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DoodlebearsA great idea! I for one, many times, have received much support from members when I have needed it. Thanks everyone! 2007 has been a rough year so far for me and without the extra support my friends here on TT have given me it would have been much harder. I am so pleased to see that there is now a special section and that such messages have not been banned from posting as we should be there with others to celebrate or commiserate when needed. Being a bear artist can be a lonely job and so to have friends, albeit online, is a great support network that I for one really appreciate. Thanks to all.
Hugs Jane. 
Hearts Ease Bearsi think this is great forum and i can see the need to have catagories. And i think you all do a
great job! for pople isolated from the teddy bear world in general due to geography alone its terrific! the outpouring of support and for all the advice and experience freely given..and all the hard work to make this a friendly fun place to visit thank you all! deb
Posts: 3,540Me again... I just wanted to thank Intercal not only for putting forth Teddy Talk in the first place, but for undertaking the all the hard work to keep it up and running smoothly. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: You guys do a phenomenal job :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
Posts: 8,574Well I for one am happy that you folks are giving the new forum a mostly positive thumbs up. Marie, I love your new avatar! Darling bears....
Eileen, I think you had a great perspective on things.....we are, after all first and foremost people, and we do have our ups and downs and can not always be "Nicey Nice" Thank you
and thanks to all of you who feel like it will be positive and thanks to all of you who voiced your feelings one way or the others.
This will be a safe place to feel negative, as long as we don't do any projecting.
i hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday.....I am getting itchy to make another Golly-it'll be a boy and I can almost see him in my mind's eye.......
dilu
It is soooooooooooooooooo sad that we are letting people of no faith or compassion to control our lifes! That they are being "accommodate" everywhere...EVEN IN HERE!! Teddy bears have always been look at like symbols of compassion, caring companions in happy and sad times. What is happening in this world of ours??? Or better said. What are we letting happen in this world of ours? When we are at a time that so much faith and prayers are needed we are letting others, that are for sure free of having their own belives ( or not!! ) to control the rest? I never wanted to take the right of others to their own belives or thoughts but, I feel like my rights are being push aside. In my country of birth, we got to a point that we , the people of faith, were not able to go to church because it was offending to the non believers. Churches were close down...What about the believers rights? If somebody is saying here or anywhere that they do not belive and that they think prayers are of no used at all . I am not offended! That is the way, that person think and this is a free country. I will not want or ask for them to be "put" on a different page! They ( EVERYBODY!! ) have the right to say whatever they want to say, their thoughts, to belive or not and to read or not what others say in here. That IS what freedom is people!! I am so sad and worry that in this wonderful country of freedom I am seeing this happening more and more. If somebody says to me I do not belive in prayers, or Angels or saints, I will not try to make them "see" the light, that is not how I am and that is NOT what anybody was doing in here. I think that being fair is not to "divided" people for their belives. Freedom is to be able to say ( or write ) what you want and if somebody do not like it it is simple PEOPLE... do NOT read it!! That is what everybody always did. For Heavens sake ( I guess I can say that in here?? ) offending IS a dirty word. When to say, that I need prayers became a dirty word?
No hugs...my bears are too sad and for sure, my Gollies are NOT smiling.
Gladys
Posts: 2,203Well said Gladys! :hug: :hug: :hug: JMO
Thanks Jenn Belive me I am not a preacher but, if somebody, for example, say to me happy Hanuka I will say to you too! I do not feel offended!! To me everybody ( including ME!) have the right to belive on what they want or not to belive at all and say it or write it and not have to be in a "special " place to do it!! It becomes a very harsh and uncaring place, when people do not want to be bother with other people's problems or illness , or worries!
I just better stop talking about this. it has giving me a BIG headache!! This was a happy comforting place to come for me and I am sure for many other. Do not get me wrong, I love to talk about bears and see so many beautiful bears. It is so much fun to participate in the challenges. If I see something that I do not like or agree with or something that it is not of any interest to me , I just go to another topic!! There are plenty!
Thank you again Jeann.
Bear hugs.
