Faith, Prayer, Persevering

Hello Everyone,

It’s the first Wednesday in the month and IWSG Time has come around again. 

IWSG is a big help to many of us who don’t mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, please go to the IWSG Website at 

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html.

My article is posted below.

Faith, Prayer, Persevering


2016 lies before me, and I look forward to the challenges.  No, it doesn’t mean I’m not afraid.  You see, I’ve noticed that any time I step out to accomplish my calling to write and to sing challenges come and try to dent my faith.  Obstacles come camouflaged through unsolicited advice from well-minded friends or family members that think they know what is best for me. 

In 2015, I learned if I wanted to walk out my vision, I had to do just like Elijah, when he was praying for rain to come, and I did.

In the Bible, it states:

Elijah went up to the top of Carmel: then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees and said to his servant “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.”  And seven times Elijah said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh times that the servant said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So Elijah said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”(1 Kings 18:42-44 NKJV)

So, as I entered 2016, I was on top of my Mount Carmel.  In fact, I am still there, persevering!

Can you see me?  Bowed on the ground with my face between my knees so I won’t be distracted from the left or right by well-minded naysayers and negativity. I am revising my manuscripts, editing my short stories, writing articles and submitting them to the relevant people, who have to power to accept or reject what I write, and I’m singing my songs as my cloud begins to rise.

Photographer: Noël Kachouh/www.kachouh.de

Happy New Year’s IWSG!

Happy New Year’s All You Wonderful Writers!

Shalom Aleichem,

Pat Garcia

Viewpoint: Precedent Historical Repetition

History is repeating itself. The age of Humanism is slowly marching off the world stage, but what comes next?   Precedent historical repetition says that sooner or later another nation will rise. After all, the human race has lived through the rise and fall of many great nations. History is repeating itself.

The situation among the cultures is precarious. The Iron Curtain is slowly rising out of its sleep and finding its home among nations that want to protect their economy and the pure ethnicity of their race. Cultural diversity is leaving the stage.  History is repeating itself.

The rudimentary ordinances of nature are being disobeyed. What was once one plus one equals two is now one plus one equals whatever makes you feel good.  History is repeating itself.

Over one million people are on the run.  The number of people who have died so far on the ground, in airplanes, in the seas is heartbreaking. Men talked, yet children cry, children die, women cry, women die. History is repeating itself.

In every corner of the world, there is tumult. Philosophical antagonism demands closed borders.   An antagonism based on supremacy, it has plummeted us even nearer to a world war.  It enacts to dominate, to make all men and women think alike. This antagonism has no mercy, no understanding, and no love. History is repeating itself.

"What are you doing, Child?" The Prophet asked.

"Watching the New Year come in over the earth."

"Oh, that's nice."

"No, it's not nice Prophet. It's sad."

"Why, Child. What do you see?"

"In every corner, I see children starving, women crying, human life wasted. Prophet, don't people ever read about the past?"

"No, Child. That's why History repeats itself."

Happy New Year Everyone,

Alles Gute Zum Neuen Jahr Alle,

Bonne Nouvelle Pour Tout Le Monde,

Feliz Nuevo A Todo El Mundo,

Felice Nuovo Per Tutti,

L'Shana Tova.

Shalom Aleichem,

Pat Garcia

Viewpoint: A Commentary on Christmas

The woman was heavy laden with child, and her husband looked at her with concern. Of course, he had to go.  The census was mandatory. As he regarded his wife, he knew the journey would not be easy.

What is a few hundred miles or kilometers today? Catch a train to Hamburg from Frankfurt, Germany, and you arrive in four and a half hours, a plane ride from Augusta to Atlanta, Georgia is fifty-five minutes. However, this man did not have these comforts. His Mercedes-Benz was a donkey.

He observed his wife as he pondered over the trip ahead. Leaving her behind was not a consideration; in her was the hope of the nations, the salvation of the human race, and a shiver went through him as he thought of what could happen ahead. Thieves and robbers on the route and a desert where the temperature dropped at night were between the two cities, and ninety miles on a donkey was not a one-day ride.  He figured he might be able to travel 10 miles a day, but even that would be hard considering that she was heavily pregnant with child.  

Today the significance of this event has been revised; the hardship erased. The importance of this Child’s birth has fallen into abnormality.

Soon, it is Christmas. 

For me personally, it is the time when I reflect backward to that birth in Bethlehem with Thanksgiving in my heart.

His birth changed History;

His birth changed my life and gave me a vision with purpose;

The Son of God came to earth so that I could have the right to be accepted in the Beloved. 

Merry Christmas to you,

Buon Natale a te,

Joyeux Noël à toi,

Frohe Weihnachten zu Ihnen,

Feliz Navidad a usted.

Shalom Aleichem,

Pat Garcia

Thoughts and Prayers: Dear Child of Mine Has Been Released!

Thoughts and Prayers: Dear Child of Mine Has Been Released!: Dear Reader, I am so pleased to announce that Dear Child of Mine, An Heirloom Devotional for the Unborn Child has been released at WestBo...

Viewpoint: Ignited by a Headline in The New York Daily News

It is amazing! Every time there is a desecration of life by violence we scream out God isn’t fixing this.  But, why should He when we ignore Him? 

We believe and lean on every kind of ideology created by man. Yet, in times like these we shout, God isn’t fixing this.

I am confused. I do not understand why God should fix our situation since we do not believe in Him and take Him seriously anyway.

Is it not better to bow down and ask those ideologies that we worship on a daily basis to fix the discordance and hatred that has taken over in our world?

God Isn’t Fixing This was the headline in The New York Daily News.  This headline is correct.

But, why should God fix something He did not start?

Shalom,

Pat Garcia

It's December #IWSG Article

Hello Everyone,

It’s the first Wednesday in the month and IWSG Time has come around again. 

IWSG is a big help to many of us who don’t mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, please go to the IWSG Website at 

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html.

Oh, by the way, my article is posted below.

It's December

It's  December. NaNo has passed, and I am looking forward to December 21, when I will drop out of the hustle and bustle and read and relax until January 7, 2016.

There is a pang of insecurity in me that's growing. My first novel will be finished, and it will be time to submit, time to see if my novel will find a home in one of the agencies I have chosen.  Sure, I could self-publish but I want representation. That is important to me.

So, the closer I get to completion, the more nervous I get.  My fixed goal month is September,  and so far I am on time with my schedule.   I will pass it on to my chosen agents in September 2016 and see who bites.  I know I have plenty of time before that happens, but just knowing that next year is The Year to pass my baby on is scary.

Nevertheless, I'll let her go by sending her out, because if I do not, I’ll regret it.

Shalom,

Pat Garcia