Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

November 29, 2007

Today’s Announcement

Hi All,
Please say a prayer for my mom.  She had a stroke and then a blood clot on the brain.  She was life flighted to the hospital Thanksgiving day.  They did emergency surgery and removed the blood clot however, there was a lot of damage done.  She is in a coma and the Dr's don't think she will wake up. 

Thanks.
 
Angela Walker,
 karasaunt@yahoo.com

Dear Carol,

I do know I won a prize and that I should never be so busy I couldn’t write and say thank you!!!

Please forgive me.

Since my husband’s last stay in the hospital they decided to send home health care out to the house.

They were nothing but a pain and a chance to have my own blood sugar levels add up to 500!

Finally I fired them all and when they started talking about putting Glenn in the manor when he doesn’t want that it was the last straw.  I just hope I got rid of them for good.  I have a feeling they will be checking up

On me.  Do you know a writer who doesn’t have a jumbled room?

Anyway I do appreciate the honor and the blessing.  It was a total surprise to me.  I have been substituting at school to pick up a little pocket cash.  I love doing it, but the pay is not enough.  If I can’t get a full day

With gas so high it doesn’t pay to do it.  Isn’t that terrible?

I’ve been praying for you and want to ask you to pray for my gr. Daughter, Brandy who is 6 mos. Pg. and has cancer of the cervix.  Can’t even address that problem until our little boy is born in Feb.

Also my dau. In law in Denver is have a procedure done in her heart the 11^th of Dec.  It is very scarry so

Appreciate your prayers for Donna.

May God always draw you nearer,

Love,

Joan Clifton Costner

jody@ptsi.net

A special birthday wish goes out to Bruce Roney:  busyb460@msn.com

Important notice: Storytime Tapestry is a free e-zine, however donations are always needed to help with the operating expenses of running the newsletter and to keep Storytime Tapestry the quality newsletter you are so accustomed to.   You can make your donations to paypal at: winterose@videotron.ca, or if you would prefer to use the mail system contact the publisher at the same email address: winterose@videotron.ca

Today’s Stories

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 THE HABITS OF LOVE

By: Joseph J. Mazzella

     I stopped at the local gas station with my oldest son to fill-up my car the other day. I told him to go on in and get himself a can of pop while I pumped the gas. After I finished and got in line to pay I looked to see where he was. I soon found him by the front doors of the store. He was opening one for a woman with her arms full of groceries. He accepted her thanks with a cheerful "no problem"and quickly moved to the other door to open it for a little girl struggling to pull it out. I smiled when I saw this wonderful goodness, kindness, politeness, and helpfulness in my son. He was so full of the habits of love that it warmed my heart. I told him what a fine, young man he has become as we walked back to the car. It is something I can never tell him enough.

     The theologian John Powell once wrote that, "The habits formed in youth can become the tyrants in old age." As I look at the beautiful, loving habits of my own children I think that they can also become the blessings as well. My oldest son’s habits are so joyful and caring that everyone shines brighter when he is around. My daughter’s habits too are full of compassion, sharing, and gentleness. All that she wants to do with her life is to help others, and that is just what she does every single day. My youngest son has many habits of love as well. His habit of smiling is contagious and his habit of laughter can uplift the heaviest heart.

     You don’t have to be young, however, to form the habits of love. It is never too late to choose them. They can become your blessings not just in old age but at any age. You can start today to fill your life with the happiness they create, joy they share, and oneness with God they bring. You can open doors with your kindness, open hearts with your helpfulness, and open souls with your goodness. God gives you a lifetime to learn the habits of love and to share them with the world. May you always delight in doing so.

Joe Mazzella

joecool@wirefire.com

~**~**~
 ValueSpeak

A Weekly Column

By Joseph Walker

 valuespeak@msn.com

LET THE EXPERT RUN THE SHOW

For my friend, Claire, computers are a wonderful mystery.

