God and America

I can still remember so vividly my sad days of WWII when I was a young boy, and I suffered and cried along with so many other people. We all prayed each and every day, and we asked God and America to help us in our desperate time of need. I can still envision, in my mind, all of the times during the early sunrises and the late sunsets how my Mother and I sat by our warm fireplace and begged God and America to send us some relief and help. The fresh days of W. W. II were still on my mind when I received my first Holy Communion, and on that same day when I first received the body of Jesus Christ, I also received my first one dollar bill from my Godfather, Alex. I remember the joy I felt in my heart as I said, “Thank you God, and Thank you, America.” This dollar and I became the best, inseparable friends for the next twelve years of my young, tough and impressionable life. This friend built up my hopes as I carried it with me daily in my old, torn up, empty wallet that once belonged to my father. I made sure that whenever I had it in my pocket, it stuck out and it showed just a bit. Everyone who lived in my town of Croatia “knew” my one dollar bill better than they knew me, a ten year old boy. Then, one day when I got older, this same one dollar bill served the former Yugoslavia’s Communist Army with me for two lengthy years. It always stuck its head out of my big, empty, wallet. It was the kind of a dollar which meant the world to me, and there wasn’t anything in this world that I would have traded it for. My dollar tested and evaluated minds of many people and it discovered the truth for twelve years, as it traveled with me no matter where I’d go. I can tell you America, that “little people” around the world always loved you and they still do, but I am sad to also tell you that you do not have any “big friends.”

In 1961, I carried with me my one dollar bill back to its home, to its birthplace, and to his own mother’s hands. It was then that I once again thanked God and America for all of their help. It was at this time when I first set my foot on the American soil that I knew my wishes and my dreams of so many years have been fulfilled. I was now able to “taste” the beautiful, peaceful life that America offered. At the same time, I was not longer able to live my life with my good friend, the one dollar bill I possessed and carried with me for so many years. This bill woke up my tender mind and aided me to think and learn about life. It was not easy to depart from my good friend and send my first treasured piece of good luck out there to go from hand to hand. As I slowly let go of it, I had fond flashback memories of the day, of the hour, when I had the fortune to receive it in the first place. It was an unbelievable experience for me, and I am unable to express my exact feelings of how lucky I felt at that moment. Only God, my one dollar bill, and I could relate to that special moment, but we all knew how many other people in this world were also waiting and praying to God and America to help them, as well.

On the second day of my arrival to America, and on the second day of walking on the soil of this great land, I began to think about America and the world that’s around us. I remember how I reached into my pocket very slowly, pulled out my wallet and faced my one dollar bill as I said, “Today, before the sun sets, you must go and help the world.” I put my friend back in my pocket and walked down a street where I saw a store. I walked inside and, there, I bought my first pair of something every person could use. Yes, it was underwear. I took out my friend, my one dollar bill, and before I reluctantly departed with it, I kissed it and said, “Now, go out there, from hand to hand and help build their hopes as you once helped build mine.” The dollar left my hand and I was left with an empty wallet, holding a brand new pair of underwear. However, I was left with a hope, and the same wish that the sun expresses to this nature and the world, each day as it shows its face to us.

America, you always possessed certain beauty and you still do. You were able to do what the world could not, and you must do what the world couldn’t and will not do. Not so long ago, you adopted, and the world adopted, what our nature’s health cannot; you adopted a child. Now, this world needs you. It is at our present time, and at a time which our nature faces, that I am unable to separate the American power from God and His nature’s power. No matter how I examine and look at our life, freedom health and the philosophy of life, I cannot, in any way, see how the bottom can be separated from the top. America, you need the world, and, World, you need America and its life’s drops. However, World, please try not to ever squeeze out the last drop, because its taste will be neither sour nor sweet.

I am kindly asking the world not to burry my life’s philosophy, because the soil of that grave may not want to accept it. America, you are the mother of our world. Please, make a sharp turn, as quickly as you possibly can, and no matter what can happen, and will happen, follow God and the power of His nature. You will not fail, in your attempt, to find what this nature is missing, and more importantly, the entire world will follow your footsteps. You, America, have the sole power to do what the rest of the world cannot, and will not do. Save, not only yourself, but also your child, the beautiful world.

World, as I am coming to the end of this writing, I’d like to leave you with my last wish; it is the very same wish that the sun possesses at its daily morning’s rise, “Today is for tomorrow!”

I strongly believe that no matter what we, writers, write, or what the educators teach, it is a food consumed by the mind, and for the mind. My love for writing and art existed ever since the early childhood days when I lived on a farm in Croatia, and this burning sensation grew as I grew. However, my life took me in another direction. It took me to a new faraway land, to a family of my own and, as it seized my hand, life walked with me on the other side of the road. It was a long, uneasy road. I walked down this road and lived with a tremendous load on my mind and in my heart. As years flew by I very often conversed with God and asked him, “God, why am I not writing?” I always made myself content when I thought, “Well, I am sure there must be a good reason for it!” Just the same, each new day greeted me with the beauty of Nature, God’s worldly creation, and I could almost hear it whispering to me, “No, it is not too late for your dreams to come true. Nature’s power and truth is still here, a very predictable future days. It is not too late for you to write. The day will come when you will be able to speed up and catch up to the other existing writers, time, and to some of the writers who are now resting in peace.”

I can recollect the very early times of my life when my writing and illustrating was accomplished, not by the use of a pen and paper or a brush, but simply by my mind. I scripted and drew people’s faces and thoughts in my mind, and my perseverance and beliefs always assured me that I was very fortunate to have a wonderful good friend who will help me how to write and tell me what I should write. I continued observing, enjoying and respecting God’s creation, the many plants and various fruit trees, and His creation brought me to a realization of why I was unable to write in the earlier years of my life, and, why, at the same time I haven’t really lost any time. It was obvious to me that my life developed and grew in the same way that the plants and the fruit trees grow. Plants are unable to have their seeds, and the fruit trees are unable to bare fruits, before it is their time, the right time. This is exactly what has happened to me, as well. I, just as the seeds and the fruit ripen, or should I say, used to ripen, ripened at the right time.

