STORYTIME TAPESTRY

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

? 

? 

Aug 30, 2005? 

? 

? 

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

? 

? 

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

? 

SHARK

Sharon Bryant

? 

We decided to take a vacation to Florida that year, back in '85.?  My kids were four and six at the time.?  Hubby once lived? in Florida? and knew about a nice beach? that tourists were not aware of in the Tampa area.? 

? 

We packed? lunches and loaded ice tea and bottled water and cokes into a cooler that hot sunny morning.

The kids were excited as we neared the area.? 

When we arrived at the lake, I looked around at the beautiful scenery.?  Palm trees waving in the gentle wind, white sandy beach; everything was beautiful.

? 

I spread a large blanket on the sand, got the cooler out of the vehicle, and told the kids to stay close to the edge of the water.?  I saw fishermen down the beach casting out their lines and other people had arrived and were also laying out blankets for a day of fun in the sun.

Hubby had brought his fishing pole and had walked down the beach about an hundred yards from where the kids and I were.

? 

The kids collected seashells and each time they found one they ran to me, telling me to add it to their collection.?  We had a little bucket which was filling rather rapidly with all the shells.?  My daughter found a shark's tooth and was so excited.? ? I wondered how old it was.?  I knew sharks didn't come into this area, hubby had told me it was a safe place for kids to swim, so sharks was the last thing on my mind.

? 

I had just popped open a can of diet coke.?  I was about eight foot from the water's edge.?  The kids were in the water up to their knees and I told them that was as far as they could go.?  I was sipping on my diet coke when I noticed something moving in the water about fifty feet away from the kids.?  At first it looked like a piece of gray plastic floating but then I saw it go under the water.?  I kept my eyes on the area when suddenly the gray thing popped up out of the water, only this time it was sticking up higher.?  I saw the fin.?  Suddenly I saw another, then another.?  I jumped up and ran for the kids screaming at them, "Get out of the water, get out NOW!"?  Both kids scrambled for the sand.?  A woman lying on a nearby blanket yelled, "What's wrong?"?  "SHARK!" I screamed and pointed.?  "Oh my God, it IS sharks." she yelled.?  Suddenly both of us were screaming our heads off, "SHARK, SHARK."?  Everyone in the water scrambled for the shoreline.? ?  The men fishing caught wind of it and all were running as fast as they could to get to their wives and kids who were all laying on the beach as I was.

Then my husband came running.?  "What's wrong?" he yelled.?  "There's three sharks out there, this place DOES have sharks in the water here." I said.?  Everyone had their eyes glued on the three fins that were still sticking up out of the water.

? 

Then suddenly in front of all of us, all three fins disappeared and in the blink of an eye, they appeared again only this time the whole body surfaced of all three.?  And we all watched as three beautiful dolphins? jumped out of the water in formation to dive back into the water.

? 

Hubby looked at me and said, "Those are DOLPHINS, not SHARKS!"?  I knew it when I saw their whole bodies come out of the water, but when you see just a fin, what would anyone think??  So I said, "Hey, all I saw was the fins, how was I supposed to know if it's a shark or a dolphin?"

? 

After that incident and when all the laughter died down, I made myself a promise.?  The next time we went swimming, it would be in a pool!

? 

Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

? 

About Me:

? 

? I am Sharon Bryant,? 59 years old and reside in Alabama.

I lost my child in 1977 when he was five and I write
articles on bereavement often.

I am a chocolate/candy maker and also a wood crafter and knitter.

I am married to a wonderful man, and have two remaining children, a daughter 25,
Amy, and a second son, Randy, age 22.

My main goal in life is to help those who
have lost a child. My website is: www.angelsremembered.tk

? 

? 

? 

? 

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

? 

? 

Setting the Fairies Free

Cheri Carlson

You know those pesky flowers, some call them weeds, that crop up everywhere and when they age, grow grey with their seeds.....just waiting for a breeze to take them to flight? Dandelions they are called, but they have not always fluffed up like they do. No indeed, they used to be like other flowers, wilting as they aged, turning brown and dying.

See, how it happened was, once a long long time ago, when fairies granted wishes and dandelions were simply flowers, there lived a really wicked witch, the very last of her kind, named Magdelion. Her magic, which was dark and evil, was quickly fading. She read every evil spell book she could find, trying to find a way to get her magic back full force. She had alot of really mean things she wanted to do to the world. One day, she read in the Evil Witches Gazette, that the reason all the evil was leaving the world was because of all the good that the world was doing. She found out that the fairies in her land granted wishes to truly good people, so every time a fairy granted a wish, more evil disapeared.
Well! She surely couldn't have this and set out with a plan to destroy all the fairies. Her limited magic wouldn't work against the goodness of the fairies so she had to be very tricky.

