STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

June 25, 2005  

Happy Birthday Gabby Nicholls  Morgan from you friends at Storytime Tapestry.

Now on to the good stuff..........

Animal awareness series endorsed by Shiloh and Hank our mascots; all stories must receive their approval.

Does A Dog Worry?

Bill Walker

wildbill6807@yahoo.com

Does a dog worry?, sure they worry, worry a lot about things. Starts out right the first day of life.  How come I got the last place at the dinner table? That would be a big worry. My mother must like the rest of this mob better then poor little me.

When it picks you out to go home with, it starts to worry about you. You funny, there is many funny things about you. Poor puppy gets to worrying if your normal. You seem to have things to do at times, when you should be playing with poor puppy.. Why did you stop to pet that  hound dog,  when you got poor little ole me?  Where did you go, and left me here?  You was gone a long time, all of a whole hour?  Whats in that sack, anything for poor little ole me?

For the most part puppy don't worry about things like dollar bills. They will live with having you for better or worse of times.  They took you for that. Will live with that.  They have not heard of  court house where the knot can be untied.  You may have, they took you, hope you never leave them. You know some do, when the new wears off they part company with the puppy, kind of like trading their mates.

After puppy get to the place they are to live, and a few days of figuring things out. It is their place.  The house, the yard, the car, what ever is theirs.   They start to figure this is part of it. They guard what ever is theirs.  Who is that stranger that is ringing the door bell, and for what reason?  This is a worry, hope they leave as fast as they showed up. Puppy knows there isn't enough food to feed that pot belly. That is a small worry you know?

Puppy will worry about you, You feel bad, puppy knows it.  You seem to be having a bad hair day, puppy knows it. You have any kind of problem, and are wondering how to handed it, puppy seems to know something isn't just right.

You might get upset with puppy about something.  Maybe poor puppy couldn't help it, you were gone to long, puppy does need to go to the West Room too once in a while. You have a fit about having to clean up after poor puppy.  Puppy will forgive you, you may not forgive poor puppy.

Puppy lives so long, and all at once is old and feeble.  In it's last days, it worries about how are you going to make it with out poor puppy.  It has been your joy and it has seen you through some good times, some bad times, some happy times,  and sad ones too..  Yes puppy does worry. 

When it's time does come, it will walk through the door, look back, and say "Thanks"  Then it will go into the unknown, to set at Rainbow Bridge and wait for that happy day when you come too.  It will come on a fast trot to meet you and walk over the Bridge together. To the land of no more worries.

Well I??™m a story teller, not a writer. Never learned the art of fancy English. I

happen to live in Nebraska, but I??™m still Missouri. Never married, all the Dollies I

ever took a second look at was too smart. Now at 74, just turned that other day, I

figure they all home safe. I love Doggies and Dollies in that order. Lost my two

true friends this year, that be Tinker and Poo. So I found me a new one. This

time a little girlie Peke. She is a normal female. Got a mouth, talks all the time.

She will never be a great writers of stories like Tinker and Poo. They have

about 50 stories on HWS. And now writing back from Rainbow Bridge.

I just try to write about people, places and things best I remember. Have something

over 250 stories on HWS. under three names.   

Today's Queue Stories
~**~**~**~

 The Geraniums

Kay Seefeldt

Geraniums are the houseplants of grandmothers. My mother couldn??™t stand
the scent of them.  Geraniums and marigolds were two flowers she
couldn??™t tolerate. As a kid, I tended to agree with her.  They were a
far cry from roses.

As the years past like sand through the hour glass, I didn??™t give
geraniums more than a passing thought.  While I was in France with my
Army husband, I planted flowers by our front door step.  No geraniums
or marigolds...only sweet scented flowers.

While pulling weeds from my small garden one day in June, my husband
arrived home just before noon to tell me my grandmother was ill and in
the hospital.  Of course, my first thought was getting home to see her,
but I was way ???too pregnant??? for the airlines to allow my emergency
flight to the states.  When we got word that my grandmother had passed
away, I went into false labor. Later that week, I delivered my precious
daughter.

When Lorena was a year old, we were finally shipped back to American
soil. It was a bitter sweet home coming because my beloved grandmother
wouldn??™t be there to welcome us back.  My two younger children would
never know her or be held and hugged by her.

