"Perspectives wrapped in stories that challenge your belief system, and how you see others."
Good Morning, Everyone,
I received the official notice today about winning the 2nd RRBC “A DAY IN MY LIFE” 30-Day Blogging Challenge.
I send all of you a heartfelt thanks for following me during March and cheering me on.
By the way, here is a picture of Hadessah. She has a beautiful green glow and has a baby shoot at the top of her head.
Have a lovely day.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia
DAY 30, MARCH 30, 2024, CLOSING THE GATE
Good Morning, Everyone,
The time has come. The 2nd Annual RRBC “A DAY IN MY LIFE” 30-Day Blogging Challenge is closing its gate. It has given me the time I needed to contemplate, to exhume things I had buried and forgot about, peep through doors that are daring me to open and take steps toward them, and to bury those situations that needed to be buried so that I may live. And it has indeed been a challenge in that it has reinforced those things I believe in.
Faith is the substance of things I hope for, the evidence of things not seen, but I’ll never hope for them if I don’t step out, leave the gate, and start walking that path. Another thing I know is when I close the door to this gate; I won’t be able to open it again. It disappears, and I must choose to stand still or continue walking out the purpose designed for my life.
Very few people tell us that our destiny is a collection of decisions. None mention that it is OK to make mistakes either. You lose when you don’t know the sting of rejection, or the loss of a loved one through death or divorce, or the burden of trying to overcome financial oppression or an illness in your body. To experience undefeatable joy, you will encounter such paths and discover what makes you grow. It is the fertilizer for your soul.
It’s been a pleasure working beside colleagues who participated in this challenge and to get to know them better than I have known them before. In some of their posts, I cried; in others, I laughed; and in others, I said, OK, that’s their way of thinking, and I accepted it. I don’t have to agree with their opinions to respect them.
Thank you to everyone who has been by my blog and left a comment. I really appreciate that. I heard from writers I hadn’t heard from in a long time, and it brought joy to my heart to know they were still writing.
Thanks to all the writers who make it a point to attend the RNH (Raters Not Haters) Zoom Show I co-host with John Podlaski. You have been following me daily, which has motivated me immensely.
Thank you to that person who has been pingbacking me. I appreciate every pingback I receive. The pingbacks were a tremendous boost because someone put my writing out there. I smiled each time I saw one.
Thanks to all the new followers that I have received on Facebook and Instagram. I will respond to those comments on my Facebook Author Page and Instagram. I only got the chance to respond to some of the comments on my blog. I will finish as many as I can today.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and I will go to church, say hello to a few people, return home, sit in my home, and enjoy the peace and quiet I receive for being in the right place at the right time.
In closing, I have taken pictures of the front part of my house with its garden this morning. A bird’s nest is in the tree beside the house. Lydia has blossomed in my backyard, and White Eagle, my VW Beetle, is nesting in its parking space beside my home.
Take care, everyone. Remember that Easter deals with the resurrection and not only Easter eggs, and walk safely through the rest of the year.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia
DAY 29, MARCH 29, 2024, THANK GOD, IT’S GOOD FRIDAY!
Good Morning, Everyone,
I contemplated how it must have been for Jesus when he knew his time was up. I don’t believe he said, “Father, get me out of here as soon as you can. According to the Gospel written by Matthew, in the garden of Gethsemane, he pleaded with God as he asked Him if there was any other way to do what he had to do besides going on the cross.
He knew the disciples weren’t ready for him to leave the earth. They were still looking for him to gather an army to defeat the Romans. However, when I look at Jesus’s prophetic words to them, I see they had no clue that that night would be the night that destroyed their dreams of overcoming the Roman Empire and would throw them into a state of perplexity.
Jesus knew this would happen, and like the loving Lord that He is, He asked God for more time, which was denied. I look at Jesus’s prophetic words, “One of you will betray me,” or as he told Peter, “Before rooster crows, you will have disowned me three times.” Peter’s vehement declaration was that he was willing to die for him.
I am astonished at how many times I unknowingly or knowingly disowned Jesus, the power of what He did on the cross, and the power of His resurrection. And by the way, all the disciples agreed, like Peter, that they would die for Jesus too, except one, ––Judas, who had gone off to complete his task to betray him. None of them were aware of what would happen.