After staying up many nights she finally came up with an idea. She changed herself into a little girl, looking all innocent and cute and went to a place where she knew fairies liked to play at a clearing in the woods nearby. It was very difficult for her to pretend she was a nice little girl, but she did just that, sitting at the edge of the clearing, watching the fairies dance and play. A fairy named Jessica flitted over after awhile and invited her to join in. Gee, if Magdelion thought pretending to be good was tough, dancing with the fairies went against everything mean in her wicked heart, but she had to prove she was sweet and innocent. So she kinda skiped around a little, kinda swaying to and fro to the pan flute, hating ever minute of it.
It did not last long though. The music stopped suddenly when a voice called out, "Help me, I'm stuck"! Poor little Jessica had gotten her wing caught in a spider's web....and the more the other fairies tried to untangle her, the more stuck she became.
Now personally, Magdelion could care less and wished they all would get stuck, but here was her chance to convince them she was good.
Quickly she got out the little knife in her basket that she was using to cut flowers, and very soon had Jessica freed. "Oh thank you!" Jessica cried! "You are such a good person. How can we thank you?"
"Well....", she tried to sound hesitant, "I do have a wish".
"Our wishes are used only for good", Jessica replied.
"This is about flowers and making the world beautiful", Magdelion explained.
"In that case, speak your wish and it will be granted", said Jessica.
"I wish to have the ability to make flowers".... she simply stated. With a smile, Jessica wrinkled up her little fairy nose, closed her eyes and wriggled her fairy ears. Sparkling fairy dust covered Magdelion.
"Now, let's see what kind of flowers you create", the fairies all gathered around, anxious to see what this sweet litle girl would do with her new power. Closer they gathered, watching as Magdelion opened her arms wide, then POOF!!!, suddenly there were no more fairies! In their places stood the common dandelions. Laughing wickedly and dancing with glee, Magdelion left the clearing and went in search of other fairies to transform.
Every fairy she met, misled by her innocent disguise was soon a buttery yellow flower.

With no fairy wishes being granted, darkness and evil were very soon returning to the land. Having seen no fairies. people believed they no longer existed, and stoped wishing for things to get better.
What Magdelion didn't know though, is though she was evil, combined with the goodness of a fairy wish, her spell couldn't keep the fairies flowers for long. When the flower naturally died out, then the faires would appear atop it. Stuck in the petals base. Occasionally a strong breeze would come along and set them free, and they would quickly fly home to the fairy kingdom...too afraid that the evil witch would find them and turn them into flowers again. But many fairies died stuck in the flowers....

One day, a little girl named Katie Rose,specially good in these dark times and so aptly named after a sweet flower herself, was playing in her yard and she heard small voices. "Please, please set us free!" she heard. It took her awhile until she realized the sound was coming from the ugly grey remains of a dandelion. Peering very closely.... she realized the grey fluff was little fairies. She picked the flower, shaking it until all the grey fuzz was freed. Quickly she went from flower to flower, repeating this....until the very last one. As she bent to pick it, she heard a voice call "Stop!"
"Don't you want free?" she asked.
"Yes, of course we do, but make a wish and blow us into the wind."
"But I have no wishes," said the happy little girl. "I only want to help you".
"You must make wishes so that we can grant them, for with every wish we make, evil will fade. "
"Can't you just go find people who need wishes after I free you?"
"No, we must hurry back to the fairy kingdom, for once we're free, evil Magdelion may see us and turn us back into flowers. Some become flowers many times before they make it home.... and some never make it home."
So, Katie Rose closed her eyes, made a wish and blew with all her might.....clearing the flower and watching the fairies take flight.


In Spring and in the summer
While you're out at play
You may come upon a flower
Fuzzed and colored grey

Could be some little fairies
Trapped by a witches glee
Take a single moment
To set the fairies free

But think first of a wish
For wishing makes evil fade
Good thoughts and magic
Must be here to stay

Make a wish and close your eyes
Blow with all your might
Open them and watch
As the fairies then take flight

Never miss a single chance
Wherever you may roam
To make a wish and set them free
And wish them safely home.

Cheri'

I created this bit of fun and fantasy when my oldest was little. 20 years and countless fairy flowers later, I finally set it to paper.
Peace and fairy wishes to all who read this.
Cheri' C.? (Bown) Carlson? 
April 2003

Cheri' C. Carlson

One_Unicorn26201 @yahoo.com

I'm a 40 year old mother of 13 who despite trials and tears, has found much in life to laugh and love about. I discovered on the internet, an outlet for many thoughts and feelings that the outside world looked down their noses at. There I found acceptance and love.

