THROUGH THICK AND THIN - by Annie Hall

THROUGH  THICK  AND  THIN by   Annie Hall I could skip a heartbeat, and I would survive.I could be in a car crash and still be alive.The clouds could fall out of the sky.The oceans could disappear and all turn dry. These things in life are all bad, I know,but there's far worse things, just thought you should know. Life would not be the same without someone like you.You're there when I need you to help me through.Through the good times and through the bad,Be them happy or be them sad. I don't have to be with you to know you're there.We don't have to see each other to know that we care.We could be apart for years upon endand still remain the best of friends. Life goes on, and people change,And through it all, our friendship shall remain the same.That's such as life and how things come to be.Just thought you should know how much you mean to me!

ONE OF A KIND - by Joanna Fuchs

ONE  OF  A  KIND by Joanna Fuchs You are wonderful, one of a kind,uniquely valuable!Right now, think of your positive qualities,and things you can do betterthan the average person can. Always remember:Your are smarter,more capable,and more significantthan you think you are.

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU, FRIEND - by Joanna Fuchs

 

THANK  YOU,  FRIEND by Joanna Fuchs Thank you, friend, for all the thingsThat mean so much to me--For concern and understandingYou give abundantly. Thanks for listening with your heart;For cheering me when I'm blue;For bringing out the best in me;And just for being you. Thanks for in-depth conversationThat stimulates my brain;For silly times we laugh out loud;For things I can't explain. For looking past my flaws and faults;For all the time you spend;For all the kind things that you do,Thank you; thank you, friend.

 

 

 

 

THE NEW TEPEE - by Theodore Whitson Ressler - from "Treasury of American Indian Tales"

 

 

The Blackfoot village was all astir to greet the new day. It was late in the springtime, and the great hunters of the tribe had been off to hunt the buffalo. Word had just reached the village that the hunt was over and the hunting party was on the way home.

This made Little Bird very happy, for she knew that her husband, Big Red Bear, would be returning to the tepee and that there would be much celebrating in the tribe. Everything must be made ready to greet the hunters.

The women of the village began dashing around preparing for the arrival of the hunting party. There was much to be done and much work lay ahead, now that the buffalo had been killed. The meat must be stored and some of it smoked, and the hides must be turned into new tepee covers and robes. All this would take place after the celebration, but still the women of the tribe knew they had a long job ahead.

The news was good. The hunt had been successful, and many buffalo had fallen before the weapons of the hunters. The buffalo had a good winter and were not thin or ragged. The grass had been full-grown and rich. Enough rain had fallen to provide the food and water necessary to make the buffalo fat and a good target for expert bowmen.

Soon all was in readiness and everyone waited impatiently for the first signs of the returning hunters. And then the signal came! A young brave on a shaggy brown pony came dashing through the village, announcing the arrival of the hunters.

Everyone was out to greet them and shout thanks and praise. Husbands and wives, fathers and children greeted each other warmly. The tribe was filled with joy.

Night came swiftly. Before long the beating drums told the people that the dancing and feasting was to begin. This celebration often lasted all night and sometimes into the next day; then as dancers tired, they would wander off to their tepees for the first really peaceful sleep since the hunting party had left the village.

Little Bird and her husband enjoyed the great feast and celebration. The next day Little Bird set to work on the buffalo skins for her family tepee. It had been a hard winter and the weather had damaged many Blackfoot homes. There were more than enough skins brought back by the hunters, so that those tepee coverings that had become worn and tattered could be replaced. So Little Bird set to work with the women of the tribe who were busy preparing and sewing together the buffalo hides to make new covers for the tepees.

One day Little Bird learned that a new tepee was to be built in the village. The old tepee of the chief had been damaged so badly by the winter snow and ice, and the poles had become so rotted, that the tribe agreed to build him a new tepee. The building of a new tepee was important because everybody in the tribe helped to make it. All the friends and neighbors would be invited to attend a great feast and when the feast was over, the women would begin sewing the skins together.

Little Bird and her husband went to the feast. When it was over, Little Bird sat down with the rest of the women and, taking up her bone needle, began to sew two buffalo hides together. The cutting of the skins had been entrusted to Slow Water, the wife of Black Fox, the tribe’s best hunter, since she had great skill in judging the number of skins needed by their size and shape. They used no patterns, so only a woman with this kind of skill was asked to do the cutting.

As the sewing continued and the tepee walls began to take shape, even more whispering went on around Little Bird. When Little Bird asked one of her friends what it was all about, her friend would only say, “Be patient, Little Bird, for soon we shall all know what they have been whispering about.”

The next day the women who had been working on the skins came to the tepee of Little Bird. Because her husband was away, Little Bird invited the women to sit and talk. There was a great deal of laughter as the women sat down. Slow Water, the skillful cutter, had been chosen to speak to Little Bird for all of them.

“Little Bird,” she began, “we are here to ask you to do something for our tribe. You always have a smile for everyone wherever you go in the village. As you know, we must choose someone who is always cheerful to work on the smoke flaps for the new tepee. We are here to ask you, Little Bird, to work on the smoke flaps of the new tepee, so that your happy spirit will be woven into the flap and the smoke will depart from the tepee evenly and smoothly.”

Little Bird smiled. Her heart was happy. This was truly a great honor. Now she understood why all the whispering had been going on the last couple of days.

“I will be happy to help sew the smoke flaps of the new tepee. It is a great honor for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

And some say that as long as that tepee stood, the chief never had to worry about the smoke rising out of the tepee easily, even on stormy, windy nights. The Indians believed that the happy spirit of Little Bird really lived in that flap.

 

WAITING - by Leza Lowitz

WAITING  by   Leza   Lowitz You keep waiting for something to happen, the thing that lifts you out of yourself, catapults you into doing all the things you've put off the great things you're meant to do in your life, but somehow never quite get to. You keep waiting for the planets to shift the new moon to bring news, the universe to align, something to give. Meanwhile, the pile of papers, the laundry, the dishes the job  it all stacks up while you keep hoping for some miracle to blast down upon you, scattering the piles to the winds. Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life. Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking. But all the while, life goes on in its messy way. And then you turn forty. Or fifty. Or sixty... and some part of you realizes you are not alone and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over, it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched, and when caterpillar turns to butterfly if the pupa is brushed, it will die  and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg it's because the thing is too small, too small, and it needs to break out. And midlife walks you into that wisdom that this is what transformation looks like  the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life, the yearning and writhing and pushing, until one day, one day you emerge from the wreck embracing both the immense dawn and the dusk of the body, glistening, beautiful just as you are.

 

 

 

THE BOOK OF DISQUIET (fragment) - by Fernando Pessoa

THE  BOOK  OF  DISQUIET   (fragment) by  Fernando Pessoa Life is an experimental journey undertaken involuntarily.  It is a journey of the spirit through the material world and, since it is the spirit that travels, it is the spirit that is experienced.  That is why there exist contemplative souls who have lived more intensely, more widely, more tumultuously than others who have lived their lives purely externally.

 

 

WHAT YOU MEANT TO ME !!! - by Ashish Thakur

 

WHAT YOU MEANT TO ME  !!! by  Ashish Thakur It's a slow pain that crawls up my aching heart,I go through all those emotions what you meant to me...I wonder if seeing you again would make it stop,Albeit for a moment, I would catch my breathe I have been chasing so long... I miss you in the moments, in fact in every momentI miss you enough to cause insanity,If only for a night you could be here;Giving life back to these sobbing lungs,Setting me free of all those pains, those fears....But then I remember again,Probably all these only if you knew