Every Day's a Miracle

by Paul Robert Walker

An inspirational collection of stories explains how people's lives have been changed by faith and celestial intervention, from a terminally ill woman who was cured at Lourdes to a young woman whose prayers were answered on a deserted beach. Original.

10 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

I was born in Oak Park, Illinois—just like Ernest Hemingway, only later.

I’ve been saying this in biographies for a long time, and it sounds pretty good. Ernest Hemingway is big stuff, and how many authors are born in Oak Park, Illinois?

Yet recently I was taken to task during a visit to the Fresno area, where two—count them two—separate individuals pinned me down with grueling interrogations involving specific details, places, and people in Oak Park, Illinois. I admitted to them as I admit to you on the World Wide Web: I know absolutely nothing about Oak Park, Illinois.

I was born in Oak Park Hospital, but we lived in a neighboring town called River Grove. And we moved from there when I was a year and a half. I take my literary connections where I find them.

We moved a lot in my early years, four times before I turned eleven, for a total of five places, all in the Chicago area. My Dad died in place number four, which was a townhouse in south Chicago, across the street from the Chicago Skyway, now Interstate 90. I counted trucks on the Skyway when we first moved in, but I stopped counting trucks when my father died.

I was nine, and it was November 1962, a year before the JFK assassination changed America forever. I still associate my father’s death with the death of JFK, and throw the Cuban missile crisis into the mix. It was a pivotal time for me, for my generation, and for our nation—an end to innocence and the beginning of an exciting yet challenging era of social turmoil.

My mother moved us to Evanston, a tree-shaded suburb just north of Chicago, where she got a job as a 3rd grade teacher. She later found a new career as an adjustment teacher (similar to a school counselor) in the Chicago schools. I grew up surrounded by teachers, who discussed education until they were blue in the face—which didn't turn me blue personally, but did make me believe that education was pretty important.

Evanston was a cultured place, home of Northwestern University, and I got my first taste of theater as an 8th grade extra in a Northwestern production of Don Quixote starring Peter Strauss, who later went on to mini-series stardom in Rich Man, Poor Man. On the closing night, Peter was so sick he couldn’t perform, so his understudy stepped into the starring role, with the understudy’s understudy stepping in for him and on down the line until I rose from the ranks of faceless extras and took the demanding role of Second Mule Skinner—which meant I got to mumble something like, “Move on, there!” I was hooked.

I continued acting, started singing, and had my first short story published at Evanston Township High School, which at that time was rated the number one public high school in America (by whomever rates these things.) I studied acting for a year at Boston University School of Fine Arts, and when I decided that I wanted a broader education, I transferred to Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in Anglo-American literature. Just before graduation, I won third place in a short story contest and received a check for the whopping amount of $20. It was the first time I was ever paid for my writing and it felt good.

After college, I taught English for six years at a Chassidic Yeshiva in West Hollywood, while playing in a rock band and writing for an alternative weekly newspaper. I started writing for the newspaper after I won a story contest with a tall tale about a guy who loses his triplex on the beach during a game of darts with the devil. It was called "Darts with Mr. D," and the paper presented me with a princely check for $100—a 500% increase over my college contest award. Not only that, they asked me to keep writing for them, only—get this—they wanted actual journalism! I did what I could and had lots of fun doing it.

I got my big break when I answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times that said, “Writers Wanted.” I thought it was some weird scam but decided t

Reviews

[Adam Kovynia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought a video called "Miracles are Real" by Questar video back around the year 2007 or so. I watched it many times over the years and bought a couple of books featured in the video. This author Paul Robert Walker was in the video and he's in other video's also about miracles. I bought this book Every Day's a Miracle and read it in 2012. I gave the book away and wrote a review here but now this is my new review in place of the old one. I bought the book again now in August of 2020 and read it a second time. I felt the need to read it and now because I love miracle stories and healing. I'm going to give it away again because I want other people to enjoy it. This time reading this book I'm drawn to a different story of the 52 miracle stories more so than the others. The story "In Two Weeks It Will Be Gone" on page 39. The story deals with a healthy, fit and very intelligent women however she has an illness. her illness in the story is not something a man could relate to or her personal relationship problem is also something I couldn't relate to however the lesson learned is something I'm drawn to. because of her anger and strong feelings over the difficult situation she was in in her relationship she developed an illness but she didn't want to go the route of traditional medicine or surgery. she worked through her feelings on the situation and worked with a massage therapist and she was healed. on page 41 she say's "the physical disease is often just an encapsulation of an underlying emotional problem" and "if you can get through to the emotional context, you can heal the physical disease."

I also picked up on other things I didn't notice as much on my first reading of the book. I like how the author talks about his own personal background in the story "Virtual Impossible" on page 194 where he mentions how he was raised a catholic but left the church at age 15 and his wife is raised in a Jewish background. In this story I find I think the way the author thinks in various ways.

In the story at the very start of the book "the meaning of survival" Sam Zelikson was a holocaust survivor that went through a lot in life and worked hard to start a new life in America. In
the end of the story he wins a lot of money in the lottery after he had gone through a life threatening accident. I find it an intriguing story

"The Touch of the Muse" is highly intriguing for me also. The story of a girl who was touched by a mysterious angel who was glowing in her room. the touch was a burst of electricity and it inspired her as she became a professional pianist.

If someone is part of a particular denomination of Christianity they usually reject the miracles of other denominations even calling them crazy stories from that crazy church across town. If you're part of a new age religion, do people in your group take seriously miracles that are a part of the Catholic church or vice versa? Usually not. If you're not part of any particular religion and enjoy miracle stories like I do, then you are open minded to all of them. If you're also a healthy sceptic you'll not believe everything. if an Indian guru is manifesting objects out of thin air but some people say it's just a magic trick he's doing then you'll be open to that possibility too.

I really enjoyed this book both times I've read it so far. if my review interests you, I think you'll enjoy reading this book and I recommend you get a copy.