Meditating to Heal

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

We cannot forget who we are. We are called to be loving and caring children of God which means that we cannot overlook anyone in need. I have never met a person whom I would call a meek person. All whom I have met are wealthy; that does not mean they are rich. But all whom I have met have jobs, even if the job is mowing lawns or securing shopping carts in a parking lot.

The meek are the salt of the earth; these are the people who share all they have. My mother’s family was this way. There was not a crumb of food that they would not share with any stranger they met. Suffering through the horrors of the Great Depression, they understood how sharing benefitted all neighbors. Growing up in the city of my birth, we all shared. When a father lost a job, food appeared on the table of the family until a new job was found. These are the meek that Jesus adored. These are the meek that are missing in society today.

I am ashamed to have lost that ability to be meek. My life has not been so easy, but I have lost the ability to be meek in the way that Jesus asks. I have taught myself welcoming and forgiving and healing and to be spiritually open and loving to all of God’s creation. I try with every living breath to atone for my lacking ability to be as meek as Jesus asks.

But I think I fear to be the meek that Jesus praises when He speaks of those who will inherit the earth. God bless them. A wise man once wrote, “Do not forget who you are. Do not forget your calling to be God’s people in the world.” This is what we owe the meek.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlit.

I wonder why the word “vision” comes to mind when thinking of this first Beatitude. Perhaps, it is because the poor in all generations have little to celebrate in their lives and know that their reward awaits them in God’s comfort and arms in the next life. Maybe, those on the lower rungs of society realize that what they receive are gifts from God and are to be cherished beyond all other seeming realities.

Their vision of God is not in the amount of money a person has, but in the kindness that each person shows towards another. When I break my last piece of bread in half to share with my neighbor, both he and I are lifted by the kindness of the blessing. God is right there with us. This is our vision of Love.

Our kingdom of heaven is not in a future time; it is now; it is in the sharing of that last piece of bread so that both of us do not go hungry. It is that vision of love between us that brings God in our life and Love in our home to feed us greater than any amount of money can do.

When we are lifted by the vision of God with and within us, we are no longer poor in spirit; we are definitely sharing the kingdom of heaven.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlit.

“Now seeing the crowds, He went up on a mountain. And when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He began speaking and taught them, saying. . .”

And so, begins one of the most important lessons of humankind. Picture yourself as one of the multitudes that is sharing this wonderful moment. This man that we have heard o much about walks up this little rise and sits so that all the people can see him. He has no microphone or amplifier to help carry his voice over the fields for all to hear. Chances are he does not have one of these loud hawkers’ voices who makes a living selling chickens to passersby. He talks in a conversational style, but all can hear, because nobody stirs, nobody makes a noise; all want to hear want he says. All can hear, even those who are deaf.

We can hear, but do we listen? I remember as a 10 or 11-year-old I had to memorize these words for Sunday School. And I did. I remember key phrases such as hunger and thirst and poor in spirit, but that’s about it now. I do have to read them; my memory is that bad. That’s because back then I had to memorize words, not meanings.

Now, as I read these lessons and remember, Jesus sat down, he began speaking and taught. Taught is the key word that most of us forget. We must study each one word carefully to understand or try to understand what Jesus is trying to tell us.

I will take the next few days to try to unravel, at least in my own mind, what the meaning is for my world today. There is a comment form at the bottom of my blog that I encourage all to use. I used to tell my college students that I may be the professor, but we are on a life-long learning journey together and will always and forever learn from each other. The extra letters after my name don’t mean a thing. . . (if it ain’t got that swing!!!!!) if you get what I mean.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. DLitt.

We all know what Thanksgiving is. It is a time for families to join together around one dinner table and share a feast fixed by several members of each branch of the family. The final outcome is shared by all, maybe not loved by all, I still cannot get used to okra or Brussel sprouts, but I have learned to love various forms of squash.

However, what I really enjoy is the repartee between the family members, both good and bad. We don’t always get along, and there are harsh words that are shared, but when we sit down for dinner, and the prayer is said, conversation is blessed and harsh words are forgotten, or at lest laid aside until after the football games are over late at night.

As this Thanksgiving 2023 is rapidly approaching I am reflecting on a very rough year I have had leading me to this year at Thanksgiving. Not all my family will be together. Part of the family will be on the west coast with another part in the Southwest; separate but never forgotten. We will be joined by our Northeastern faction and our Southeastern factions making a large group from me in at 80 to pre-teens.

Our political views differ greatly, but what is even more important is that our football rivalries are even stronger and much more argumentative. There will be fireworks regardless of who is playing on Thanksgiving day. Beer and wine will flow freely.

Being the old man in the group, and being the poet in the group, I am lucky enough to say the prayers for all the meals. I always try to write new ones each year. I am beginning to compose those for this year today November 1^st.

My heart is lifted by the joy of family surrounded by love sharing stories of life lived since last time seen. Age matters not for God is present in the center of the room passing messages filled with love from one generation to another. The lives shared in the jargons used are appreciated by all because all feel God’s hand pulling us closer together in His grace and passion.

Four Hundred years ago, God brought two different cultures together for the first Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that He can bring our family together this year to share a meal in His love and grace as mankind did so long ago.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. DLitt.

Whatever sound it is, the alarm tolls on Monday morning and we are free from our relaxed self of the weekend ritual of frolicking emptiness of little fulfillment. Nothing we have heard in our Mosque, Synagogue, or Church has stayed with us longer than the time it has taken for us to walk to our cars after leaving the portals of faith that have had little effect in our lives. We are consumed by the vacuum constructed by the falseness in our lives that has been built by our lack of time to really connect with God in true prayer.

We are often too busy to connect to our conscience, the honesty of our true self, you know, the one that belongs to God. Listen, it speaks to you, it is your voice of reason, your voice of love. All the loving events of your life are the results of the reasons drawn by your conscience, the loving conscience that God gives us. This is the relationship that is everlasting life, everlasting loving life.

Stop being too busy to let your contemplative life begin and let God in. Let God form your relationship with your family and friends. Let God, in your contemplative life, draw you closer to Him, and closer to your family through love, through kindness, through understanding of what true life is about.

We just think we are creatures of habit because society demands that we be this way. Our professions demand that we be too busy to be creatures of love. I was in the business world, and then transformed myself into being a teacher, and I loved being a teacher. I loved my students and treated my students with love. But education was my job, and with this job, and many times, with this job, even though I loved it, I was too busy for life.

Now I know that I can never be too busy fora what is important. God wants me to Love. So as often as I can, and that means as often as I can remember at my age, I reach out in Love to all I know. I reach out to family to say I love you; I reach out to neighbors to say I love you; I reach out to friends to say I love you; I reach out to those I meet on my walks and say I love you. Each morning and each night I tell God I love you.

I am never too busy.

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

Who is God? We don’t know; we really do not ever truly know. I don’t know, but I continue to pray. We live in this thick cloud of unknowing of who God truly is, but we must continue loving, for loving is the one true commandment that matters in the world in which we live; when we love God, when we love each other, we lift this cloud of doubt and understand that no matter how confused we are about not knowing who God is, we do know that God loves us and therefore we love each other. Love guides us to peace and harmony in our lives. We cannot reach this harmony without the prayers that we practice.

James writes (1:19) “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” The prayers that we speak in whatever language, in whatever prayer book we read, in whatever prayer building we kneel in, for none of these differences matter, because when we pray to the You the God who birthed us from our mother’s womb into this world, created by You. Something comes from our prayers; we just may not realize it; it comes in Your time, not ours.

Think. . . think all that is possible; think of a new commandment; dare to be happy when you pray; dare to bring that happiness into your life; dare to make this happiness possible in our dangerous world of war and street violence. God saved me from going into war, but street violence is all around me; at times is scares me, but as I walk the streets of my town I am comfortable knowing that I walk in the arms of God.

We get what we pray for; I guarantee this as a fact. I stopped praying for money and wealth and began praying for happiness. When I became a teacher, I worked harder than I ever worked in my life, but I never worked so easily in my life. I loved it. It was my calling. I wasn’t searching for wealth; I was searching for happiness; God led me to my students and the gave me more happiness than I deserved. I don’t pray for happiness anymore; God gave me all I will ever need; I now pray for Truth. It is what I have been praying for my entire life; I just did not know it.

My prayer is for Truth; I find this in God; although I have no idea who or how grand God is, I know that somewhere in the greatness of God is Truth, and I am blessed to be floating in the comfort of discovery of Truth. This is prayer.

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

And Jesus said, “and the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ This begs two questions: do we love ourselves and do we understand what Jesus means. I’m not sure that I can answer either of these two questions. Only you can.

Just as the pace of God’s Love grows in us each morning as we rise for the new day determines how much the element of spiritual love will shine throughout the day. This spirituality will express itself through the love we show our fellow man, from those we work with to those we pass on the street begging for a handout.

Which one is our neighbor, and which one is ourself? Are we the neighbor who is sitting at a desk closing a business deal, or standing in front of a classroom filled with young mind, all because our parents were wealthy enough to send us to a college allowing us to get a good job saving us from standing on a street corner begging for a handout?

What is the difference between us and that person who begs for a handout on the corner? Is there a difference? Is he me? Am I him? Can I love him as myself? Can he love me as himself? Are we neighbors? Are we one in the same, separated only by economic standards? Are we truly equal because we are both hands of God?

It takes a long time to think about things like this. It takes even longer to try to understand things like this. Finally, we realize that the only answer is that God is the only one that truly knows and if we love God, truly love God, we love our neighbor, we love ourselves, because God creates us both in love and grace. And with love, we are all equal in God’s realm. We are the poor urchin standing, begging on the corner; we are that person ignored by society, punished because he did not get the education that we were given; we are his neighbor who we love as ourselves; we both are God’s love, as one. . . forever. I love you neighbor!

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

God asks me to spend my life opening the mind of others

however inept was I at those subjects learned in school

not knowing I was learning what I already knew

not knowing that I would be teaching what others already knew

but that is life; the truth better is learned not taught

for it is what we receive from God that matters

we receive His gifts which are our natural abilities

for which we must use to be charitable to those who are in need

for those who do not realize the gifts they receive

we are charitable with our gifts and hold God in our reverence

and share God’s Grace of Love and generosity

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

I’ ve been thinking quite a bit about today. Do we have any idea how important today is? Today is the most important day of our lives. Yesterday is gone; it will never happen again. Good or  bad, yesterday will never happen so let’s forget about it and turn the page on a new experience.

God gives us each new day! And man, in his absolute craziness and egotism, decided to split the day into hours and then into minutes. Even so, each minute is special. No two minutes are the same. No two minutes occur at the same time; they are unique in themselves. God makes sure of this, so we are not confused. God makes sure that time continues regardless of how we think we can control it. We cannot; only God can. Time is His creation, as are we.

Today is His creation; yesterday was His, but He does not want us to worry about yesterday, because yesterday is gone, never to be repeated, only to be learned from. Yesterday is darkness and God does not want us to live in darkness. Which is why we have today; today is a new world, a brighter world free of all the cares and worries of yesterday because yesterday is never to be repeated. Remember, God will never give us two minutes that are the same, much less two days that are the same.

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.

we take each other’s hands as truly God doth ask, and we link our spirits with our hands, the good in each other seeks the friendship that is holy although many times an uneasy task, but God’s promise comes to us in our souls to repair open holes in our heart. let God take our hands in friendship anew, to share our journeys, to ask of our questions of each other and serve humanity with God’s gratitude, grace, and love that’s true for as brothers and sisters, we share our concerns. with friendship we are strangers no longer
withdrawn and we lose our self-importance, and accept our oneness with God; we see each other as beautiful swans floating effortlessly on the lake of life knowing that each day that we live ‘tis truly that God doth Bless us equally.

© Russell Kendall Carter, B.A., M.A.T., D.Lit.