While ???showing off??? my three children to my favorite uncle, he asked me
if I??™d like a ???trinket??? from Grammie??™s jewelry box, I was thrilled to
be able to visit Grammie??™s house once again.  I??™d spent many happy
childhood hours there.  Playing the piano, playing Monopoly with Uncle
Reggie, Grammie??™s bachelor son, or exploring the magical upstairs of
Grammie??™s sea captain type house and marveling over the beautiful hand
pieced quilts and crocheted bedspreads, the oak dresser with oval
mirror, and bath tub with feet. I loved looking from the alcove window
in Grammie??™s downstairs bedroom to watch fisherman as they came to sell
their lobsters at my uncle??™s wharf. I loved sitting at the window seat
in the dining room and looking out at the ever changing ocean as sea
gulls glided overhead making their gull noises for Grammie to toss them
a tidbit.  To me her house was truly an elegant place to be.  The first
time I slept over in the guest bedroom, I felt like a princess right
out of a fairy tale.

Her house was always filled with intriguing smells. Cookies, pies and
cakes, Evening in Paris cologne in deep blue bottles, Spic and Span,
and her ever present house plants.  Easter Lilies, geraniums, and a
huge, gorgeous Christmas cactus I coveted.  Grammie had had the cactus
for eons, and she??™d given me many slips from it to start. Every time
one succumbed, she??™d give me another and warn me again not to over
water it.

When, at last, the door to Grammie??™s house was swung opened, though my
mind knew better, my heart expected her welcoming arms to reach out to
us and pull us into her inviting kitchen.  ???Sit a spell and have a
piece of pie,??? I could hear her say.

What I didn??™t expect, after her home had been closed up for over a
year, was to be greeted by the spicy scent of geraniums.  It seemed as
if the house had been holding its breath all that time, and when the
door was opened, it exhaled. The powerful scent of geranium washed over
my very soul like a crashing wave from the Atlantic at the height of a
storm.

In fact, in her last letter to me, she??™d told about a storm that had
battered our small island and hoped I wouldn??™t get the strong winds. I
sort of chuckled over it then, thinking Grammie didn??™t realize just how
far away from her storm I was.  The night before Grammie??™s passing, a
strong wind shook the cement walled house we lived in and caused me a
restless night. The morning was peaceful, sunny and bright.  When I
noticed our Spanish neighbor across the street, I commented about the
howling wind of the night before. He looked at me rather strangely and
told me he??™d been up several times during the night and added in broken
English, ???No Honey, calm...No wind last night.???  When the news of
Grammie??™s passing came, I wasn??™t surprised. I felt the wind had been
forewarning me of the sad news to come.

Had the geranium scent really lingered in Grammie's house all that
time? Or had it been tucked into the recesses of my memory waiting for
the right moment to emerge?  Whether the geranium scent was real or
imagined, it spoke volumes to me.  Grammie??™s physical presence may be
missing from my life, but the essence of her love like perfume from a
beautiful rose would remain in my heart forever.

?© Kay Seefeldt, 3/7/05
birdnest @ megalink.net

Kay, a 26 year veteran middle school teacher, has contributed several
stories to Petwarmers, Gardenwarmers, 2theHeart, and Storytime
Tapestry: ???The Artificial Limb,??? ???F.R.O.G.,??? ???Tiny Troubles,??? "The
Christmas Exchange," ???Harbinger of Hope.???  This tribute to her
grandmother was inspired from coming across a marvelous painting of a
geranium while surfing the web.  Kay, who usually prefers landscapes or
abstract, painted a single pink rose and titled it ???Grammie Rose??? in
honor of her wonderfully, encouraging and loving grandmother Rose
Woodward. Kay enjoys teaching adults and believes anyone can learn the
techniques of watercolor who has the desire.  She wants her students,
not to strive for  perfection, but enjoy the freedom of creative
expression.

  ~**~**~

 Love is in the Air!

By Robyn Cavalera

Do you remember your very first/ or only love? Myself, I don't, but many tell me they still remember/live with, that person. So I will use the descriptions they have given me. It is like there is no one else in the room. Just you and the one you love. You heart beats fast, your face gets flush. There is excitement in the aspect of being together alone. Thoughts of them consume your every waking moment, and at times you feel like you would lose your mind if they were not there. Now many of you would say you can relate with at least parts of this description of "true love." I myself however, can not! Never been there, never felt that!

