The Redhead Riter - Witty, Intelligent & Addictive: 7/1/09

Threads in Life's Tapestry

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered.

He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning:

"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . .

Alone. . .

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- the sound Of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient: But his wife's sickness continued.

Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. But, alas, the farmer's wife did not get well...She died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon. And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember --- When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

When was the last time you let everyone know how important they are to you?

Each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry. Our lives are woven together for a reason.

One of the best things to hold onto In this world is a friend.

What Do Women Really Want?

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So, the monarch offered him his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, if after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.

The question?...

What do women really want?

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was better than death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end.

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: the princess, the priests, the wise men and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer.

Many people advised him to consult the old witch, for only she would have the answer.

But the price would be high; as the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the exorbitant prices she charged.

The last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no choice but to talk to the witch. She agreed to answer the question, but he would have to agree to her price first.

The old witch wanted to marry Sir Lancelot, the most noble of the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur's closest friend!

Young Arthur was horrified. She was hunchbacked and hideous, had only one tooth, smelled like sewage, made obscene noises, etc. He had never encountered such a repugnant creature in all his life.

He refused to force his friend to marry her and endure such a terrible burden; but Lancelot, learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur.

He said nothing was too big of a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life and the preservation of the Round Table.

Hence, a wedding was proclaimed and the witch answered Arthur's question thus:

What a woman really wants, she answered.....is to be in charge of her own life.

Everyone in the kingdom instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and that Arthur's life would be spared.

And so it was, the neighboring monarch granted Arthur his freedom and Lancelot and the witch had a wonderful wedding.

The honeymoon hour approached and Lancelot, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the bedroom. But, what a sight awaited him. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen lay before him on the bed. The astounded Lancelot asked what had happened

The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to her when she appeared as a witch, she would henceforth, be her horrible deformed self only half the time and the beautiful maiden the other half.

Which would he prefer? Beautiful during the day....or night?

Lancelot pondered the predicament. During the day, a beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in the privacy of his castle, an old witch? Or, would he prefer having a hideous witch during the day, but by night, a beautiful woman for him to enjoy wondrous intimate moments?

What would YOU do?

What Lancelot chose is below. BUT....make YOUR choice before you continue reading?

Did you decide what you would choose?

Okay...

Noble Lancelot said that he would allow HER to make the choice herself.

Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge of her own life.

Now....what is the moral to this story?

The moral is....

If you don't let a woman have her own way...

Things are going to get ugly.

Six Toes

"There is no friend as loyal as a book."
~Ernest Hemingway~
Look at the number of books Ernest Hemingway authored and the things that have been done with them!!!

I think he lived his quote:
"Man is not made for defeat."
~Ernest Hemingway~
Novels

(1926) The Torrents of Spring
(1926) The Sun Also Rises
(1929) A Farewell to Arms
(1937) To Have and Have Not
(1940) For Whom the Bell Tolls
(1950) Across the River and Into the Trees
(1952) The Old Man and the Sea
(1970) Islands in the Stream
(1986) The Garden of Eden
(1999) True at First Light

Collections

(1923) Three Stories and Ten Poems
(1925) In Our Time
(1927) Men Without Women
(1933) Winner Take Nothing
(1936) The Snows of Kilimanjaro
(1938) The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories
(1969) The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War
(1972) The Nick Adams Stories
(1987) The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
(1995) Everyman's Library: The Collected Stories

Nonfiction

(1932) Death in the Afternoon
(1935) Green Hills of Africa
(1962) Hemingway, The Wild Years
(1964) A Moveable Feast
(1967) By-Line: Ernest Hemingway
(1970) Ernest Hemingway: Cub Reporter
(1981) Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters
(1985) The Dangerous Summer
(1985) Dateline: Toronto
(1999) Hemingway on Writing
(2000) Hemingway on Fishing
(2003) Hemingway on Hunting
(2003) Hemingway on War
(2005) Under Kilimanjaro
(2008) Hemingway on Paris

Stage Plays

(1961) A Short Happy Life
(1967) The Hemingway Hero (working title was: Of Love and Death)

Adaptations

Television productions

(1958) Scouting on Two Continents, by Frederick Russell Burnham (not completed)
(1959) For Whom the Bell Tolls
(1959) The Killers (CBS Buick Electra Playhouse)
(1960) The Fifth Column
(1960) The Snows of Kilimanjaro
(1960) The Gambler, The Nun and the Radio
(1960) After the Storm (not completed)

