About the Author, Centering Prayer and Small Miracles

I was forced to retire because of a severe stroke on July 27th last year. The cause of my stroke was a violent coughing attack while I was at work.

I was almost totally paralyzed by the stroke. When I was admitted to the hospital, my speech was so severely impaired that I could only make incoherent sounds. I was hospitalized for over two weeks.

The nurses were surprised and upset with me when they first saw me moving about my hospital room. I have had to learn to sit up in bed, move about in bed, swallow liquids without gagging, eat small bites of food, chew without biting my tongue, move my hands and arms, hold a spoon, move the spoon to my mouth, write with a pen, struggle to stand up, and then take my first small steps and walk all over again. Now I walk every day for about two hours.

Being determined to make a full recovery - - I taught myself how to use a key board and to type all over again. This web site is my own design. In order to create it, I had to learn basic HTML.

The doctors were amazed by my recovery. My neurologist used the word "Miracle" three times when he reviewed my MRI reports with me ... The doctor kept looking at MRI's and looking at me and shaking his head with disbelief. He said that he could not believe I had walked into his examining room. He said that he could not understand how I had suffered such a massive stroke and could talk almost normally.

Doctors in the hospital told me my speech "might improve" for about three months. They explained that further real improvement after three months of speech therapy "would be unlikely" because there was "major brain damage." Yet, the improvement has continued every day until today. My speech is nearly perfect now.

I am attributing my recovery to the Lord's intervention and I believe in my heart that He granted me by grace a genuine Miracle healing. What is even more amazing is that I was not praying for my own recovery. I was praying for understanding and enlightenment.

I believe that the door for a possible healing was opened by my commitment to doing Centering Prayer. I had been doing Centering Prayer for a half-hour every day for six months prior to my stroke.

Now I continue to pray for guidance and discernment and practice Centering Prayer regularly.

Here is a link to the primary Centering Prayer web site. But you have to click on it to visit the site. It will only take a moment. It may change your life and bring you peace of mind.

Peace of the Lord be with you - - Douglas Oliver

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