I often wondered what this thing called "love" was. I heard my friends talk of it. I heard my Mother say it did not exist, you just married and endured it (ugh). I have to honestly say, I do not think I ever really "felt" it. My grand mother told me once that she did not "love" my Pop-pop when they met. Yet, by the time they married, they were friends. She told me as the years progressed, she grew to love him very deeply. Enough so that when He died, My Nana thought of no one else after that. So this makes me really wonder. Either there is some thing very wrong with me, or "love" is not something we really "feel" but rather "grow" within us. I know I "love" my children and Grand-children. I know this, as I would lay down my life for them if necessary. Yet, I would wonder even more about myself, if I did love them as many have described "love" to me. As we all know, those kinds of feeling toward a child or grand-child would be wrong, not to mention illegal. So as I began to ponder what was wrong with me, and why have I never "felt" the kind of "love" others have spoken of; I also began to worry as I asked myself "Do I actually LOVE Jesus?"

I have read and re-read Song of Solomon so many times. I think how wonderful to have a man so in love with me, that he would think of me in those terms. To be like the woman, consumed with passion and desire for the man, as she was.

Now many may be wondering by now, "what is she trying to get at here?" Well this is it.

I do not know what "love" feels like, but I do know what God "says" His Love is like, through the Bible, and Song of Solomon. I myself have no "experiential" feelings or responses to relate to, for this thing called "love". I have never "seen" Jesus. I have never physically "touched" Jesus, or felt His touch, or fell deeply into His strong arms and got swallowed up in the embrace (to my physical senses or memory). Oh, in my mind and thoughts I have, (I have a great capacity for imagination!), but not physically. So for me, the thought or my imagination, has been all I have to relate to. Let me interject here what "experiential" is. It is what human brains use to bring forth a memory or feeling. We can not understand or know anything we have not experienced. All we are is a human with a mind that calls on experiences to make judgements, understand something and what it is, or find answers to things we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. These experiential happenings are what spark memories of things both good and bad. For example: Every time I eat a wintergreen life saver, I get this very calm/soothing feeling. Why? My father used to give them to me in church as a child. It brings forth the only good memory I have of the times I "felt" like my father loved me.

Now, to continue, I know I can not be the only living human with this "problem" so to say of never experiencing "love". Therefore, I am speaking to those like myself who have never "felt" or experienced this thing called "love". Thus my quest has begun to try and understand what "love" really is, and if I have the capacity to "love" any one or any thing really for that matter, especially Jesus! I have nothing to draw on to bring forth the "feeling" of love other than the way I "feel" about my own children and grand-children. I also have one friend, Marijane, whom I feel I deeply love and trust. It was this very person that Jesus used to teach me a little of what love was in the beginning. I remember Him clearly saying do you know of anyone in your life, that you think you love or trust?" I replied "yes Lord, my friend Marijane." He then told me to think of HIM in this capacity. I did, and that worked for me for a time. I was able to draw on what experience I had through all my years with Marijane. The fact that she remained my friend through every thing. No matter how bad or good. That I was always comfortable with her. That even when I had not seen her for 5 years, I would walk into her home, sit myself down, and we could continue a conversation we had left off at 5 years ago, like no time had passed at all. So I began by experiencing God as my friend. Later He told me it was time to know ABBA "Daddy". That one was rough. The first Words Jesus said to me then were, (and I'll never forget them) "You, Robyn, are Daddy's little girl!" My heart jumped 12 feet. Oh how I had longed all my life for my father to say those words to me, but he never did. So, once again, I had no experience to draw on of a fathers love. My father was distant and never held me or said he "loved" me. He was an alcoholic and was never home. The only thing I had to draw on was the "wintergreen" life savers and my dad before his alcoholism, when he took me to church. Since that was my only "good" memory, I used that to draw on and learned to see ABBA Daddy as best I knew how. However that became a problem in some ways. My dad gave me the life-savers to keep me "quiet" in church. He would let me stand on the pew, and he would wrap his arm around me so I would not fall, (I thought that was wonderful) as we sang. But when that was over (the music) he made me sit and fed me lifesavers. No more holding or touching at all. I grew up to think this was "daddy" type love. "If we are singing Praise music, I will touch you, but then afterward, sit down and be quiet!" It was a rough place to imagine for me or to "feel" for that matter, but I worked hard at it! I had no sooner got this ABBA Daddy thing down pretty good, when HE hits me with "time to grow up Robyn, and be My Bride". Now I knew I was in trouble. I married my husband, and thought I loved him, but I can not recall any experience to confirm that "feeling". So now, I just had to use my imagination, and try to "wing it". That is the point I am at now. Trying to relate to "true love". I want my heart and soul to be madly, passionately, crazy in LOVE with Jesus! "Lord, how can I know and "experience" love for YOU?"