In sharing my stories about my kids, views on the world, personal experiences and poetry, I also found numerous others who felt like I did. Too unique to be normal. Not comfortable with the way people hid their beautiful selves because of what others might think, I wrote a series of "Love Yourself " articles beginning with "Dare to Be Different".

I have to date written over 100 poems, essays and recently, children's stories, all floating around on the internet. I hope to some day be published.

My husband of 13 months and I live with our 5 kids left at home, here in central Indiana. We dream of going back to my home of West Virginia when the timing is right

http://oneunicorn.250free.com/Poetry/Wildflowers.html

? 

~**~**~? 

? The Changing World

Dianna Doles Petry

My morning started about like any other morning around here; making the trip to take the boys to school, picking up a little girl to watch until time for her to go to school and then coming home to fix breakfast for my mother and myself.

? 

This morning, while looking out of the kitchen window as I fixed my first pot of coffee, I saw the new neighbors moving into the house on the hill just above me. Normally, this would not have held my attention since it's a very small town and I already knew the couple moving in but this morning, they had my full attention.

? 

First of all, the house hit the market a few weeks before because the elderly woman who had owned it for the last thirty-five years could no longer get up and down the cinder block steps leading up the hill to the house. Also, the house was falling apart a little at a time with no one to do repairs so her children moved her into a smaller rental house closer to their own homes. To cut to the important part of the story, the house was sold for a mere fifteen thousand dollars so you have some idea of it's condition.

? 

What had captured my attention and continued to hold it was the fact that they were still moving into the house and furniture was sitting along the hill and on the walking area at the top of the steps and the parents were constructing something in the yard. While they were building this, at the time still unknown, shed or building of some type, they were yelling at each other. "Get the mud out of your ears and go get my hammer," I heard first.

? 

I watched them toss lumber, yell obscenities at each other and practically come to blows and then I saw what was being built. As I said, they bought a fifteen thousand dollar house that is on the side of a hill and looks like nothing more than chicken wire is keeping it from sliding off of the hill. To the side of the house, they were building a little girls playhouse.

? 

Now this is no ordinary playhouse! This is a miniature log cabin about 12 x 12, complete with a front porch. As the day went along and the screaming and cursing continued, I ended up shutting my kitchen door and closing my windows. Is this what this family will be like all the time?

? 

When I went out to do the banking today and pick up the mail, my son got a credit card offer. I thought it was amusing and left it on the dining room table. He is fifteen-years-old and lives on an allowance and what he earns working for the lawn care service.

? 

After school, when he found it, he called the people to yank their chains........but I ended up being yanked myself! They assured him that he was indeed eligible for a Mastercard. The law only states that a parent or guardian is responsible for a? juvenile debts until he turns of age but they are not ineligible for credit if they have the means to repay the debt. Christopher was already seeing a new pick-up truck in his future when I snatched the telephone from him.

? 

You know, my father was seventy-years-old when he died in 1989. He had never owned a credit card at all and if my mother placed an order with Sears and Roebuck, you can bet it wasn't going to be picked up without cash in hand. How did we get to the point of not being able to survive without a credit card and who in the blazes decided that plunging young people into debt before they even finish high school is a good thing?

? 

I see young people coming out of the school and jumping into thirty-thousand dollar vehicles as if they were picking up a two-cent piece of bubble gum! How can we teach our children how to be frugal when we give them everything they see or want? Do they really need cell phones and pagers every minute of the day?

? 

Above me is now a little girl living in a house that is barely standing but she has a playhouse worth several thousands of dollars because it's what she wants. Sheesh, I remember my pretend playhouses. We had cardboard boxes or simply a spot under the old shade tree with no walls at all. We picked daisies to pretend we were cooking in whatever we could find to be a makeshift pot. Of course, a good rain meant we could make mud pies or mud cakes and it was fun! An old quilt spread on the ground was often the "floor" of our playhouse and we played for hours with dolls or just other children. The only problem we had was where we were going to play the next day and who was going to be it in a game of tag.

? 

Why is it that people want to shove the children out of those carefree days when life is fun? Clothes are too expensive to get them dirty digging. Television and video games have replaced chasing lizards and trying to snatch crawdads from the creek. Little girls are warned about little boys before they have their second set of teeth and little boys are made to think they must conquer the female population before he's been potty trained. Gee!

? 

Back to the rest of the day here, I finally cooked dinner and we had a real sit down meal. We talked about the day at school and plans for the summer. Right now they are eager for school to be out but I can already hear "I'm bored" heading this way!

? 

Okay, I'll close for now and please forgive my rambling. Sometimes I just look around me and I wonder how people got to this point in the world.

? 

