Somebody was reading this somewhere in the world so I’ve reposted it

michaelgcasey22/03/2020Uncategorized

Somebody was reading this somewhere in the world so I’ve reposted it

I was checking my readers out when I spotted somebody had read this, I reread it, I cannot remember all the 2000+ stories, nor the 500 chats, only stories in the books by the way. So I’ve just reread this and the tears are still wet on my face, lots of real events are merged into stories. Anyway tears still wet on my face, do you think this is worth a read?

Sunday, 18 February 2018

Prayer Poker

Prayer Poker ©

Michael Casey

Lent is upon us, it’s a time of penitence and prayer, and we give things up for Lent. Or so is the tradition, while all the Easter eggs are being made to be hatched on Easter Sunday. The egg symbolises the stone at the Tomb. So that’s what we learn in RE at school. What we don’t learn in school or at church or any place else is Prayer Poker.

What is Prayer Poker? Well as a child your mum teaches you pray, you learn all the prayers ready for when you go to school. But your mum has taught you them in Polish and you are in Birmingham at your local catholic school. So you have to relearn them in English, but at least this amuses the local priest.

When you are young your Faith is strong and bright, it has not been tested by real life. You enjoy the ceremony of Faith, any Faith not just Christian, whatever Faith you happen to be born into. Now a faith is like an inoculation, it protects you from bad things, by giving you a set of values, all you have to do is attend and say the prayers.

Your mother will teach and encourage you in your prayer life, while your dad is out working or down the pub, whatever kind of dad you have. It’s the women who pass on faith and language, the men don’t bother, or have an excuse not to. Yet the women are not allowed to be the priests. Yes a sweeping statement but look around you and think how accurate it is.

As for praying you learn the Rosary, and your mum tells you it is Mary’s nuclear weapon, in fact it it much much bigger than that. So you learn how to say the Rosary and going through the beads is very soothing. You feel so happy when you have learnt the 3 different kinds of Rosary, yes JPII did start a 4^th kind but how many people still know about that? Now as a child you have your Prayer martial arts skills learnt, the Rosary is like bolas to trip and bring down all evil, you are a cowboy with a Rosary as a lasso to bring down Evil.

So you pray regularly because your mum insists. She even gives you new pink plastic rosary beads at Christmas and Birthdays as presents. They are luminescent and glow in the dark. But its good your faith is strong. However like the ebbing tide Faith can fail or just almost disappear. You grow up, get a job, get your own place. So your plastic Rosary beads get forgotten or left behind in your old family home. But your mum or gran sends you a new pair for your new place, black and strong and made of wood, not childlike at all. You wake up in the middle of the night and scream, your mum has spray painted them so they glow in the night.

As you get older you try to negotiate with God, let me off from praying tonight I’ll do twice as many prayers tomorrow. You are sincere, so God won’t mind will he? Beside your girlfriend is coming over to christen that new King size bed you bought when you got your own place. And sex is more important than prayer. In the morning you regret what happened, if you prayed first things might not have turned out the way they did.

So on life goes, if I say some prayers will you help me with my exams, or please let her not be pregnant yet. Whatever you are praying for, such as a driving test exam, or another job so you don’t have to work with your now ex-girlfriend, but thank you God she wasn’t pregnant. And on it goes, you try to short change God, a Rosary becomes a quick nod to the Rosary beads. A Rosary only takes 5 minutes, or 15 if you do the set of 3, but God is not worth your time, you have to watch the boxing on tv and drink 7 pints of Stella Artois, then fall asleep in the chair.

If I say a quick Hail Mary, will you help me get through the traffic today, I have to be at CPNEC Birmingham I’m giving a Lecture on Serendipity, subtitle from Front of House to Full House on stage. And on it goes. You are playing Poker with God, as if he is fool, you speak to him less and less and Alexa and Cortana more and more. As if Alexa or Cortana really care about you.

Then you don’t even nod at the Rosary, in fact it falls on onto the floor and ends up under your bed. Life and girlfriends come and go, a silent witness under your bed. Then one day your mum rings, your dad had had a stroke. You jump in a taxi and give him double to get to the hospital fast. Why is your dad at the far end of the longest hospital corridor in Europe. You walk fast, then you start to run, you bump into a undertaker taking a body away. Her blonde hair comes falling down. Now God has raised the stakes. You say sorry and go dashing off.

Your dad will be ok, but the Rosary is running through your head, you say 10 Rosaries in 5 minutes, you are screaming in your head, save my dad. I promise to pray every day. A pretty nurse smiles and says everything will be ok, she recognises the hum of the Rosary under your breath. She is a Muslim girl and whispers Allah be merciful, as she walks away. You stay 2 hours and only then do you leave.

As you leave the blonde haired undertaker slips out of the shadows, she hands you your wallet, you had dropped in when you bumped into her. Now God is playing poker, he has upped the stakes. You thank her and she offers you a lift in the hearse, the undertakers is just around the corner from where you live.