It was not long ago that in the middle of a deep dark night, I was awakened by it. It was then, that I seized a pencil in my hand, and as I held it, I knew in my mind and heart that I was facing God, his Nature, and the many beautiful faces of children who had bright thirsty minds as they were waiting for that sunrise, waiting and waiting for the daylight. As I continued to grip the pencil, I began to have thoughts about some parents, teachers and writers. These thoughts flew through my mind and there was in particular one thought, one life’s very late question, which in reality, I felt was the greatest early life’s answer and that was, “What are our children able to learn so that at the same time they are learning, they can also gain Knowledge?” I knew that I was facing Nature and the waiting children, and as I continued to hold onto my writing instrument, although there were so many existing words, I had a tremendous difficulty to begin writing. However, my inspiration came from within my own heart when I heard myself saying the words, “Help me, God! It was then that I was finally able to put down my “first dot’, and slowly I began to make a line, as I pondered to myself, “Will this line, my written words, change my lifestyle?”

The first eighteen years of my life were wonderful, because most of them were spent, working with my father, in the family fields, under the scorching sun. Yes, it was hard work, but I was satisfied and pleased with my life because it gave me a tremendous happiness to know that I was able to help feed other lives. I asked myself and God, “Can I do it again? As a writer, am I able to feed the human mind with my words, and can I aid my love, the rest of the Nature’s minds, bodies and hearts?” I know that every writer who writes, does so, for a good reason. A writer could have one, two, or more reasons, or it could be because of life itself which compels him to write. My reason for writing is life itself. Some of the written words, as well as the spoken ones, possess the power to turn, and to turn this world around, whereas, others have the power to stop and destroy. I believe there is a major difference between the spoken and the written words. Some of the spoken words that come out of our mouths, can dry up and disappear like the raindrops, while others will remain in our minds and hearts as the first beautiful spring flowers. Some spoken words can also dry up in our minds and hearts and leave a residue that’s similar to a spot of black ink. Written words, I feel, cannot dry up. No matter what we, the writers, write, or the teachers teach, our words are a vital food for the human mind, body and heart. These words should and must, therefore, be sound, “healthy” words. They should possess the same power which is contained within the organically grown food. Remember, health is freedom, but not without health. “Healthy” words are the greatest food God ever could’ve created. They are the healthy, sweet words possessing the power to move a sick person out of bed, and on his feet. We as teachers, healers and writers need to exercise the use of words which can, and should help “wake up” the human mind and help us create a good day’s work and a peaceful night’s rest and sleep. We must, with our words, help prevent, especially the young people, from wasting their sweet lifetime away. They must think, learn and write and participate in reading that will teach them something useful in life, and not just entertain themselves with “nothing,” because this nothing could be much worse than “nothing. Nothing doesn’t exist. However, we can very easily create “nothing,” and as a result have nothing. I believe that we, the people, must be held accountable for irresponsibilities.

May I ask you writers, teachers, healers, young people, parents and grandparents, a very simple, yet a very important question? Why are we allowing ourselves to lose respect for life, freedom and health? No matter what we involve ourselves in, whether we are learning, talking, reading or writing, it all falls into one funnel of life and into one huge world’s bottle of life. No one can escape from it. Each and every person in this world will, and must, take a taste, eat, and drink from it. No matter how we turn or examine this bottle we will find the one truth and, our truths.

I must tell you that before I became a writer, I was an ordinary farmer. I did not study philosophy in school; I simply tasted the nature’s truth which I found in our Nature. I am still able to recall the days of long ago, when I was only a teenage boy of fourteen. Even back then, I found myself worrying about “these days” and their physical existence. However, then, as well as now, I always relied on religion, as a base, to give me a sound, strong and healthy life’s support.

I lived through the treacherous days of W. W. II and I realized even then, when I was a young boy, that once the war ended, we began to change very rapidly. We started to lose respect for our nature, which in turn, is the respect for our life, freedom and health. We began to “feed” our children with less and less each day. We started to quickly build a new history, a quiet revolution between Nature and us, humans. We erected big world’s life pressures, but I fear that we haven’t yet been able to successfully and completely separate the night from the day. Too many of us, however, did succeed to forget the rest of our nature’s language, the one single language. Now our one world is at a standstill, and it doesn’t know how to ask for that which our freedom and health is asking us. As a new writer, I am deeply worried about our many truths. I believe that some of my worries and thoughts were inherited by me from my Mother, because although it was so long ago, I am still able to remember how my Mother always worried about the next approaching year. I can still hear those impressive, repetitive words she uttered to me almost on a daily basis, “Don’t hurt yourself! Tell me what are you doing, and where are you going? Don’t get lost and make sure you’re home early.” I was a young boy then, and now I am a father and a grandfather, and I, too worry! I worry about many truths. I ask you, world, can you possibly tell me, “Who wouldn’t worry and why wouldn’t they worry?

As a writer, I am constantly thinking and worrying about the dilemma, which is, that most of the world may not care to hear, or know, what my wishes are, but I cannot tell what they are not.

I am specifically addressing the children and the young people of the world. What are you doing, and where are you going? Please, make sure you are home early. I am also asking all of the writers, teacher and healers, “Please, help me to write. Help me to plant your words and mind in a similar way in which the skilled farmers spread and plant their organic seeds over their farmland. Help me to plant healthy food for the mind.