Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

March 31, 2006

Today’s announcements

Happy Birthday Channtina Touchet

Now onto the good stuff!

Today’s Queue Stories

~**~**~

VINCE ENDOPOLI

Gabrielle Morgan

The Food Market had just opened. Vince Endopoli was already on the job, checking the fruit and vegetables and putting the 59 cents a kilo marker on a bin full of large oranges. They were to be the buy of the day. Nowhere could you buy oranges that cheap. Vince had done a deal with the growers who couldn’t get rid of their load because too many were being imported into the country.

“Hard to see the sense importing oranges when we grow better one’s here,” thought Vince. “It doesn’t take a College Degree to figure that one out.”

Vince had a good head when it came to figures. He didn’t have much education but he knew how to work hard and manage money. He bought his first butcher’s shop when he was twenty five. The customers returned because he gave them good meat and he always had a cheerful word to say. Now he owned his own market employing fifty staff.

For a man approaching sixty, he was well pleased with himself. It showed in his demeanour. He was jovial, always had a smile, and strode about his Market with a sense of purpose. He never missed an opportunity to cajole an unsuspecting customer by pointing them in the direction of the produce he wanted to sell that day. His manner was beguiling as he explained the benefit of an over ripe banana or a tomato which had reached perfection in flavour. He spoke with such conviction and concern that few ever left without loaded shopping bags or without gaining elevation to their spirit.

Vince noticed a woman studying the legs of lamb in the meat section.

She looked up and smiled at him.

“Can’t decide?” he questioned.

“Well, no. Lamb is so expensive, I was thinking perhaps I should buy pork, but I really love lamb.”

“What about this piece here, it’s not quite as big. Spring lamb you know, it would be a shame to miss out on it. It’s expensive now because there’s been no rain. You really would be supporting the farmers to buy it. They’re doing it tough.”

He shook his head to emphasize the point. The woman still considered.

Vince went on, “I remember one drought on our farm. The ground was dust, not a blade of grass anywhere. We had to sell the sheep, or what was left of them; dropped like flies they did. No rain. The creeks and dams dried up. We had to leave the farm in the end. It broke my dad’s heart.”

“Oh dear, how awful,” said the woman.

“Yes, they say, rain is a gift from God. Well, I guess there are a lot of people praying out there now. Some of the farms here in Australia have been in the hands of the same families for generations, and now because of no rain for so long the farmers are forced to look for work in the cities. It’s hard on the older ones, they don’t know anything else but farming; it’s in their blood. Can’t even sell their properties; who’d want to buy them?” said Vince.

“You’re right,” the woman said. “I saw a family on the television. It was so sad, the banks were taking over their property. They were devastated. Their resources had dried up and they were facing the hard reality of starting a new life after years of struggle to earn what they were losing.”

“It certainly makes you appreciate the rain,” said Vince. “We depend on it for survival without even realising it.”

“I think I’ll take the lamb,” the woman suddenly said. “not only will I enjoy it, but I will be helping someone.”

That you will, and don’t forget to pray for rain.”

“I won’t,” she called making for the checkout.

An almost beatific smile appeared on Vince Endopoli’s face.

He carried on with his work, while his thoughts transported him back to the small village in Italy he had left as a child. He could see the dazzling blue coastline, the steep road leading to the white church on the hill, and the small stone house where he had been born. He imagined the new growth on the olive trees and remembered how the rain drops had shone on their leaves. He was no longer in a market, but trespassing in his past, a past that had forged his future; a past where his dreams rested, a place where God had left an imprint on his soul.

© GABRIELLE MORGAN

Gabrielle_Nicholls @hotmail.com

About Me:
I LIVE IN A RURAL AREA IN EAST VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA. I AM

MARRIED TO FELLOW WRITER AND ARTIST, MICHAEL MORGAN. I

BELIEVE IN PEOPLE, IN LOVE, AND IN WRITING I FIND THIS THE

DEEPEST WAY OF MAGNIFYING IT. I LIKE THE GENTLE. I HONOUR

WHAT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE OF GOODNESS, QUALITY AND

BEAUTY. THE ANGELS AND SAINTS INSPIRE ME.

~**~**~

Heaven

Jodi Flesberg Lilly

Heaven feels elusive these days as the sunshine is fleeting if it manages to break through the dense cloud cover, at all. Oh, but the moments in which it shines are bright indeed, throwing open the windows of my mind in an instant, so the fresh clean breeze can blow out the dust and cobwebs and stale, stuffy stagnation.

Bliss alights, surprised, on my morning heart as the sun makes its way through the window bringing my room to life, bestowing the blessing of warmth and golden radiance. Heaven breathes me, moves me, entices me to join in the dance of living divine delight. Heaven knows and shares the secrets of simple pleasures: light, heat, flowing movement, reflection and time. Heaven’s grace lingers, draped around me like my favorite silk shawl, in all the colors of the rainbow, as I move through my day with beauty and warmth wrapped around me.

Heaven

Resides inside

Thought creates and informs

We are much more than we’ve realized

Divinity born of inspiration

Wrapped tight in chains of DNA

With codes of light and love

Awakening

Heaven

© 2006 Jodi Flesberg Lilly

lightinmotion@yahoo.com

www.lightinmotion.net

www.lightinmotion.blogspot.com

~**~**~

A Motivating Factor

Joyce C. Lock

Growing up in an environment where non-church attendance isn't an option, much of one's beliefs may be based upon other's faith (wherein one either leans upon the faith of another or they were not considered mature enough to make those choices). Their daily schedule is generally more structured, also.

