Meditating to Heal

I look Above and there’s an angel on the wall, a simple Christmas tree ornament I hung there in defiance of letting the spirit of Christmas die after January first. It hangs right beneath the picture of my father who inspires me to be who I am today. My father, who I swear was the angel who pulled me back from the edge of death twice and now encourages me to write.

Angels are an important part of my life as I age; they comfort me in my times of struggle. It’s not that I don’t believe in God; it’s just that I believe that God is this massive spiritual entity that has commissioned angels, just as Jesus commissioned his disciples, to go out and comfort those in need. God cares. . .  and angels are here to extend that care and comfort to all who take the time to stop and feel the comfort that is present inside of the existence we are born with; the existence that is given to us at birth. This is the eternal Love of God.

So, I say “Look above!” That is only instinctual. What I truly mean is look within. Find the truth and love of God that the angel that dwells within is there for the finding, there for the loving, there for the caring, and there for the guidance that brings happiness, community, and tenderness to our lives.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

One of the first things I do each morning when I awaken is to tell my wife that I love her. I do this because I have had many friends die suddenly and I never want my wife to think that I do not love her. I also thank God for one more day on this planet called Earth. I do both of these things because for some reason, and I don’t know why, I have been allowed to walk on this world for 80 years.

And during these 80 years I have been crushed by any number of seemingly unsolvable problems. The first major problem was a car accident that I should not have survived; I was 40 years old. It took me over a year to recover and then another  five years to realize that the business I was running before the accident could not be refurbished. When I turned around, I realized that I was not meant to be in business at all, while I was recovering I was volunteering at my children’s high school.

I was hired first as a swim team coach and then with a little coaxing and two years back at college getting a master’s in history, I was hired as a history teacher. I never realized that inside a near-fatal auto accident was life-giving gift. Life giving not for me, but for all of the students that I had for the thirteen years that I taught at that local school. I still stay connected with many of them as they now have families of their own.

Ten years after the auto accident and six months before I began teaching, I  ended up in the hospital again after lying in bed for almost a week with what I thought was a stomachache but instead was a burst lower intestine. I almost died again. I was at that gate viewing the glorious land beyond when a voice pulled me back and told me not yet.

But that was not the wonderful part. Three angels visited me and stayed with me while I was in the hospital and kept whispering to me. Of course, I could not hear them, or maybe I just wasn’t listening. But in my seventh year of teaching, I was sitting at my desk grading papers, when my father sat down next to me.

I was not shocked to see him, even though he had died almost thirty years prior. He said to me, “You know when your sister prevented you from crossing over, the three of us, including your mother, kept guarding you and telling you to go back to college to study the great writers in history. But of course, you never listen to us” And he disappeared.

I thought about this, talked it over with my wife, and went back to college, got a doctorate in literature and ended my career teaching literature and writing in a community college. I finally, fully retired at the age of 75.

Two near dear experiences; two traumatic problems, two blessings that changed my life. Two gifts to hundreds of students’ lives that I touched for twenty-four years and lives that they in turn touched as they live their lives. There is no such thing as a problem that comes to you that is without a blessing that follows. Trust me. A problem is like a leaf falling from a tree. When you turn it over – there is a golden gift hidden beneath it.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

This one is almost impossible to interpret in today’s image, especially the word righteousness, for there is no real interpretation of this word that we can understand in the way that Jesus presents it.

Martin Luther King gave a wonderful talk where he proclaimed, “ I have a dream.” That dream has yet to be fulfilled. That dream is so very tied to the righteousness that Jesus refers to that the similarities are chilling to the bone. Martin’s world, and Jesus’ world, is the dream, their image is the dream, and the dream is beautiful, where the material world, is pure evil.

Mankind cares little for those who hunger for righteousness; mankind cares only for the other god, money.

Follow me for a moment; by using illusion, I have turned my body into a tree, and we all know that most of a tree’s life is underground.

In this way, I have been able to get by the wall that society has placed in front of me, that material restriction called money, and allowed me to rise from the depths of the darkness of discouragement to see the blue skies of God’s reality.

The clouds of ugliness that society’s greed has placed upon us are only temporal; God does not place them there. We also we soar high, following the flight of birds, off the branches of God’s trees, to be fulfilled in the richness of God’s everlasting of Love, achieving the righteousness promised by Jesus.

Let’s meditate on the. . . and Happy New Year!