Turns out she is very spiritual, so she drops you off saying she will pray for you and your dad. An undertaker praying for the living. You go home and look everywhere to find your Rosary beads, then and only then do you feel relieved. So the tide has turned, well for today anyway. You return to prayer and you keep on seeing the undertaker everywhere.

Gill is her name and you cash in your chips, it turns out she cannot have kids so she’ll just be an undertaker instead. A boy had dumped her and said she was just as dead as the dead because she could not have kids. So it broke her heart. But she found praying had healed her broken heart. Now she was content, so she wouldn’t let any boy ever hurt her again.

So you become friends, and you even pray that some day the right boy would come her way and accept not being able to have kids. Once back in the groove prayer is good. But sometimes Fate screams out, dominoes fall. It wasn’t planned it never was, you and the undertaker are in that King size bed, she wasn’t laying out the dead, she was making love instead. You think in your head I wish she could have a family. And she gently cries, she can read your mind.

As every mother knows a prayer will always be answered,you get what you need, not what you actually ask for. So Gill had twins. Prayer is a strange and wonderful thing. Life may be a game of Roulette but God does answer prayers if you bother to ask him. He Holds all the cards and he loads all the dice, he calls out the numbers too and then BINGO. So there you go an Easter Prayer for you all.

p.s.Argentina is reading a Spanish translation of Butcher Baker Undertaker now

so am I crying for Argentina…..as the song goes

Wydanie polskie Still Alive 2015 Wydanie polskie Still Alive 2015 – Copy win Wiersze dla wszystkich Vietnamese Translation The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker TURKISH tRANSLATION OF bbu The Polish Translations The Polish Translations spanish-bbu Spanish BBU portuguese-bbu2019abc portuguese-bbu2019abc portuguese-bbu2019 PORTUGUESE BBU2019 polish Guardian Angel Polish Edition of Still Alive 2015 Michael Casey The Polish Translations chinese translation BBU china-bbu-converted-1 China BBU-converted China BBU bengali-translation-of-bbu Bengali Translation of BBU bbu-russian-translation-microsoft-word bbu-italian (2)bbu-in-arabic bbu-german BBU Urdu BBU Russian Translation microsoft word BBU ITALIAN BBU Indonesian BBU in KOREAN BBU in Indian Hindi BBU in Hebrew BBU in Hebrew BBU in Arabic BBU in Indian Hindi persianBBU PORTUGUESE BBU2019 В поисках индийской принцессы Wydanie polskie Still Alive 2015 win Wiersze dla wszystkich The Polish Translations The Polish Translations polish Guardian Angel Polish Edition of Still Alive 2015 Michael Casey The Polish Translations 페이지 1 Quick Stories KOREAN 아직도 살아있는 2015 ページ1 Quick Stories in Japanese インドのプリンセスを検索するにはインドのプリンセスを検索するには – Copy ЭТО МОЙ ЛИФТ AD Страница 1 shoplife spanish Japanese elevator Advert BBU German BBU French 50 Spanish Examples 50 Spanish Examples bbumar2008-en-zh-cn-1 BBUMar2008.en.zh-CN (1)BBU in Hebrew BBU in Arabic 300 و BBU Russian Translation microsoft word BBU in KOREAN BBU German BBU French 50 Spanish Examples KOREAN TRANSLATION Still Alive 2015 The Polish Translations Spanish BBU 아직도 살아있는 2015 아직도 살아있는 2015 아직도 살아있는 2015

