Come with me; step into my spirit of love and imagination for a minute; come with me across the bridge from false beliefs to the land of love, peace and beauty, where a community of true freedom is daily life. This is the place where I am real because we are real. Our eyes are wide open to the Love of God all around us. God see in all of us, all through us, all above and below us; God protects us, walks before and behind us, keeping us safe wherever we go. God gives us a capacity to love as strong as a piece of bamboo, very strong and more pliant than we could ever imagine. May Love find you and may you be humbled in the presence of finches.
I look at the world and wonder, on a daily basis, if only. Then I asked myself if only what? What am I looking for? There is so much out there that could change. Look at the person on the street making a home where I fear to go. And I used the word fear because I’ve never been there. Jesus went there. Unafraid! He lived with the poor. He lived with the sick. He believed that in them. He knew he had to live with those people. Those people. My people. My brothers, my sisters, truly less fortunate than me. Like Jesus, I know who’s out there who needs help. But I fear going there. If only. Two very powerful words. Teo words that dare us. To go where we don’t want to go. If we could shine some light on that passage, we might try; however, it is the darkness of the nights and our ignorance and the madness of those areas that we refer to as “if only” that scare us. Scare us away from working with those that need our help, that we know who we are out there, waiting. . . just waiting for us to turn and see. If only. Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.
Unfortunately, we are trained to be disconnected people. All of our heroes in life are go-it-alone supermen who conquer all the villains that life throws in front of them, who then hop in their vintage cars and drive off into the sunset. Many of our books and most of our movies have the same theme. We have this theme because in reality our life is a series of burdens and uncertainties that disappoint us in our shallow, uninteresting daily lives. At some point, whatever our employment is, the joy and gloss is torn off to reveal the toil and mundane existence of the boring everyday existence of modern life. In our hearts and minds, we gradually deteriorate to a state of nothingness and joylessness that looks for any excitement it can find. Our physical world cannot give us this excitement forever. The light in our hearts must rise out of this mundane state allowing others to share in the will that God has put in the very core of our being that other people can observe and share, seeing the joyful difference, but realizing the similar internal feelings in their own very beings. When it does, this light from our hearts, that we all share, bears the image of God, raising us out of the mundane existence of human drudgery that no longer needs the artificial movie hero we formerly worshipped. We have overcome the enormous of influential disconnection to the message that Jesus taught so long ago and still teaches today, Love, God’s unending Love is always with us and outlasts all of our troubles, connecting us in infinite Love.
Do you see that person standing in the back of the crowd? She’s the one who is always sitting alone, many times hiding her face, too shy to speak her voice. Those few people who know her say that she has a very gentle heart, a very caring heart. When she speaks, she speaks with authority about the plight of the oppressed; she cautions that God wants us to value and respect people of all traditions and cultures equally. She laughs when she says that we should be a part of humane-ity. We should love one another as Jesus says. Could she be called by God to be our leader with her too-gentle heart? She offers God’s Grace fully and often, could her wholeness suffer the cruelty of our harsh world?
We (society) live in a world of choices, and sometimes our choices seem to sneak up on us (society) and tell us we have made a serious mistake. The terrible part of this is that we (society) are unable to change what we have done. We can be completely intolerant and blame it on the “other guy” (our neighbor). After all, it was his fault; he was the one who caused all the problems in the first place. Or, we can be tolerant, and roll up our sleeves and work together to fix the problems as they come along. Our first goal is to find a common place to start. We know that place; it has been laid out before us; it is within us; God has shown us the way. The lighted path will encourage us to work together to accomplish the work the must be done for us to be in control of our own lives. If we work together, we can gain control of our individual lives as God desires us to do. We have maximum control of our lives; not for the material goals of more money, but maximum control of life, true life, the life that matters, not the one constantly reaching out for material wealth The work God wants us to do, we can do together; it is non-adversarial; it is non-counterproductive, if that is such a word. When we work together to reach a fuller and richer life according to God’s wishes (and remember, they may be different for all of us), the result is a fulfillment not just for each individual but for society as a whole, Therefore the subject of tolerance versus intolerance really does not arise , since the fulfillment is the richness of each individual’s life. I have always believed that a full life of prayer and love will take us a long way to avoid intolerance in our world. Let us hold this spiritual truth in our minds as we walk together on the individual paths of our lives.
In the spiritual adventure of what we call life we discover that our life is like a drop of water in God’s eternity. With our family and friends always walking beside us, catching us when we falter, we are always assured that we are on the safe and treasured path that God has given is yesterday, today and tomorrow, allowing us to walk in His grace. When we forever take God’s Love and Grace as our everyday mantra, we treat all whom we meet with love and peace in our hearts and on our lips. Truly, Life is Good.
I was raised in a wealthy family, but not how you think. My father took a train to work every morning (we owned no car). My mother arose at four AM every morning to work in a bakery across the street from our third-floor apartment in which we lived. My sister and I walked to school every day carrying our deluxe lunches of lettuce and mayonnaise sandwiches. My father always told us before he left for work that God loves and protects us, and we should not be afraid of anything as we go to school. It was a code we were taught to live by. That was over 70 years ago. I have had a very good life, a sometimes-rough life, but a good life. My wife and I (together 57 years) live quietly, enjoy our children and grandchildren and occasionally get the chance to travel. My father was correct, God does not expect us to go it alone. Every time I fell, God was behind me to help me get back on my feet. With love of both God, my wife, and a lot of hard work, we gave life with lots of love to a healthy family hopefully raised in the old-fashioned way. As we begin a new year, we see our world as a very scary dangerous world. I see the headlines and there are no safe places to hide from those who want to do harm to whomever is in the way. New Orleans, Arizona, Virginia; individuals or groups have the intent to do harm to innocent people everywhere. My only defense is an offense, and that is to have love and peace in my heart and on my lips at all times, and to know that Love casts out all fears. So, trust God. You are not alone. God loves you.
Here it is, the end of another year! As true with all years, we have had to climb a few hills, but we also had some smooth paths to walk also. Generally, God has been good to us. As we approach the new year let us all keep on the path that God has paved for us. Greet others with a smile and share with them God’s love. Know your own heart and its ability to grow every time you meet others. Be in good health and trust your instincts; God put them there for a reason.
Meditating to Heal 
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