Dianna Doles Petry

Dianna59@charter.net

? 

Proud founder of:
Women With A Unique Soul
www.womenwithauniquesoul.com
Webmaster of Short Stories
http://diannapetry.tripod.com
Webmaster of Poetry From Life
http://www.geocities.com/diannawv/
Poems By Dianna
http://members.tripod.com/~poemsbydianna/PoetryofLife.html

? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ?  ? ? ? 

? 

? 

? ? ~**~**~

? 

? 

Poetry Section

~**~**~

? ? I wrote this when I was 17, and on my path to recovery.

Life

Christina Hymes

I have never questioned the
existence of your life,
nor the way I live mine.
I have never realized that life is
mine to mold in to clay figures.
To walk down distance paths paved with
florescent gold;
to inhale the succulent life as if
it were a blooming rose...
just inhaling the beauty and the
course of its growth.

To realize that I am the clear waters
guiding a boat,
I lead my life even though the path
is weak as a thousand year old home,
ready to crumble and break its bones.

? 

? 

? 

? ~**~**~

Martin Luther King Jr.

Christina Hymes

? 

You are a man whom stands tall
You never let anything fall
For you are a man of perfection
A man who shows affection
A man who lets freedom ring
A man who lets people sing
Sing of joy for freedom rings
Rings with triumphs and stands tall
A man who spoke for one and all
A man who never let freedom fall
A man who had the world in his palms
A man who stands before all
For this man showed that we all can get along

? 

? ~**~**~

Vacation With My Man
Christina Hymes

Ripples sway my way,
like the butterflies
that hide in my stomach.
Bursting out to me.
Its coldness sweeps
memories across the seams
of my dress.
His hands feel rough
like an Oak tree.
But his heart is tender
as a serenading melody.
We walk hand in hand
down the beach.
Screaming, "WE ARE FREE"
for everyone to hear.

Christina Hymes
CDRC Marketing Assistant
hymc0001@unf.edu

Christina Hymes was born in Bethesda, Maryland on March 4th, 1986. She grew up
with her older sister, twin, and younger sister. In 2002, the family moved to Jacksonville Florida where upon she finished high school in 2004, eight in her
class.
She now attends the University of North Florida and will be majoring in
Nursing and minoring in English. Christina writes on her free time. Her work
is a collaboration of poems that deal with her life and the events around her.

? 

? 

? 

Writers Feedback

? 

Sharon Bryant ??“ Car Show - I went to a car show a few years back in southern California. There sat an exact, to the color, engine, everything, 57 Chevy Bel Aire. Showroom condition. A sign said, "Not For Sale". I peeped around and finally asked the guy after seeing other not in quite the condition or color and with price tags, what he would take for it. "Not for sale" was his reply. I said that it could probably bring seventy, maybe eighty thousand and I knew someone that might give that to him. His reply? "Not for sale". Seems I paid a little over $2500.00 for mine used, but in great, like new condition. Would that have been a good long term investment? Wonder if he'd a taken ninety grand for it?

Mark Crider

? 

Announcements

Melba Moore will be on the air with me live! Tune in
www.artistfirst.com 7pm est today Monday 29,2005. It seemed so far off
but the time has come, listen to my show First Cut and find out what
this song bird has been up too! You don't want to miss this interview.


Regards,
Nicole Stevenson

Stevenson15n@aol.com
Radio Host First Cut

? 

? 

Prayer Requests and Updates

? 

I want to thank everyone who prayed for my friend Janet over the weekend.

? 

Janet passed away yesterday afternoon.

? 

If you could continue your prayers for her husband, Joe, I would very much appreciate.?  He was devoted to her and depended on her for everything.

? 

Thank you.

? 

Debra - Mitakuye oyasin - We are all related.

? 

? SENIOR WRITERS

Chief Writer: Sharon Bryant

? 

? Agee, Vance;?  Apted, Violet;?  Baker, Kathy;?  Batt, Al;?  Berry, Nell;

Boda, Ginger;? ?  Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.;?  Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark;? 

Deming, Barb; Goodier, Steve;?  Halley, Ellie Braun; Harris, Kathy Anne;? 

Hunt, Sharlette;? 

Jacobson, Gary;?  Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Jenkins, Pamela;

Liles, Norma;?  Mazzella, Joe;? Ojeigbe, Georgewaters;

?  Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan;?  Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan

Walker, Bill;?  Walker, Joe;? Warner, Gorden K;

Whirity, Kathy;?  White, Robert;

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

STORYTIME TAPESTRY STAFF

Publisher: Carol Roach-founder

Moderator: Thelma Hartselle-co founder

Moderator: Clara Westerfer

? 

? 

? 

Send all inquires about the newsletter including submission requirements: