It’s Day ONE of Flash August Fiction. Here we go, folks. The journey begins. Where will it take us? 30 stories and podcasts in 30 days. I’m Commercial Herschel. You’re welcome. What do you think about prayer and intent, and all of that? I can tell you that when I meditate, and focus, essentially the same thing as prayer, my life is better. The only thing I can’t figure out is why I’m so inconsistent about doing it.
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and , two of my morning show chat pals. If you live in Illinois, you need Fox River Taxi to get you around. Ryan can help you with that.Day One of Flash August Fiction
Prayer and Medicine
760 words in about 30 minutes
Philip was feeling better. He had been under the weather for weeks. It was affecting him psychologically because he couldn't figure out why he wasn't seeing improvement. He just figured he had a slight infection. Maybe he handled something that some rats in the barn had scurried across. Maybe, when he helped Mr. Bronner move all that old furniture from his basement, he picked something up. You never know, but whatever it was, it was more serious, and was taking longer to heal than he thought it should.
Philip didn't have a doctor. He had no health care plan. He couldn't afford insurance payments; he was barely getting by as it was. So many people in his country, even though they had insurance, would get denied by the corporations when they needed help anyway, and those corporations have captured the protection services in the government, so people are left with no protection or recourse. They paid into a system, and then when they needed it, they couldn't use it. He didn't want to waste his money, so he took the risk, like many people in his country decide to do, to not have a health insurance.
One night, before going to bed, he decided to try something. He thought that maybe if he concentrated and prayed that maybe this illness could be taken away, perhaps it would work. He had not prayed for a long time, but he understood prayer. He understood what happens when you can focus and have some honest intent, and that if there is a loving presence close by, perhaps some attention would be paid, and there could be some favorable results.
This is something that Philip, in the past, was very skeptical of. He felt like there should be some responsibility to the people and that the government should at the very least provide protection services for the citizens when there are injustices, and he felt like leaving people out in the world with only thoughts and prayers was very cruel and cynical, especially when they have paid their insurance, and people who have worked hard and followed rules. Regardless, he also knew that he was in a rational state of mind and that if things didn't improve over the course of the next couple of days, he would make some phone calls and try to find a local doctor who could take an appointment with some kind of payment arrangement.
The next morning, Philip did actually feel a little bit better. Maybe it was because he was focusing on healing as he went to sleep, and his mind, heart, and body went to work due to his concentration and intent. Maybe it was something more supernatural. Maybe it was a combination of things. Whatever happened, he actually felt a little better, and this gave him some relief and confidence.
A bit later in the day, Philip was slated to head down the road to the Tuman's place to do some painting touch-ups and fix some mole hills out in their yard. He was glad he was feeling a little better, and Mrs. Tuman was a nice lady and always paid him a few extra dollars than he asked. He was looking forward to getting outside in the sun and getting this work done. The vitamin D and the exercise would probably be a good tonic, as long as he didn't overexert himself.
As Philip was finishing up his work, he saw that a man had come to the house to visit with Mr. Tuman, who, due to limitations from aging, was housebound. He overheard Mrs. Tuman call him "doctor." Philip saw this as fortuitous. As the doctor was leaving, Philip struck up a conversation with him and told him about the infection he was struggling with and that he had no insurance. The doctor gave him his card and told him to come into town whenever he could. He said that he could give Philip a couple of sample boxes of penicillin and that it would clear things up as long as he followed the doctor's orders.
That's exactly what Philip did. He went directly into town when his tasks at the Tuman's were completed. Within a few days, the infection was completely cleared up. All he had to do was finish the cycle of antibiotics, and he would be all set.
Philip thought that chain of events was interesting. What a coincidence that the day after he had prayed with the intent to get healed of the infection, he happened to run into a doctor who also had an appointment at the home where he had some chores to do. How about that?
The End
Prayer and Medicine