She loves the informational possibilities of the Internet. She loves being able to communicate with her friends all around the world via e-mail. She loves playing Solitaire.

But she has no idea how it all works. And when it doesn’t work . . well, that’s even more of a mystery. Albeit not especially wonderful.

So when her hard drive crashed (rest in peace, you defragmented hunk of . . . well, whatever you are) she decided it was time to get a new computer. She did her research and she’s pretty sure she got a good one. It came with all sorts of bells and whistles, but it didn’t come with a good anti-virus program. And Claire has learned through bitter experience that there are few things on a computer more important than a good anti-virus program.

The frustrating thing is, she had one on her old computer. A really good one, for which she had paid handsomely. And since she had more than eight months left on the contract for this wonderful anti-virus program, she wanted to know if there was a way to get it installed on her new computer without having to purchase new software or without having to take it in to the VooDoo Computer Shop – or the nearest teenager, whichever came first.

She made a few phone calls. She got bounced from service representative to technician back to service representative again. Eventually she learned from a technician in India – hey, I TOLD you that she got bounced around a lot – that they could download the program to her new computer through the Internet, but she would have to allow them to take control of her keyboard for a few minutes. She didn’t really understand how they could do that, but she figured if it meant she could get her anti-virus program installed it was worth a try.

A box suddenly appeared on her screen, asking her permission for the technician to take over her computer.

“At first it was a little frightening,” Claire said. “It was like they were inside my computer talking to me. I couldn’t help but wonder what else they could see in there.”

Still, she went ahead and clicked the “yes” box and allowed the woman in India to have her way with her computer.

“It was amazing to watch that little arrow moving around my screen as I sat there with my hands in my lap,” Claire said. “Even though she was thousands of miles away the technician was scanning things and accessing whatever she needed as she moved deftly through the process. I had no idea what she was doing, but clearly she did. So I just turned my computer over to her and let her do what she needed to do.”

In just a few minutes the job was done, and control of the computer was returned to Claire, good as new.

In fact, BETTER than new.

As she sat at her keyboard enjoying her new, safe computer, Claire couldn’t help but see a profound lesson for herself in her own, non-cybernetic life.

“There is no way I could have done all of that myself,” she said. “Not in a million years. All that clicking, controlling all of those menus, going places that I didn’t even know existed on my computer – there’s no way I could have done that, not even with a book of instructions. The best and safest thing for me to do was to back off and let an expert run the show.

“And it seems to me that it’s the same way with God,” she continued. “While we do a pretty good job with our lives most of the time, there are moments when we’re in way over our heads. At such times it’s probably a good idea to turn the controls over to Him, and then to back off and let the Expert run the show. After all, it’s His show, and He knows what He’s doing.”

Even though sometimes it’s all a wonderful mystery to us.

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

Hannah’s Prayer

Tanja Cilia 

My tears are bitter

My lips move but I’m silent

I pour out my soul.

That day in Shiloh

The Lord heard my heartfelt pray’r

He anointed me,

My pray’r had purpose

Samuel means “I begged the Lord”

My anguish is gone.

His praise I will sing

My womb is no longer closed

My son will be His.

I’m blessed with His grace

I offer him my Firstborn

Through my suffering

In my soundless pray’rs

He saw my sincerity

Zebaoth is good.

Tanja Cilia

tanjachilja@hotmail.com

~**~**~

  City Smells Acrostic

Tanja Cilia


Coffee brewing – heavenly aroma

Ice-cream van shrieks vanilla and lemon sorbet bouquet

The garbage piles hum up a stink

You can see the smog and smell the stench



Sunday roast leftovers’ escaping scent

Mingle with boiled cabbage niff

Empty cans of beer dribble sour pong

Lacklustre cardboard pizza boxes reek, but

Look at it this way:

Smells are a melodious cacophony.

Tanja Cilia

tanjachilja@hotmail.com

Readers Feedback

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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, Charlotte Hilliard, Maria Keller