6/23/2020 – Thoughts about my 61st Birthday!
Oh, the pictures are from the surprise party that my wife Dawn Carter gave me last year for my 60th birthday. This came up in memory items from last year. And with a 61 year old brain, I needed the memory jogged to write this post. LOL 
61 years ago today at the Old Community General Hospital in Thomasville, North Carolina, Mary Louise Carter better known as Louise, and John Woodard Carter Senior gave birth to their last child. They didn’t have far to go to bring me home. The hospital was literally one block from the house , where I was raised on Pennington Avenue. I am told I was a very high-strung, hypertensive bouncing off the walls boy. 
I was so high energy as a child that I literally banged my head go to sleep. And literally banging my head against the wall to get my way. Daddy conquered that terrible Habit in me, by waiting till one day when Mama wasn’t there and telling me to hit my head harder, and even harder still, if I could. I bang my head harder and harder until I could see that the only thing I was going to gain by it was a sore head, seeing that he wasn’t going to give in to my shenanigans and gratefully unlearned that habit. Sometimes hardheadedness has been a problem and sometimes it has been a blessing. But that is the real story how I unlearned that aspect of my childhood hyperacceleration Lol. but really.
I talked a mile a minute, excelled in every game that had a ball in it; including breaking all the windows in the house repeatedly. An approach to every endeavor with explosive enthusiasm. Somehow my parents survived my extreme energy and managed to love me and guide me to adulthood. Had you told them at that time, that I would grow into an adult who liked woods, Field & Stream, solitude & quiet, above more high paced settings; They would have told you you were crazy.
Anyway, God has been with me every step of the way. And I am thankful for my whole life. Even though there are parts of it, that I would certainly do different if I had it to do again. As I am sure, many of us wood. Although, it took all that I went through to get me where I am today: A happy, thankful, fulfilled person, good goals & meaningful projects and very focused on a healthy, well adjusted life.
It is no wonder, that the book I have been working on finishing writing for the last four years will be called Dear Life. Because that is how I feel. That my life has been very good. If you ask me how I am today, 9 out of 10 times, I will tell you I am blessed! And I truly am! I love my wife Dawn! I love my children! I love what I do and why I do it!” God has used the last 61 years to make me what I am today. I hope to live a lot longer. But should life end unexpectedly soon, I know I am ready to go.
I look at that last moment of life, in the same kind of way that a hot person, on a hot day would look at the prospect of jumping in a cool, clean pool. You are ready to jump eagerly, with pleasant anticipation. God has blessed me with a foretaste of eternal life and should I die right away. I look at death as the path of peace, into a more wonderful eternal future. Much as a seed would look forward to being planted in the ground, as just the Amazing vehicle of transformation, that will turn it into something brand new and more wonderful.
I will never forget that my mother taught me a little prayer that I bet many of your parents taught you, each night “I lay me down to sleep. I ask the Lord my soul to keep. And If I die before I wake. I trust the Lord my soul to take!” And evenso, I do!
Yet, the older I live, the more I learn how to bless and do good to other people. And the more I learn about how to be a well-rounded happy person in Christ. Even though I did start life, with as much frenetic frenzy as a pin ball. Lol. Being aware of that start just makes the joy of Life becoming so good and well rounded, even better. So I hope I live on this Earth for a very long time. But probably not another 61 years. God bless each one of you, my friends! Timothy Grant Carter, aka “Slam”- So I am!
Slam & his karate class 2019!