U.S./UK Film Adaptations

(1932) A Farewell to Arms (starring Gary Cooper)
(1943) For Whom the Bell Tolls (Gary Cooper/Ingrid Bergman)
(1944) To Have and Have Not (Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall)
(1946) The Killers (starring Burt Lancaster)
(1947) The Macomber Affair
(1950) The Breaking Point
(1952) The Snows of Kilimanjaro (starring Gregory Peck)
(1957) A Farewell to Arms (starring Rock Hudson)
(1957) The Sun Also Rises (starring Tyrone Power)
(1958) The Old Man and the Sea (starring Spencer Tracy)
(1962) Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man
(1964) The Killers (starring Lee Marvin)
(1965) For Whom the Bell Tolls
(1977) Islands in the Stream (starring George C. Scott)
(1984) The Sun Also Rises
(1990) The Old Man and the Sea (starring Anthony Quinn)
(1996) In Love and War (starring Chris O'Donnell)
(1999) The Old Man and the Sea
Source: Wikipedia

Are you impressed?

"I learned never to empty the well of my writing,
but always to stop when there was still something there
in the deep part of the well,
and let it refill at night
from the springs that fed it."
~Ernest Hemingway~
What did he think about writing?

"There is nothing to writing.
All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
~Ernest Hemingway~
By now you might be thinking, "Did he have six toes like the title implies?" No. Normal cats have four toes and one dewclaw (thumb) on each front paw and four toes on each hind paw. Polydactyl cats may have as many as seven digits on front and/or hind paws. Polydactyl is most commonly found on the front paws only.

Ernest Hemingway was first given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain and was a lover of polydactyls. When Hemingway died in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats. It currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl). Because of his love for these animals, Hemingway cat, or simply Hemingway, is a slang term which has come to describe polydactyls.

Click to see The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

Click to see the Live CAM Feed of Ernest Hemingway Home and Cats

That was so interesting!

Ernest Hemingway put my feelings most adequately into words when he wrote:

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see
and what I feel in the best and simplest way."
Thank you Ernest Hemingway.

I Miss Those Cheerio Moments

There are minutes of your life that are etched into your brain. Not only do you remember the activity and location, but you can feel the moment...the smells...the sounds...little details about the activity. These moments are not man-walking-on-the-moon moments, but to you they are of equal importance. Something about them was so meaningful that your brain recorded and retained every aspect.

As I read your blogs, many are written by young mothers with beautiful small children. You talk of diapers to change, outfits to buy, places you must scurry to for lessons, school plays, toys to pick up and the fingerprints that are on everything in your homes. By now you know that my daughter is sixteen. Those things that fill your days passed me by many years ago and since motherhood is the only thing I ever wanted, I cherished everything about Alyssa's childhood...the poopy diapers, the taxi service to ballet, tap, jazz, karate and gymnastics, the sippy cups, the barbies that overtook my living room at least once a week as we made an entire city and dared anyone to move our stores and houses... I could go on and on and on.

Maybe it is because I came across a blog that had Cheerios as the header or because I have a brand new box of Cheerios in the kitchen, but there is a memory that I cherish that has been in the forefront of my mind for days now.

It was a hot summer day. The air conditioner was cranking, the fan overhead whirring and the sun was shining with full gusto through the living room window. Alyssa and I were sitting on the couch side by side. Her little legs stretched completely out, but still so short that they barely reached the edge of the cushion. She was a little more than three years old and held a tiny orange Tupperware cup on her lap ever so carefully so as not to spill any Cheerios which I had filled all the way to the brim.

Alyssa was a delicate, feminine, prissy little girl with white blonde hair, big brown eyes and porcelain white skin. On that particular day she had her hair in pig tails, decorated with white bows and was wearing a turquoise and white striped, sleeveless knit dress. I remember thinking how perfectly her little body was formed. Little arms, little legs, little fingers and little toes. She took two fingers and reached into the bowl to retrieve a Cheerio. Slowly she brought it to her lips, but just before she opened her mouth, she looked up at me and said, "Do you want one?"

Before getting an answer she was aiming the little round cereal towards my mouth. She placed it just barely between my lips. As I chewed it, she just watched me.

"Is it good?" she asked.

"Yummy" I said.

She smiled and then picked up a Cheerio for herself. Her fingers were so tiny that the Cheerio looked huge in comparison. We sat and ate her Cheerios. She ate one and then fed me one. She was content to just sit quietly, talking, eating and feeding me Cheerios.