Then it hit me. Or should I say Holy Spirit hit me with a revelation.

"Love" is not something you feel, Love is something that just IS. Love is confidence in the person it is directed at. Love is being sure of their trustworthiness. Love is being able to say yes to them, no matter how it feels or looks to the senses. Love is believing they have your best interest in mind. That all they do you can be sure is for your best, and will never harm you. Love is not worried if they will "cheat" on you or leave you. Love is knowing, in your heart, that no matter where you go the person who loves you will be there for you! God IS Love. His Word says so. So now I can draw on what I have "seen" what His Word says "love" is. However, I have never "felt" love. So now I am faced with a new problem. "How do I know I am IN LOVE with Jesus, my Husband, if I have never felt love to a husband.

I am trying to be brutally honest here friends. I have never felt love, yet I want and wanted to feel that kind of love towards Jesus so badly I could taste it! Suddenly Holy Spirit hit me again. "Read 1 Corinthians 13 Robyn" I "read" over again what the Word says "love" is:

1Co 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

1Co 13:2 And if I have prophecies, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1Co 13:3 And if I give out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I be burned, but I do not have love, I am not profited anything.

1Co 13:4 Love has patience, is kind; love is not envious; love is not vain, is not puffed up;

1Co 13:5 does not behave indecently, does not pursue its own things, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;

1Co 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth.

1Co 13:7 Love quietly covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1Co 13:8 Love never fails....

Love has patience. (OK, my son says he never knew I had such patience!)

Love is kind. (Thanks to Jesus, people tell me all the time how kind I am! Hummmm.)

Love does not seek it's own desires but puts the needs of others before its own. Love is generous and giving.

(I believe I honestly have this one down, but still have to learn how to "receive" love from others also.)

" Love is never jealous or envious. (No problem...I am God's favorite kid!!!) ((Check your envy on that though people! hehehe))

Love does not get angry. LOVE always forgives. (Hummmm... got to work more on these two for sure!!)

Love sees the best in all people. (Opps...ouch, not quite there yet, but trying!)

Love never judges others. ( Double ouch...I'm taking the fifth amendment on this one!)

Love is never critical. ( Ouch ouch again!!)

Love does not boast or act with vain pride. ( Well I don't believe I am prideful, but then worm pride is bad too!)

Love hates sin, yet loves the sinner as Christ does. (I love as best I know how!)

Love does not expose another's sin loudly, but prays in secret for the person. (Been trying to do that, I have failed in the past though.)

Love believes all things it reads in the Word of God. (That I am sure of in my life!)

Love hopes for all His Word to be fulfilled, and endures to see that fulfillment of God's Kingdom.till it comes. (MARANATHA, come soon Lord Jesus!)

Love....Real "LOVE" never fails!

Whoa!! Revelation!!

Love is not a feeling at all!!! Love is an action word. A verb that needs to be moved to be real!! When the attributes God speaks of, show up through me in my life, I am living IN LOVE!! God's LOVE!!! Now it was coming together! I may never have been "in love", but I understand kindness and forgiveness. I have never felt love, but I have felt compassion and mercy! I have never experienced "true Love", but I have experienced the Love of God toward me in forgiveness, and washing of my sins. You see, I was looking all this time to "feel" love for Jesus! While all this time, HE was showing me I already do love Him, if I do what His Word says to do. That obedience to His will and Word, and the way I treat others, IS LOVE!