And so was it with my own life in the beginning. If you had asked me some years ago, I would have said that a walk of faith is like a sprint. After you have won three or four of them, you could retire and live off of what you have accomplished.
But the faith walk is different. It is a complicated process: walk, run, stumble, run, stumble, walk, filled with your purpose.
You start out walking. The day is sunny and bright, only to come upon dark clouds that douse you in the rain. There is no shelter to hide in, so you keep walking and notice ahead the sun is shining again, and you start running only to realize the more that you run toward the end, the farther away it is, and because you’re running, you don’t take a look at the path, and you stumble and fall. You lay there wondering what to do. You’re perplexed.
However, like the disciples, we have a loving Lord who looks after us. He picks us up. And like with Peter and the gang, He showed up right on time at the sea of Galilee. He fed them, reinstated Peter, and showed them what to do next.
This is why I love Good Friday. Jesus paid my debt entirely, and now I walk out my purpose daily, knowing that I am cleansed, healed, justified, redeemed, and sanctified by the lamb’s blood, which was Jesus going to the cross. He was the sacrificial lamb, and on the third day, He rose.
He would have been limited in time and space if He had not gone to the cross. Now, He’s everywhere.
Thank God! It’s Good Friday.
Have a lovely holy day.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia
DAY 28, MARCH 28, 2024, FRIENDSHIP, FOOD, & KITCHEN
Good Morning, Everyone,
I have said a lot during the Blogging Challenge, and as I thought about the situations and things I’ve shared, some of you reading my blog entries might think I am perfect or have it all together. Well, I am far from perfect, and I definitely don’t have it altogether. If I didn’t have people who are like family watching out for me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. People, like my sister and her husband, talk to me often on Zoom. They live in Louisville, Tennessee. The first question they ask is not how I am but whether I have eaten in the past two days. They scrutinize me on their screen as if they can tell whether I’ve eaten. I call this friendship and sisterhood/brotherhood combined.
Another couple watches over me, but they live closer to me than my sister in Tennessee. They come from Romania and live about twelve or fourteen kilometers from where I live in Germany. They don’t call me on Zoom; they show up.
I am one of those writers who forget about eating when I sink into my story. Thus, writing until I have finished the first draft and skipped two or three meals is expected. This couple feels that. My doorbell rings, and there they are with a delicious three-course home-cooked meal. Again, I call this sisterhood/brotherhood wrapped into friendship.
I would be lost without these people and four or five other people I know who have adopted me into their hearts. They care, love, and have studied me enough to know my habits. I don’t have to pretend to them. My life has become an open book, and I trust them.
We all need three or four friendships like these. You don’t need to have everybody you relate to become your friends on this level. But you do need the kind where you don’t have to watch what you say because if you don’t, they won’t understand. You need friendships that feel like they are your family. I am blessed to say that the people who are close to me and in my inner circle come out of different countries, from South Africa, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the USA, and they know me.
Today, I have a three-course meal for dinner. You guessed it. My dear Romanian family brought it over yesterday. The dessert is Tiramisu, my favorite Italian dessert.
So, I have learned that perfectionism doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t bring closeness. It is the willingness to show your vulnerabilities, to laugh at your mistakes, to be able to say I’m sorry even if you’re hurt, to walk away from an argument instead of walking into one, to stand firm and loyal to the people you commit to even though you don’t understand what the other is doing. These are the elements that build bridges instead of walls.
In closing, I added a few pictures of my kitchen to this post. As you can see, it is small but my tiny jewel. When my friends come over, we always have a meal together. While they cook, I write.
Have a charming, Holy Thursday.
Shalom shalom
Pat Garcia
DAY 27, MARCH 27, 2024, WORDPLAY
Good Morning, Everyone,
The word “Soon” has always intrigued me. Like most words in the dictionary, it is one of the words I cannot pinpoint to one particular meaning. I know how to conjugate it as an adverb, soon, sooner, soonest, but I have never been able to nail it and define it.
But saying he is coming soon doesn’t tell me if I should expect him in twenty minutes, two days, or even two years.