Published by michaelgcasey

I've updated this 18th March 2022 I'm Michael Casey from Birmingham England, the fat silver haired writer in shades. Beware of Others with the EXACT SAME NAME, they are not me, and would not want to be me ... use Google UK to find me, otherwise Posh Americans pop up I've done loads of writing, about 2,000,000 Words worth over 34years now But before I started to write, I LISTENED to BBC Radio 4 for 20 years, from the age of 10 or younger Frank Brown our lodger, went back to County Tyrone and he gifted us his Bush Radio. He'd be nearly 100 now if he is still alive, so say a prayer for him 54 years in love with words, and I still look so dashing. I have a picture in the attic, just like Dorian Gray I've also had an interest in Politics for 54 years with my dad heckling the tv and Politicians. I almost immediately had a hit, a play called Shoplife was accepted but not finally produced by a Theatre. The Kenneth More Theatre, so thank them for sparing you all. This was back in 1989 yes, 30 years plus ago, the play was written in 1988. So since then I'm more than good enough, as a writer. Anything else..... I also ignore those who just cannot write, pick your own candidate I tend to write Comedy as I'd rather make you laugh than cry I have written over 2000 short pieces of writing, yes 2000 " (c) by Michael Casey" If you include "chats" 3700 samples, all told, the chats do NOT go into my books when I compile them. My first book ,a full length comedy/drama is The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker You can read translations of it here on this site Up to 20 different languages/translations have been read on the same day via this site, here on Wordpress look fo Translations Galore page, and more And in over 90 Countries world wide too so you have no excuse, find your own language and read The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker or Quick Stories or any other of the books in Translation on my Wordpress This proves to me that the humour does travel I have readers in over 100 countries now, just to repeat myself From Nepal to American Samoa and all places North South East and West Or its just a hit man on the run, or whatever Unknown Region Means It may also mean that only non English Speakers like my stuff Coverage but lacking penetration as marketing folks might say I did get 21,000 readers in 3 weeks for the Polish version of In Search of an Indian Princess. which is basically the final 3 chapters of The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker all by word of mouth. And 50,000 plus in Christmas week 2021 If you add up all the downloads from my Wordpress + 13,000 when somebody stole the file. I have had more copies than Boris Johnson's Churchill book distributed. Maybe 40,000 copies . Not made a penny from it, free downloads in multiple languages. Reverse Logic, if the world knows me, eventually somebody will pay me But in reality I'll be dead first, and then just 2 pennies to pay the ferryman is enough I've cut the Plaudits, you can read/decide for yourself As for my life, I was born in the shadow of a Brewery, I was a computer operator for a market research company into alcohol sales, 21 years altogether, StatsMR Call centre guy, like everybody once in their life I was also a Trainee Betting Shop Manager I was a concierge and 10 other roles at Crowne Plaza NEC Birmingham for 3 years. Spent 3 years at Pinsent Masons Law firm in Birmingham I even hid a copy of my comic novel "BBU" in the Law Library at Pinsent Masons, well just for a day.. I did a few other jobs too, working life in reverse so to speak and I was an Esol English teacher in an Islamic school, for a year, I knew I could teach. I got Excellent, Excellent and Exemplary on the external assessment, yes really And I asked them to pray for me at least once a day beside which I've had a Shanghai connection for 20 years now, including 2 bilingual daughters and being a hausfrau a long time too, I'm a great dad, as I've had lots of time with my daughters I can always make somebody talk or laugh I believe my short stories could be used to teach English, just package them up correctly or App them Or a Tale a Day from Michael, a story telling App What else, I was brawn and brains, I used to be as strong as an Ox, now I just smell like one We have a cat called Totoro, my daughters wanted a pet I said they could have a dog if I died , or a cat if I had a heart attack. A few weeks after that in Jan 2015 I had an Unplanned Quadruple Heart Bypass , it was supposed to be a triple but it ended up a Quadruple, 33% extra free so to speak. Now with an add on Hernia, the size of your fist, pushing through my bypass scar, it hurts when I laugh, so don't make me laugh I also have arthritis and other hindrances that hobble my body and give me pain galore. But my mind is free, though having read my stories you may wish I didn't bother But I'll ignore you, and carry on regardless. I do get heckled by my own Tinnitus these past 3 years+, so I have music on all night long to drown it out. I sleep with Miley, Taylor, Eric Clapton and Will Young, maybe I should buy a bigger bed, or just get a better mattress. Tinnitus is a curse, just trust me I know, each day I wake up, Tinnitus SCREAMS at me for a full hour till it calms down That's the end of the tidy version of my life To finish here's the list of my 20 books, so far:- 1.The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker 2.Shoplife 3.Essays and Plays 4.Blogs 2011 5.300 and Not OUT 6.Shorts 2013 7.More Shorts 2014 8.Quick Stories 9.Still Alive 2015 10.Undiscovered Words 2016 11.Still Smiling 2017 12.Altogether Now 13.New Horizons 14.14 Up 15.15 Down 16.Sweet Sixteen 17. 17 Again 18. 18 New Views 19. The Final Cut of the 19th Hole 20. 2020 Words 21. 21 Door Keys, key to the door 21 on Bingo, hence title, 53,000 words so far I write bullet point stuff mainly now as Tinnitus stops me from getting in the zone to write, story stories. (c) by Michael Casey stuff though my bullet points are better than some "writers" discuss, miaow. That's why I dream of a speed typist, so I could dictate from the sofa https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC to buy ebooks Loads of Korean and Arabic translations downloaded from my Wordpress, 1000s of them Quick Stories in Korean is a big hit. Maybe Kim in North Korea should read my books, instead of wasting his countries resources on what? Just keeping one person in power, him? Instead of joining the real world and opening a string on golf courses. That way we could get rid of Trump too. Into the sunset, as they play golf. Tears for a Butcher will be the sequel to BBU, and it too will be 600pages, however I really need a speed typist to put it down, while I sit and dictate like Barbara Cartland, and hopefully my speed typist would be impressed. we'd marry have half Korean kids, and form a Kpop band with our 4 new kids, with me as manager. And yes this is more for my bucket list, as Tinnitus keeps me awake too much, 6 months of not sleeping till dawn is really killing me Michael Casey aka the fat silver haired writer in shades from Birmingham England https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/efda2dca0de5b9269191b7c8b0102473?s=400&d=mm View more posts

Somebody was reading this somewhere in the world so I’ve reposted it