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. DLitt

I am a simple man; I enjoy the simple life with family. Each member of the family is a character in his or her own right and can easily get on someone’s nerves. This always happens. But, isn’t this the beauty of the family? A family can live close or live far and side, but they are still family, tied together forever by a bond so strong that the sharpest knife or swiftest sword cannot sever its ties. We are family.

The bond that holds us is love; the strongest and most permanent feeling and symbol known to mankind. We are born in love; from the moment we leave our mother’s womb we are coveted by the hugs and care of first the nurses who clean us and then the mother who continues to feed us. Then we are cuddled by every family member that comes to visit in the hospital. Love, it is the reason they are all there.

Love, it is the beginning of the family, the simple family.

Merry Christmas and remember we are all agents of God’s kingdom on earth, and we must always be listening to His voice within.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. DLitt.

I sometimes wonder why we as humans care so little about life. Take a look at the sides of the roads as we travel from place to place; the trash that is thrown out car windows is amazing. We have no respect for the nature that surrounds us. We joke about the roadkill that lies on the sides of or even pulverized in the middle of the roads, forgetting that these mounds of blooding flesh were at one time living creatures that helped keep the balance of nature thriving.

We are the fictional characters on the motion pictures screen being watched by the real people centuries from now in the movie theaters who are our great, great grandchildren, sickened by what they see of the corrupted culture we have become. They are so happy that their society has left behind the selfishness of their ancestors of centuries past. Yes folks, I’m talking about our great, great grandchildren thinking of us as fictional characters who never understood right from wrong. Never understood that respecting God’s creation is much more important that amassing selfish avariciousness.

We are very lucky to have been led by a teacher who came to us bearing nothing by a will to lead us into a life of spiritual beauty, one that is not distant or impossible to achieve, but one that is ever present and allows us to be truly the whole man and whole woman, capable of living a very powerful spirit-led life. This is a life that leaves loneliness behind, because it is filled with the brotherhood an sisterhood that only God can fill.

This teacher came to bring people from far and near, people who believed differently from far and near, people who looked different from far and near to pray together, to sing together, to share a meal together that God gives us every day. This is the life that God promises. This is the life of love that this teacher asks us to follow; this is the life that many wise prophets from many cultures teach us to follow, regardless of what religion they are from. It is a life of peace and love. It is a life of sharing a single meal given to us from God, regardless of what name we use for Him.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlit.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Math5:4.

For what do we mourn today? Are we so implanted in trained societal ways that we mourn only for those things that are replaceable? If so, we could be living a replaceable life, a life so poor in spirit that we are so weak in spirit and love that we are missing God’s reason for us being here.

Let us face reality; we all mourn, not just the poor. We all  all mourn for a society where there is true equality, and God’s laws are followed. But let’s face it; society does not govern what determines how we live. Our own business view of life rules our contentment. The first fact we must accept is that if we are still alive, the mission God gives us is not finished; so, be happy, be aware. Leave boredom behind; you do not have time for it.

Be open to meeting old and new friends for the first time, over and over again. This is inevitable, it is also lifegiving and fulfilling moments of happiness. But remember, this happiness comes from within. Do not depend on others for this happiness; if you do, it is false happiness. True happiness comes from God and God is within you – remember this.

When you join a group of new and old friends, let it be known that you have limitations, both old and new, and that you have limitations, and that these limitations have expansions and sure enough, you will pursue these for the benefit of the group because this is God’s way. And by all means,. when you find this group of old, new friends, choose the happiness; this is God’s wish for all of you. This is so you will not mourn.

So whatever hardships come your way, singly or as a group, God will protect you, God will love you, God loves you, and with God’s Love, may you mourn no more.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlit.

I sometimes wonder if I am a real person. I think of myself as a retired professor with my best years behind me with little promise of which to look forward. I feel that the fictional characters that I read of and often write of have greater adventures and definitely brighter futures than I have. Even though I have a strong family, my life is filled with a sense of loneliness.

And then I think about my true self, my spiritual being, the identity that is truly me. Inside my ancient body beats a strong piece of God, and that heartbeat makes me a powerful person, even at my retired status. I have learned to live a spirit-led life.

Many years ago, there was a man who taught us who we are, bringing us peace and love, and a message that God was giving away something very precious, a piece of Himself. I know, I have a piece of God in my heart; it keeps me alive and strong every day; It is my true spiritual identity.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlit.

“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.