Young adults are familiar with struggles of being finally 'on their own'; free to sleep whenever they feel like it (as long as they make it to work). Suddenly, choices and consequences become theirs.

They begin deciding what they believe, the life style they will choose, the importance of regular church attendance, and many more things. Likely, before they get it all figured out, children come along.

Whether late night socials or babies stealing one's sleep, they can often relate to the 'pitch it out the window', Sunday morning, alarm clock … finding that, though they desire to do good, evil is present. Still believing in God, they're left feeling guilty whenever they fail to measure up or miss a church service.

What helped me most, during those early years, was a statement I remembered from childhood, "How can you say you love your children if you don't care about their souls?"

It's a motivating factor to make sure one's children have every opportunity possible to learn about God. And though we may still occasionally dread the alarm clock, in time, one's faith becomes their own. Then, there's no place we'd rather be than in God's house.

© by Joyce C. Lock
http://our.homewithgod.com/heavenlyinspirations/

Poetry Section

~**~**~

Out of sight out of mind, yet…

Leona Ebling

How bare the heart oh this heart of mine

I can not think about all the times

I too have thought out of sight out of mind, just let them go

but oh the hurts of those memories, they haunt me so

Out of sight out of mind is this saying really true

if you went away would I say, okay it's really up to you

A story once a child did write with heart so filled with woe

I really love him enough she said to just let him go

out of sight but mind still weeps

and cries and mourns it can not sleep

without waking and hoping yet dreading you see

will the returning, be soon or will it never be

out of sight out of mind oh why

must it hurt so bad and make me feel as if I could die

Yet I must go on and survive with courage bold

yet out of sight and out of mind leaves no hand to hold.

Leona Ebling

wwjdleona@aol.com

~**~**~

THE STATE OF MIND (February 2006)

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

There is always a time to sing the whole world to joy

There is always a time to cuddle the whole human race in joy

There is always a time when you believe joy is unending

What about times you had all your loved ones around you?

Those days when pains were aliens as far as memory is concerned

The days when strains couldn’t find a home on your face

Those days of being under the soothing moonlight in a spring night

Times when you and cully the dog ran around the garden filled with flowers

What about those days when Beethoven’s music sounded heavenly

But I can only realize sadness if I once experienced joy

I can always realize hatred if I once was loved

I can always realize pain if I once was pain free

People can detect strains on my face if I had none before

I can only realize the hot summer wind during the day if I had been under the soothing breeze of the moonlight at night

If I remember my play with Cully the dog that means Cully was once around

If I notice a bad rhythm that means I once listened to a masterpiece before

If our world goes forever that means there was once a world called earth

If a life goes that means there was once that soul living here

But we shall find and obtain continuity of all the bests in the hands of Jehovah Lord God

If I once laughed and now cry, there shall come a time I shall cry no more

If we lost a loved one as the case has been for the past few months

It happens because we have no power over some certain things in life

Jehovah Lord God knows best and He sees best

Pick up you pen and continue the journey we have embarked on

Let every moment count richly until the Master Himself come for us being our time

Life is a stage, I have to play my part and someday someone else shall take my part

BIO-DATA

I was born on 21^st April, 1970. I live in Lagos, Nigeria the most populous city in Africa. I sing in a Church music group where I fellowship. I love sports. I love admiring the heavens and other wonderful works borne from Jehovah’s hands. I discovered the power of writing stories, encouraged by Carol. Thanks for her existence! I am pet lover minus snakes; I so much hate this creature called snake but others I prefer. I like to do lots of home works like creating my art works, gardening, making some home furniture, fitting electrical appliances etc.

~**~**~

Prayer Requests and Updates

To my friends and kin:

On Tuesday, March 21, I found myself in the ER with some blood pressure issues that led to many of the symptoms of my having a mini-stroke. After a night in the hospital and many tests that proved negative, I was released.

I am still having some of those problems, including rapid speech where I stumble over words here and there. My son-in-law who inherited heart disease tells me they haven't run the right tests yet so hopefully after I meet with my regular physician on Monday, we will be able to figure out what is really going on here.

I will only be online now and then as I am not feeling very perky. When I can't write, you all know that I am not well!

I will let you know what is happening when I know something I can share. In the meantime, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Barbara Deming

Senior Writers

Chief writer: Sharon Bryant

Agee, Vance; Apted, Violet; Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al; Berry, Nell; Blaine, Pamela; Boda, Ginger; Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.; Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark; Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria; Gilbert, Robert, Jr.; Goodier, Steve; Braun-Haley, Ellie; Harris, Kathy Anne; Hunt, Sharlett; Hymes, Christina; Jacobson, Gary; Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Kevin, Tim; Jenkins, Pamela; Liles, Norma; Lily Jodi Flesberg; Lock, Joyce; Marlor, Janice Bumbalough; Mazzella, Joe; Morris, Deepak; Ojeibge, Georgewaters; Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan; Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Streidel, Saskia; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan; Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe; Warner, Gordon, K; Walsh, Sue; Weymouth, Barbara J.; Whirity, Kathy;

Wainland, David; Westerfer, Clara; White Robert;

Storytime Tapestry Staff

Carol Roach - Founder/publisher

Thelma Hartselle - Co-Founder, Moderator

Clara Westerfer – moderator

Bob Johnston - moderator