Thus, when the person I expected showed up two weeks later, and I asked him where he was, he said, ” I told you I would be here soon. But he didn’t tell me how soon. I should have asked, but I didn’t.
It could have been that I was making tiramisu and expecting him to walk in the door so we could sit together and have coffee and cake when he arrived.
Thus, I love wordplay. It is perplexing, and it takes my mind for a spin, forcing me to expand my sentences and give them depth like physical exercise does for the muscles in our bodies, and so is wordplay for my mind.
I wish all of you a charming day.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia
DAY 26, MARCH 26, 2024, WRITING
Good Morning, Everyone,
I am a writer, and becoming aware of what is happening in my plots while writing is a significant and fundamental need for me. I must develop an inner connection to my surroundings and the characters I write about. If I don’t do that, my book is just like meaningless words scrambled on paper. The story may be good, but it is missing something important, and that is life. Whatever I write, I want it to breathe.
I write mainly romance stories. I know many people say oh, romance and they block out that category of genre writing because when they hear romantic, they immediately think erotic. Romance stories have an element of love, but intimacy is a fact of life. I don’t think any of us got here on our own, and there was only one person who was born of a virgin.
However, because we want to avoid facing that part of life, authors have developed categories in the romance field. Now we have sweet romance, which avoids the bedroom, and romance, which doesn’t.
I don’t write sweet romances. I write realistic romance stories encouraging people to live responsible lives and take ownership of their responsibilities.
There are all kinds of people in my books. My characters are wounded, or disabled, or healthy. The heroines are usually plus-sized women with short natural hair or full-sized afro, older and successful. I’m not going to apologize about the heroines in my books being women from different races. Since we all belong to the human race and live in a world that is full of color, I refuse to write a book that is not diverse, multicultural, and with a philosophy that is based on my faith in God.
I’m not going to apologize for the topics that I write either. In my book, LET HIS BANNER OVER ME BE LOVE, I discovered that the Scriptures I wrote the story around were unknown to many of my readers. One lady whose name I will not mention here admitted having to return and read the Song of Songs herself. She didn’t know how candid the Song of Songs was in the Bible. I had to applaud her. I liked her honesty.
Other than that, I do my best to write flawlessly. I desire to present a book that a reader can sit back and read without flinching at each grammar mistake or trying to guess what word I wanted to write when they find a word left out. To achieve this, I have an independent editing team that reads through my work. I treasure them greatly. Yes, they cost, but I would rather pay for excellent editing than have to take a book off the market because it is poorly edited. I have made that mistake once and don’t intend to repeat it.
Have a lovely Day and take care.
Shalom shalom
Pat Garcia
DAY 25, MARCH 25, 2024, TIME CHANGE
Good Morning, Everyone,
Although many of you went to Daylight Savings Time (DST) on March 10, 2024, the European Union will change on March 30, 2024. Usually, the difference between the changes is one week. However, it is longer this time, confusing many of us here in Germany. For example, when it is 3 PM EST in the USA, it is 8 PM GMT +1 here in Germany because the East Coast is now five hours behind us instead of its regular six hours. Adjusting the time to five instead of six hours can be mind-boggling. That’s why I am looking forward to time syncing to the regular rhythm of 6 hours.
Let me show you an example of what I mean. The sun shone brightly this morning when I went to my living room at nine AM. It is now 11:45 AM, and it is still beaming. Isn’t the way the sunlight falls in my living room beautiful?
But, yesterday at 6 PM, twilight had already set, and I was sitting in my living room enjoying my fireplace.
Yes, it was still cold enough to heat the living room for Hadassah, my baby palm tree, and me.
Observing such changes amazes me. It proves my viewpoint that everything changes and that these changes affect us. Our lives are no longer the same.
I wish all of you a wonderful start to the week.
Have a lovely day and take care.
Shalom shalom
Pat Garcia
DAY 24. MARCH 24, 2024, TRULY, I AM THANKFUL
Good Morning, Everyone,
When I looked at Day 24 this morning, I jumped for joy. We have seven days before the Challenge ends, and I am grateful. It’s not that I am not enjoying the Challenge; I have learned a lot about my consistency, persistence, and perseverance. As I reached the halfway point, I had to push harder, use more energy to rethink my sentence stying, and give more time to reading my posts before I put them on my blog. I am genuinely thankful that I could do that.
