Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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

May 20, 2006

Today’s announcements

Now onto the good stuff!

Today’s Mother’s Day Stories

~**~**~

MY SISTER LINDA MY MOTHER

Barbara J. Williams

BarbaraB345@aol.com

I would like to make this page for my sister Linda Powers.
She was my mother while I was growing up tell the age of 14.

Linda, you were a mother to me when no one cared!
You were a mother to me and your love you shared!
Linda, you are only 4 years older than I am but I must say,
It was you Linda that protected me and taught me each day!

I know sis that we had our bad times as we were growing!
With out you there by my side there are things I would not be knowing!
When Bill and Mary Lue tried to destroy the very breath we breath.
It was you Linda that I wanted and never did I want you to ever leave!

God placed you and I in many different homes to help us grow.
I don't remember all of them but there were many sis I do know!
I wanted to remember you on this very special mothers day!
And Linda my sister I love you more each and every day!

May God bless you my sister as you walk in His loving light!
May all that you dream of my sister come true and be right!
May you know that you are loved my sister so very much today!
And my sister I pray all that you long for comes your way!

I love you my sister Linda with all that I am and sis thank you for being just who you are. My sister, my best friend and the person who I wanted to be like as I was growing up. You never knew this sis but it is so true. I love you sweet big sister of mine. Love, hugs, smiles and prayers Your little sister Barbara Williams, May 2006

May God keep you in His loving arms and I pray Jesus walks beside you as you walk the path way God has placed you on today. And I pray the Holy Ghost fill you with the Wisdom and the Knowledge to complete all God has placed on your plate each day.
Barb's Christian Home
http://www.geocities.com/barbwill.geo/index.html
God's Lessons
http://www.geocities.com/barbara_williams_72901/index.html
Barb's Christian Home
http://www.geocities.com/barbwill.geo/index.html
Gods Home
http://www.geocities.com/godshome_2000/GH-openingpage/GH.html
God's Children
http://www.geocities.com/bama242/index.html
Click to join Gods manna
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/GODSMANNA/join

~**~**~

DEALING WITH EMOTIONS (March 2006)

By Georgewaters Ojeigbe – Lagos, Nigeria

gojiegbe@jhplc.com

In the years gone by, I have had problems combing with emotions.  Those were in the days of boys growing to be men when I experienced many broken friendships.  Simply because I am an extra emotional human.  I always found it difficult to fall back on track and continue with the normal life each time I fell apart with a ‘best friend’.

The greatest pain in ones life could be emotions.  If you toil with someone’s emotion, you have disturbed the person’s metabolism.   It is only if you have never experienced a broken relationship that you might not understand what I have just wrote… It is usually a pain in the heart; like a harrow piercing through your skin, it hurts!

To me, in those days, it was difficult dealing with friends probably because I came from a stricter home where no friends were allowed in the house and I have never been used to intimate relationships.  Another reason could be that my parents never had long lasting friends, not even to talk of a ‘best friend’.  Although, today in my own world, I have since changed the attitude and it is the reason why most people tend to see Georgewaters Ojeigbe as a friend of all.  This is quite TRUE but for a reason.

Today, some of the reasons are that I noticed that my parents were not been involved in affairs around us.  They lacked simple information of happenings in the neighborhood.  Many opportunities were far from their reach as they chose to be an island.  At home, nothing was given out and nothing was taken in.  That was the Sergeant-Major-dad’s policy, just in our own world.  Well, today they have partially turned new leafs.

I have seen some of the bad of being an island.  We were isolated from normal daily life.  Joy was far away from home as people, not even family members visited our home.  To them then, I guess it was a normal life since both of them were in England for about two decades.  Coming back to Nigeria meant living the British life and the British life is meant for the Britons because of their kind of society.  Over there, in terms of problem like ill health, a dial on the phone box would bring in the emergency unit but that is not so in this part of the world.  Our neighbors act as our emergency units.  If truly the family of VONTRAP in the SOUND OF MUSIC existed, I believe my family was never different from the Vontrap’s family.  To me, seclusion was self-exile!

After having freedom of my own as I attained manhood, it took me couple of years to understand what relationship ought to have been.  Well, I tried many relationships of having ‘best friends’ but it never went well because of my background.  My conversant were in schools and ended there.  Although, this is still a problem to me as all my relationships with people always ends at where it started.  I have never had any carry along friendships.  It has been like dropping your foot-wares at an entrance before going into a house.  I have always known that each time I fall apart with a ‘best friend’ it would take me an equal gravity to recover. 

To solve this problem I decided to erase from my daily life the term ‘best friend’.  My belief might not suit yours but this has actually helped me in ways I relate with my fellow homo sapiens, rated human beings.  Notwithstanding, there are some special people who I always want to see around but this is not to their knowledge.

According to Sir Isaac Newton’s formulation in 1665 when he was just twenty-three years old, regarding Laws of Motion; one of them being that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  His explanations; usually applied to the interaction of physical forces and objects.  However, the same action/reaction principle applies to the forces of EMOTION and THOUGHT.  His theory helped me in understanding the curve in relationships.

I discovered that the way I felt about someone during the course of the friendship contributes to the way I got hurt each time the relationship reached a coma.  If I have strong feelings about someone, it means that I would also have an opposite strong feeling when something goes wrong.  The process is like filling and emptying a big drum with water; same strength to complete both tasks.  The level of water you pour into the drum will be the level of water you can utilize, no two ways out.

If for instance you have a dear friend who you always rely on and for every aspect in your life he or she is always involved, the day your relationship goes sour it would take an equal strength and time to recover just like the case of filling and emptying a drum of water.  This would be so if you both had a good course of being intimates and of true affections.  If your actions in the good times were 50/50 so also your reaction would be in the time of distress.  A person you do not love, in the sense of earthly bond, when he or she does something wrong, you might not really get depressed compared to when you have strong affection towards same person.  I wish there could be a simpler way to put my points through.  Mind you, this is not applied to married couples for marriage is a different plane.

