Meditating to Heal

I’m a crusty old fart! After a totally unadventurous four years in the Marine Reserves, twenty-nine years in a retail photography store, fourteen years as a high school history teacher, and nine years as a college literature professor, my life has been truly varied and truly blessed. This is because I married a wonderful woman. God truly blessed me every day of my life when I married her.

I’m reminded of a family cat that, on Christmas morning, would jump after all the rolled-up Christmas wrap that the kids would throw at each other after opening each present. After breakfast was over, no one could find the cat; Grandpa dug through all the rolled-up wrapping paper really low down on the floor and found the cat sound asleep.

We pray to God on high, but sometimes we find comfort below a pile of discarded foil wrap. Funny how sometimes our vision changes.

Look to the low, little, seemingly small or insignificant. This is where we often see God.

P.S. I Love You. And I pray you love others.
Love is God’s symphony, the perfect beauty!

Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.
If you are inspired, read my latest book. Kindle eBook $3.99

I find it puzzling when a minister says, “Let us prepare ourselves for a time for prayer,” or, “It is time for our period of meditation.” I know that many who attend church are already in a mental status of semi-prayer when they enter, but most, sadly, are not.

I don’t know what it means to pray constantly, but I do know what Jesus says about praying to God:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

I cannot say that I pray constantly, but I do know that I love constantly. When Jesus asks that the second greatest commandment is to love others as ourselves, I accept that as gospel. So much so that it comes as an automatic when I meet someone new. I haven’t a care in the world as I choose to live in the glory of God, being a rainbow of love.

P.S. I love you. And I pray you love others.
Love is God’s symphony, the perfect beauty!

Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.
If you are inspired, read my latest book. Kindle eBook $3.99

“O God, do not keep silent; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!” (Psalm 83:1)

I was out of it. really out of it. I was down so low, I couldn’t talk; I could barely breathe; I definitely couldn’t think. I have no real memory of the event. My wife called the Rescue Squad. When they asked my wife what was wrong, and how big I am, they sent two squads. Expecting a stroke, they sent me to the closest hospital.

Rushed me to the emergency room. Incoherent! Tests, more tests; something else; something around me, no, not around me, in me, no, within me. I was freezing, but there was a warmth within; I was shivering from the cold, but I was not cold. I felt the warmth of the love and concern and fear emanating from my wife who never left my side. It was this love and warmth that kept me alive.

My wife shared her gift with me; for I was too sick and incapable of thinking my own. My true-life cells of God’s aliveness within me were masked deep within me by the disease of pneumonia, and yet, You were there, with her, . . . deep within me where You always are, caring, loving, protecting as you always are. . . just as Jesus promises in all His teachings.

With love You protect and nourish me; the cells  of my aliveness that I share with You, my entirety, abound with eternal love and kindness that I try my best to share with all whom I meet. I love and thank you for your caring for me and all of my family. I follow what Jesus asks, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt 22. 37)

P.S. I Love You. And I pray you love others.

Love is God’s symphony, the perfect beauty!

Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

If you are inspired, read my latest book. Kindle eBook $3.99

Purification by Spirit

None of us are perfect. Good knows our mothers and wives are the first to remind us of that fact. We need these other voices in our lives to keep us on the straight and narrow road of life. Nobody can truly live alone! The jungle we call life is rife with everyday problems and obstacles that need to be faced, and a strong family is one of man’s fortresses.

Both my wife and I are dominant figures, and we raised both our daughter and son to be dominant personalities, both of whom in turn have married dominant personalities. I believe that the one who has paired us up is the only one who truly matters. And His will is always done when the final count is made. As John writes: “And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God abide forever.” (1 John 2:17)

P.S. I Love You. And I pray you love others.
Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. DLitt.
If you are inspired, read my latest book. Kindle eBook $3.99

I am a little too old to remember if either of my parents read stories to my sister and I at bedtime. I know my wife and I read to our children at bedtime when they were young. It is a great idea and custom to read bedtime stories. The custom is worldwide. However! Another custom comes from this, and this custom is so much more important: storytelling. We all have it; some of us are better than others.

In times past, the storytellers were those that kept the histories of the tribes, passing the knowledge from generation to generation. This was how the Bible was first written for us to read today. The bound book that we call the Bible is actually a collection of books that were written ages ago; they were stories told over and over again in the Twelve Tribes of the Israelites. Go look for some of the books left out of our official Bible; they are fascinating reading.

But getting back to telling stories, think back to your childhood and sharing some of your childhood with your children. Tell them the stories of your life! Tell them about growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, and playing baseball on 19th Street with a 36-inch piece of wooden dowel and a red rubber ball, with cars as first and third bases, and manhole covers as second and home plate. And no overhand pitching allowed. One cardinal rule: you could always call someone’s father a dirty name, but if you foul-mouthed his mother or sister, you were out of the game. We did have our honor rules.

So tell your stories; they can be fun sharing histories.

P.S. I Love You. And I pray you love others.
Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. D.Litt.
If you are inspired, read my latest book. Kindle eBook $3.99