October's Balcony

I used to get on the inversion table once, twice, three times a week.  For those who don’t know, an inversion table adjusted to your height and used properly, helps greatly in facilitating the correct alignment of your spine, neck and total body.  You stay inverted for two to three minutes and then move your arms forward to your waist and the incline brings you up right. Now you can unlock the bindings on your legs and exit the machine. Yes, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.  Let me tell

What are the “Amen Days”?  Well, for me, they’re those days that everything I write or read, I want to say “Amen” to.   Amen means, “So be it.”  When we say, “Amen”, we mean we are in agreement with the quote or the prayer or the circumstance, we are involved in at the moment.  So, I love the “Amen Days”. On those days, my heart is in agreement with the text I’m reading or the words I hear repeated.  Either way, it’s an “Amen Day”.  Unfortunately, we have too few “Amen Days”.  If we let it,

Perhaps that is what time is all about. Not so much the movements of the fast pace we find ourselves in, but rather the pauses.

The old steam engine groaned and bellowed and blew black smoke as it climbed the many steep inclines and then it seemed to sing as it picked up speed going down the other side.  Giuseppe looked at the other passengers in the train.  A young man, who looked to be about 17, was seated across the aisle from him.  Giuseppe decided he would introduce himself and engage in some conversation to pass the time. “Hello,” Giuseppe said.  “My name is Giuseppe Geovanni,” and he stuck out his hand to greet

Chapter 2 (The 2nd Element Continues) Two Years Later “Giuseppe, come in here please.”  His mother called from the kitchen.  “Your Poppa and I have something to tell you.” Giuseppe walked into the kitchen where his parents had been quietly talking for a long time.  “Yes Momma, what is it?”  Giuseppe asked. “Poppa and I have a surprise for you.”  The tone of her voice and the look on her face let Giuseppe know that her news was something that she could hardly wait to share with him.  “I have

The 4th Element Continues... II Giuseppe Geovanni grew up in Sicily.  Sicily is an island located in the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea, off the toe of the boot of Italy.  Giuseppe loved his home and his mother and father.  He was the eldest of five children and the sanctity of home and family, had long taken hold of him and he held his family in high esteem.  He would have done anything he could to make their lives better.  His father was a shoe cobbler and his mother a housewife that

The 4th Element By J.R. Martin Prologue The old man’s fading blue eyes looked over the rim of the half glasses perched precariously on the bridge of his thin nose. The young blonde haired boy with sun sprinkled freckles across his round cheeks was speaking. “But grandfather, you know the answer to everything. I’m gonna ask you again. Where were you born?  You were there weren’t you?” “Of course I was there,” the old man replied, “but that has been many years ago. And after all, all I

What are the Spirits of Darkness? “Sprits of Darkness” are those things inside our mind and heart that we can never look at in the brightness of day.  They are the things that only God sees hidden deep in our hearts.  The fears, doubts, disbeliefs, and questions we are afraid to ask aloud so we hide them in the dark recesses of our mind where no one can see.   Two of these are guilt and shame. Guilt is kinder to us than shame.  Many things can make us feel guilty and sometimes that can be a