Well, in conclusion, I have an understanding that one of the ways to show; attain maturity, and to stop being frequently forsaken by ‘best friends’ is to treat all men equally, spread love to all souls.  No doubt, there is always the negative side of every aspect but we should strive for a positive world.  This has saved me from wearies and furious days when I had to retire back to a place of rebirth.  It has helped better due to the understanding of the human nature especially in this part of the world where peoples’ reasons are always for material gains.  Sincerity has long faded and evaporated into clouds of corruptions.

To top it all, I have found the term agape in the bible, which solved my home problem.  Today, I share love to all living creatures, except for creatures like the wild serpent and probably some few other deadly animals, otherwise I have enjoyed being a lover of all souls on earth.

THE END!

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.

~**~**~

A Servant's Heart

Sandra Lewis Pringle

slpENT1@aol.com 

Mothers.  What would we do without them?  Without their love?   And even in times of an absent mother, there seems to be always someone who is able to love,

in a motherly way, which means so much.

A true servant's heart is a heart that is intent to serve Our Lord Jesus faithfully,

willingly, joyfully, relentlessly, regardless of the circumstances or opposition which may surround them.  It is a heart that can lay aside the pressures, the stresses, of this world and see only Jesus Christ.

God knows that each of us is truly able to do this, and He also knows that not enough are willing.   That is sad.

In Kathryn Spink's authorized biography of Mother Teresa, there is a sentence that

grabs my heart, as I read it.  It says, "The mis-shapen, deformed feet of her later years were the consequences of the concealed but persistent wearing of second-hand shoes that did not fit her properly, but the experience of mixing with India's poor was already reinforcing the lesson of her childhood; that the absence of material things did not necessarily impair the capacity for happiness."  A lesson that many still need to learn today, while continually in pursuit of material gain and

"things".

This is a touching revelation about Mother Teresa, and even more, a true demonstration of the sincerity of a loving servant's heart.   In comparison, we might

ask ourselves, "How much are we willing to sacrifice for others?"

There are many excuses that we may be able to conjure up for ourselves, which hinder, delay and even block us from experiencing the joy that Mother Teresa carried in her heart.  The joy in her heart of serving gladly was the driving force

behind her caring and diligent efforts to serve the poor, the needy.

She was not dedicated to her cause for rewards or any other benefits from her work.

It was the simple joy that spurred her wondrous acts and, also, the love for her Savior Jesus Christ, which she carried in her heart.

She loved Him and it showed.  The two go hand in hand.  Whenever one truly loves Jesus Christ, a spring of everlasting joy bubbles up within your being, a joy that

sustains you through all the raging and fiercest of storms.

We saw in the life of Mother Teresa, that she was the mother to many, who did not have family, or even an ounce of familiarity around them, yet she was able to love,

as a stranger, as Christ loved.

A mother's love, even for those who do not belong to her, is awesome, and the world could not function without it.

© Sandra Lewis Pringle

Mother’s Day Poetry Section

~**~**~

The Sweetest Home

Sandra Lewis Pringle

The sweetest home is a little home,

with a dear little mother in it;

And if, in your heart, there's a little song

for the mother you love,

begin it.

For this is her hour and this is her day,

though she's living afar or near you,

in a mansion fair, or a shack out there,

the mother you love,

will hear you.

The sweetest home is a quiet home,

with a peace that a mother wills it.

And, you're still a child,

though you're far away,

for she holds to your heart and fills it,

with the memories of a time gone by,

when you whispered the prayers she taught you;

and she can't forget,

though her eyes be wet,

how great was the price that bought you.

The sweetest home is a God-blest home,

that rests near a humble byway.

And, always, the fairest one within

is a mother who shuns the highway,

where evil struts in a robe of red,

where devlish imps will call you.

Go back to her knee,

to her warm arms flee,

and never shall ill befall you.

~Author Unknown~

Submitted by Sandra Lewis Pringle,

in honor of my mom,

Lucille Luther Lewis

1918-1994

~**~**~

That's my Mom

Norma Liles

A strong individual

One of a kind was

Thoughtful of others

That's my Mom!

Had a vision

Of things to come

Was always there

That's my Mom!

Loving tender sweet

Seeing her such a treat

Pretty as a picture

That's my Mom!

I cannot forget her

Neither would you

One in a million

That's my Mom!

She is up in Glory

She sings with the Saints

She's one of them

That's my Mom!

One day in time

I'll join her I know

Won't we rejoice

'My Mom' and I.

Norma Liles ©

hoopla214@yahoo.com

Norma Liles is a retired data entry

Clerk/supv who is 76, a native of Ohio

And still resides there. She is very

Outgoing and loves to make new friends! 

Her hobbies are: writing poetry and

Stories, living for Jesus, reading,
Enjoying her family, and her use of

Her computer.Her ambition is to add

Pleasure to those who read her writings

As well as sharing her faith. She enjoys

Southern Gospel Music and loves to sing.

Her writings have been published on Starfish,
Driftwood, Sandollar, Morning Spirit Lift,
www.poetry.com, PrayerofGod, Jan Karon's
Newsletter, American Poetry Writer's league,
Lucy's Inspiration, Faithful Hope reading room,
Poetry of Today publishing, Hope in Him,
Bonnie's Place, America will remember,
News Moose & Penworm prayer warriors as well as

A senior writer for Storytime Tapestry

~**~**~

Senior Writers

Chief writer: Sharon Bryant

                                     Chief researcher/historian: Hartson Dowd

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 Johnson - moderator