When we had finished every morsel of cereal, she looked directly into my eyes and said, "I love you Mommy." Then she stood up on her tiny little feet with the red polished toenails and put her arms around my neck and squeezed. I couldn't help but cry then just as I am now.

Everything was perfect.

The silky strands of her hair on my face, the smell of sweet skin, the soft little arms around me...

This is surely how perfection feels.

I miss those Cheerio moments.

Some of the pictures above are linked to the websites where these items
can be purchased or give information about the item
Feeling unhappy or "blue" every now and then is normal, but when a dark abyss of empty despair persistently engulfs you, it may be depression. When suffering from depression it is extremely hard to continue your normal responsibilities the way that you usually do and your interests in family, friends and hobbies all but disappear. This hopeless depression is overwhelming, but you can get better with support and proper help.

FIRST AND FOREMOST...THERE IS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF IF YOU ARE DEPRESSED. Society tries to make "depression" a thing of shame which only makes people more depressed! Do not listen to society! Do not be ashamed!

Common signs and symptoms of depression

A low mood for most of the day

Feelings of guilt

Feelings of worthlessness

Feeling nervous or anxious

Feeling slow and sluggish

Changes in appetite/weight loss or gain

Irritability or agitation

Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much

Decreased libido

Having trouble with concentration or memory

Loss of energy or feeling fatigued

Unexplained physical symptoms

Frequently experiencing breakdowns or crying

Make healthy lifestyle changes

Lifestyle changes are not always easy to make, but they can have a big impact on depression. Take a good look at your own lifestyle. Some self-help strategies that can be very effective include:

Cultivating supportive relationships
Getting regular exercise and sleep
Eating a healthy, mood-boosting diet
Managing stress
Practicing relaxation techniques
Challenging negative thought patterns

Are you clinically depressed?

If you identify with several of the following signs and symptoms, and they just won’t go away, you may be suffering from clinical depression.

you can’t sleep or you sleep too much
you can’t concentrate or find that previously easy tasks are now difficult
you feel hopeless and helpless
you can’t control your negative thoughts, no matter how much you try
you have lost your appetite or you can’t stop eating
you are much more irritable and short-tempered than usual
you have thoughts that life is not worth living (Seek help immediately if this is the case)

If you are clinically depressed, please seek the care of a doctor because THERE IS HOPE! I will repeat that...THERE IS HOPE!

Top Free E-books About Depression

To view free E-books click here

The following books can be purchased on-line from Amazon.com

Mind, Stress, and Emotions: The New Science of Mood
by Gene Wallenstein
Stress And Emotion: anxiety, Anger, & Curiosity
by C. Spielberger
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison
Manic-Depressive Illness
by Frederick K. Goodwin M.D.
Unholy Ghost: Writes on Depression
by Nell Casey
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
by William Styron
More than Moody
by Harold Koplewicz
You Are Not Alone: Words of Experience and Hope for the Journey Through Depression
by Julia Thorne
When Words Are Not Enough
by Valerie Raskin

If you have identified yourself as being depressed and have tried the lifestyle changes and read self-help books as outlined above, seek the professional advice of a medical doctor, psychiatrist and/or psychologist. I always tell my friends to remember that these people become your "employees" when you walk into their office. You are paying them money for their services, correct? Right! Then they are your employee. If you do not like them, fire them which means that you do not keep going back to their office! If you are looking for a professional, first create a list of questions about the doctor/psychiatrist/psychologist to ask the person who answers their office number. Include questions such as:

How long have they been practicing?
Are they male or female?
What is their specialty?
What is their approximate age?
Are they married, single, divorced?
Do they have children?

And the last is the general feeling you have while talking to this receptionist. Are they rude, rushing you, impatient? If so, do you want to have that experience every time you have to make an appointment with the doctor? Is this person a reflection of the doctor's attitude as well?

You might be thinking that I have lost my mind, however, I have not and there is a good reason I listed those questions. If you need to "connect" with the doctor and ensure that they know the "feelings" you are having, then knowing something about their personal life can help. Depression is not always just a physical thing, it is a mental/emotional thing and connectivity with the doctor is important. Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but when going through a divorce, I wanted to talk to a woman who had also gone through a divorce. I knew that on some level she could relate with my unhappiness in the ending of a long relationship.

Just remember, millions of people are depressed and get depressed.

You are not alone.

You can find happiness again and be happy.

The following sites were used in this posting or are great sources for understanding depression.