I also had to increase my sleep. My brain refused to let me override my tiredness and continue working. Instead, when I am tired, I have had to stop, rest, and do nothing.
Thus, this ability to stay consistent and persist has become more potent. It is true that the more you practice your weaknesses, the stronger you become because your weaknesses become strengths. To grasp this principle fills my heart with gratitude.
This Challenge has helped me stay consistent and authentic to myself and others, persisting forward as I persevere toward my goal of finishing it.
Therefore, I am thankful for the 2nd RRBC “A DAY IN MY LIFE” 30-Day Blogging Challenge. We have approached the last seven days, and on DAY 30, I hope to be one of those who have reached the finish line. Truly, I am thankful.
I leave you with a short peep into one of my concerts. Most of these are cover songs or songs I have written that follow me through my life. If you have noticed on these blog posts for the Challenge, I always say a poem, a quote, a reading, or a song follows me. These things suddenly spring up and help me make the right life choices whenever necessary. Each one of the songs I cover onstage I have been singing for years. Whatever I do in life, I take full responsibility to live the way I choose by being as authentic as possible.
Have a lovely Sunday, and take care.
Shalom shalom
Pat Garcia
DAY 23, MARCH 23, 2024: COME SHOP WITH ME
Good Morning, Everyone,
Shopping has always been a challenging task for me because I don’t like it. Regardless of whether it is to the grocery store, an apparel shop for women’s clothing, or shopping for something that is needed in the house. I see it as a waste of time, but I like eating. 😋
Since I have gotten used to cooking and eating fresh foods instead of canned or frozen foods, shopping is a must. I go shopping three or four times a week, as I said in one of my blog posts, and that takes care of my exercise. Looking at my fridge below, you can see why I often go to the grocery store. When I first moved here, the giant USA refrigerators sold in the USA were only in the Housing areas where soldiers and their families were living.
For women’s clothing, I use the internet. That gives me flexibility, and I shop when I can no longer put it off. It is different with grocery shopping, though. Our stores open between seven and eight in the morning and close between eight and nine-thirty in the evenings. But that depends on the stores. Stores for household goods are included in these times.
However, pharmacies have stable but irregular hours that Americans are not used to. They close on Saturdays between twelve-thirty and one P.M. Also, pharmacies close at twelve-thirty and open back up at two-thirty or three PM during the week.
Therefore, I left my home earlier today because I needed to pick something up from the pharmacy before it closed, and I also decided to take a couple of pictures of some of the stores I visited.
I hope the pictures delight all of you who have lived in Germany. You would be amazed how much this country has changed.
Take care and enjoy your Saturday.
Shalom shalom
Pat Garcia
DAY 22, MARCH 22, 2024, SMILES TO MY FACE
Good Morning, Everyone,
I opened my eyelids, and the brightest sky with Stratus clouds smiled. There is something special about having a sky window on the right side of where I sleep.
Thoughts of gratitude flooded my mind.
Today, we are eight or nine days from the end of the 2nd RRBC “A DAY IN MY LIFE” Blogging Challenge. Since I have shown you my garden, I want to show you a few things that always bring a smile to my face.
The town next to my village is Hanau-Grossauheim. I drive there primarily when I have to go to the Pharmacy, which is called Apotheke in German. Across from the Pharmacy is the Catholic Church. Although I am not Catholic, I enjoy attending Taize on Friday evenings. We sing songs, A Cappella, and I am a fan of people who can sing a song well without being accompanied by a musical instrument. I consider the voice to be the first musical instrument before mankind began creating instruments.
What I like most about this church is the cherry trees. They have started blooming, and I love standing before the church to admire them.
I have lots to do today, but before I close this post, I want to leave you one of my favorite quotes. This is one of those quotes that follows me. I have posted it below. Vince Lombardi spoke these words to his team, the Green Bay Packers. He was also the first coach to win Super Bowl 1 in 1967, and the Super Bowl Trophy is named after him.
Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Shalom shalom,
Pat Garcia