So, I guess my quest has finally ended. I now know I can not know or understand the "feeling" of love physically, but I do know and do feel the rewards of becoming the "action" of LOVE to others, and that means I love Jesus! Enough so, to allow Him to use me as a way to move and "show" His most Glorious Attribute of all....LOVE!!!!

Move over "goose bumps, flushed face, mad passion of the flesh, and twirly stomach stuff", I know now what real Love is!

JESUS!!!! in me!!!!!!!

Robyn Cavalera
321-268-0390
robyajesusfreak@bellsouth.net
"Wake up oh sleeper from your slumber and arise,
for the great day of the Lord is upon us!!!
MARANATHA  " Ishi " saved
" yesha  ye^sha " liberty, deliverance, prosperity
http://www.ilovejesus.com/worship/swpw/peace.html

~**~**~

ValueSpeak

A Weekly Column

By Joseph Walker

valuespeak@msn.com

THE GEEZER IN THE GLASS

Joseph Walker

            So I??™m walking across the college campus feeling very . . . you know . . collegiate.

            I??™m wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and tennis shoes, so I??™m certainly dressed for the part.  My book bag is slung over my shoulder, and my hair is badly in need of a trim.  Strolling among the students it all begins to feel familiar, like I??™ve been here before . . . which, of course, I have.  Twenty-six years ago, to be precise.  Only from this side of my bifocals it doesn??™t feel like it??™s been that long.  Everything looks the same.  I??™m home again.  Joe College.

            Except for one thing: I can??™t remember if the library is on this side of the book store, or if it??™s over there.  I stop at a campus map to refresh my memory.  Suddenly I notice this cute co-ed giving me . . . you know . . . The Look.  At first I think maybe I??™m mistaken, so I look away.  Maybe we had a class together or something.  After all, it was only a few years ago . . .

            I glance back.  She??™s still looking.  She begins to move toward me. Poor thing.  How can I let her down easily?

            ???Excuse me, sir,??? she says.

            Sir?

            She continues: ???I couldn??™t help but notice . . ???

            ???Yes???? I interrupted anxiously.

            ???You look a little lost.  May I help you????

            I recognize her tone of voice, and I??™m relieved and devastated all at once.  It??™s that same condescending tone we all use with the very young ??“ and the very old.

            ???I think I??™ve got it figured out ??“ thanks anyway,??? I say, fighting off an overwhelming urge to call her ???dearie.???  She starts to leave, but I stop her.  ???You know, you look awfully familiar to me,??? I say.  ???Didn??™t we have a class together a few years ago????

            She eyes me warily.  ???I don??™t know,??? she says.  ???When were you here????

            ???My last year was 1979.???

            She smiles kindly.  ???Sorry,??? she says as she turns to leave, ???but I wasn??™t born until 1984.???

            For some reason, there??™s a little less bounce in my step as I trudge wearily to the library.  Walking past the book store, I notice in the glass window a reflection of this old guy wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and tennis shoes.  ???What is it???? I wonder.  ???Geezer Day or something????

            Then I study the reflection more carefully.  The geezer in the glass is me.  I keep forgetting what the years have done to me.  In my mind I??™m still the svelte sophomore who prowled the campus 26 years ago.  In fact, I don??™t feel any different today than I did in high school.  But then I step on the basketball court and try to keep up with my 7^th grade son, or I try to follow my 15-year-old daughter??™s peculiar brand of logic (???It??™s OK if I don??™t wear a jacket in the middle of winter because nobody else is wearing one so nobody is any colder than anyone else???) and I realize that I AM different.  My body is different, my mind works through problems differently and many of my values and perspectives are vastly different than they used to be.

            And that isn??™t such a bad thing, is it?  Life is seasonal, and the ebb and flow of the seasons of our lives brings about change ??“ physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and socially.  Not only would life be boring if everything always stayed the same, but there would also be precious little progress.  And so we age.  And we change.  And hopefully, we grow.

            Which may sound like a long-winded way of justifying the physical deterioration I have allowed to happen to myself through the years.  But it isn??™t.  Not really.  It??™s a way of looking at life, accepting its seasonal variances and embracing the wondrous opportunity of change.

            And while you??™re at it, learning to recognize and appreciate the geezer in the glass.