wax a little nostalgic when we begin to look back at yesterday. Perhaps by living through a few wars and a multitude of different occupants of the White House, we've earned the right to recall 'the good old days'.

The world is a lot better today in some respects, and a lot worse in others. Technology and medicine has made tremendous progress and our lives are made better for it. We have better schools, better roads, better means of communication and better jobs.  We just need to sort out the better from the worse, use our own good judgment that the Lord gave us, and be more thankful for the simple things than we are. We need to sit on our front porch more, talk with our neighbors, maybe chase a few lightening bugs or smell the flowers.

I'm just thankful for another day that I wasn't in the obituaries. It could happen. After all, I'm only passing through this world. I don't plan on staying.

Leeuna Foster

newbizacct@yahoo.com

622 words
(c) Leeuna Foster

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." -- Robert Frost

Readers Feedback

Hi Carol

I want to congratulate you on this honor for your writing (New Book)...  I can't think of anyone more deserving...  I am so proud of you but not surprised...  Love you... Barbara

Carol,
   Thanks so much for sharing my article in Storytime today.  I already have gotten a letter
from someone who was touched by it.  Without you I would be read by far fewer people.
   I hope that your new book continues to sell and touch hearts and souls my friend.
Wishing you every joy, Joe

Thank you so much for the Happy Anniversary wishes to us.  We are in Kauai (Hawaii) celebrating our 30th Anniversary. 

It was so sweet of you to do this for us.

God bless,

Bev & Dave

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