Class assignment: Describe a miracle as you see it in your life

That's easy...My life at 90 is a miracle. Not a day passes that I do not marvel at the miracle of me. I occupy space. I can think, will, create, choose, appreciate beauty, make melodious sounds... Affirm and help other people. Like other humanoids, I believe that I stand at the crown of the creative process...."Nothing like us ever was."

Through Biological, Nutritious, and Medical insights, Life for some of us is now an amazing fulfillment of the Life Urge for many ,many more years than our parents and grandparents could even dream about. Recently, a stimulating Neighbor and friend of Carol and me; these past years; embraced me. As we hugged each other, she said "I know you know, I've been thinking of you. I don't believe in prayer, but I appreciate you and I know what you're going through.

She's part of my life and all of our lives, in the joys & sorrows of this wonderful place. Nearly everyone here has known grief and sorrow and all of us go on. No one is excused for wallowing in his own sorrow. No one is special. We're brothers & sisters in a unique way. Here we don't talk much about death ..but it's always in the shadows... of our daily life. It's such a permanent , physical thing. Carol, my soul-Partner for more than 65 years, morning after morning, during the past five years, would say she heard the Ambulance drive in the night before. Through my deafness I seldom was aware. Death keeps many appointments here.

Now, I appreciate this woman friend. I know, through her sharing with me some of the intimacies of her past life, both as a neighbor and Listening Post friend. She often shared her life and mutual interest in Peace and political concerns with me. Regardless of what we call it, the word "Prayer" is a wonderful inclusive word to me. The Indescribable within us reaches outside our limited self, to the Great Other from which we came and to whom we belong and shall return...

God's Residence it's another dimension, that fascinates me.

As I child my mother knelt beside me on her knees and waited until I had prayed night after night. My words were clumsy, largely selfish, but like the Alcoholic Anonymous creed, It reached out and admitted need. Prayer is turning one's life over to a "Higher Power."

My mother reminding me of an all-night prayer vigil for me to survive. My head was oversize with the Mastoid Infection.. She had buried my little brother and my Dad the year before. Like the imploring widow who came to Jesus, with all her heart she wanted me to live. In our home there was a motto on the wall which said "Prayer Changes Things." Theologically, I don't agree, but something does happen! There is I believe, a gray area where miracles occur. Call it a "telephonic pull on mysterious sources" if you will. When there is not prayer the miracle doesn't happen.

This I HAVE SEEN.

In my first Open Heart surgery, I experienced this pull back to my body. For me Mind touches Mind and We are "mysteriously & wondrously made" as the Scriptures say.

I can remember in my young adulthood years holding hands with Carol by the Cradles of our children in Bellingham, Washington. I remember watching them watch us in what I read as wonderment.

In awesome moments I do know that Prayer changes us, and maybe the conditions surrounding us. For me, Prayer has always been "the soul's sincere desire uttered or unexpressed. The motion of the fire of life trembling in my breast."

The communist teaching, to me, is right: Humanoids are incurably religious. Religious faith is like an opiate. I've always preferred mystery to inadequacy. I don't know.... I marvel and accept. A mysterious, miraculous Energy comes each day into my being. Enabling me to relate to my fellow Journeyer's on this Planet. I rejoice and say WOW. The throbbing of Life in my being is an amazing gift to invest.

As I have been sharing, in my over 60 years Christian Ministry I have seen the Miraculous. One night in a dimly lighted hospital room a 26 year old School teacher, to whom I had given blood, was dying. Her husband had messed up her life and his. She wheezed out that she was thankful for the blood, but that she wanted to die. She didn't care. The doctor and family, in the Hall and Family room outside were already yielded to her death. Holding her clammy hand, I prayed for a transfusion of power in her mind, that she might want to live... She had so much to give, as she was a truly talented and dedicated Teacher. I knew when I got up off my knees that a miracle had occurred. A week later she left the hospital and got a divorce. I saw her build in the next six years, an entirely new through the Prayers of Jesus, whose life to me was an unbroken prayer. I fail Him miserably, but He is my model and His Presence in me is a constant miracle sustaining me.

With the poet I say: More things are wrought by prayer than this world comprehends. Therefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain both night & day. For what are people more than sheep or goat if Knowing God they lift not hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends? Prayer is the soul's sincere desire. Through Him our first fond prayers are said, our lips of childhood frame. The last low whispers of the dead are burdened with his Name.

Lean hard on God. Wait... expect and rejoice...Nothing is too small or too great to place before God.

In love , Thanks for Scrolling,

-Dad, Grandad, and now Great Grandad Shikles 11-19-02