Gladys
Past Time BearsWhoa . . . may I step in here? The reason for creating the "Bearhugs" forum was not a case of non-religious people demanding that prayers or support for those who are hurting be separated from everything else. We have a sizeable group of people who are, at times, troubled by one thing or another and have asked for support . . . whether it be in the form of prayers, encouragement, pats on the back, a shoulder to cry on, or just a place to rant and rave. We thought the individuals requesting support were important enough to open a section just for the purpose of giving/getting and asking for/receiving hugs. The "General" section was becoming so huge that lots of subjects were getting a little lost. It is our hope that nobody will make this gesture on our part a religious versus non-religious issue - religion is NOT what Teddy Talk is about. All of us have troubles and problems in our lives, and some feel that our community here at TT provides a safe, warm, supportive place to get hugs - in whatever form those hugs take. Those who don't wish to, or don't have time to, participate in this area may just skip the "Bearhugs" forum. Quy has made some very nice tech-y changes in the names and order of our sections and in setting up the new forum. We hope that you - our very important members - will become acquainted with the updated form and actually come to like the "new arrangement of the furniture". Thanks so much for your consideration. :hug: :hug: :hug: Sue Ann as a Help Advisor
Bears by JodiI feel like Erkle " DID I DO THAT " :hug:
I for one am honored to have a place to come for support, and it in no way hurt my feelings to have it opened. I think we will all need a place like this as live goes on. Eventually life will throw each and every one of us a fast ball !! And when that happens and our hands hurt from trying to catch that fast ball we will all have a place we can come for support , prayers from those who will pray and good wishes from those who don't . Thats life. But no matter what you
get prayers from me because I know where the greatest help will come from. So please don't feel like what happened the other day was such a bad thing, I needed to see reality ..... and from that we now have a nice new place to share.And any one who comes here will know that they can find compassion and can join in well wishing and prayer. I wish you ALL bear hugs and blessings from above.
Bears by JodiGladys... GOD love you , I do understand where you are coming from, your right . We are loosing our rights and maybe quicker than we think or realize.And it is so hard not to offend some one when there is such a large group. This is America and we should all have the right to freedom of free speech and so on. I do agree. But I for one like this section, but this is what I need right now. I do understand the term General does include every thing. UMMMMMMMMMM I guess the separation just came out of TT having the heart to realize we who are hurting may need a place to feel a little safer. Like I said it is hard for any one to please every one. I hope your not mad.You are such a dear heart.
Intercal is a business and one way of promoting their business is via a Forum like teddy talk. Its a great marketing tool and I am sure people who have chatted here have also gained business.
If Intercal did not provide this I am sure many would be the poorer for it, I have gained valuable knowledge by logging on and sharing with other artists/makers ideas and help. My own personal problems have been shared here and I have also received support from others.
Personally I feel that opening more and more forums distracts from the main purpose as what ever goes in a forum is repeated again in recent posts, therefore any insensitive comments are seen again.
Anyone chatting here has the choice of replying, stirring, or ignoring.Typing this I wondered where to post this in case I got wrapped over the knuckles for posting in the wrong forum.
All in all no one can please everyone, and the good must go with the bad, people do not like change as we all like our comfort zones.
Lynette
Hmm, I'm waivering on how I feel about this new section so waited awhile to post my thoughts. I totally understand that BEARHUGS it was created to support those that needed a hug, prayer etc. In that respect I think it is a really good idea and I don't feel slighted as a religious person.
I think of each Section as a chapter in a "Bear Book". If I want to learn about felting- I go to that "chapter", Minis-go there, Need a hug-Go there. The hard part is how many "chapters" do we need. Do we need a "birthday section" ??? I guess I'm a bit confused as to what now goes in the BEARHUGS area and GENERAL based on what Shelli wrote. Is GENERAL just bear related topics, if so I understand that, but where do birthdays, or pet pics etc. go now ??? They don't fit anywhere. Sorry to be a duffus, just a little confused now.
This way, both personal AND bear-related "general discussion" posts can be supported and attended to, recognized as equally important, each with its own focus area, without the one "diluting" the other. There really isn't anything in common between "My niece just won Little Miss Acapulco!" and "I've been published in AMERICAN TEDDY BEAR", if you think about it... both of which would have been grouped together in the "General Discussion" area before this change.
I am thankful for this forum and I don't envy the moderators. It is hard to please everyone and change is always hard. I truly do feel they have our best interests at heart In all reality I personally don't think these changes are worth stressing over in the big picture of life.
Yay!! Challenges has been moved up from the basement!!! I'm a happy bunny!
To be honest, I don't mind where folk do their praying, hugging and supporting - upstairs, downstairs, in my lady's chamber, makes no odds to me, just so long as we can stay focused on our bear art. Personally, I get a little squeamish when I stumble over threads which have significant religious overtones and no, I'm not a complete heathen, just not particularly able to communicate effectively in this way, but hey, horses for courses! I just side step those threads and leave them to kind TT'ers more qualified to respond than me. 
There's room enough on board TT to embrace all aspects of friendship, work and anything else that gets thrown in the pot!
Bear Paws by RoxanneI am not one to respond or to post to much, be it in which category. If I feel strongly to respond I do.
I myself have posted about topics that I needed support from that was not a topic about bears. When I did post the said topic, I did kind of feel that it was "out of place" to do so. I then received many "Hugs" and "prayers" for everyone and felt like I had done the right thing by posting it. With that said, I do feel that with a category "Bear Hugs" for certain subjects that have nothing to do with the bear world. Maybe people like myself will feel more at ease as where to mention these subjects that we want to share with everyone, and not feel so uncomfortable as to list it in the general section.
Like Paula said:
There's room enough on board TT to embrace all aspects of friendship, work and anything else that gets thrown in the pot!
