DAY 30, JANUARY 31, 2023, A DAY IN MY LIFE…SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA @pat_garcia #RWISA #RRBC #RRBC_Community #ADayinMyLife

DAY 30, JANUARY 31, 2023

I’m going to miss this Challenge. It challenged me.
Within me, it has removed reservations that I had pushed deep within the dark corners of my soul. After the first week, I thought I was going to buckle under. The possibility of facing weaknesses and being drowned in recriminations brought up good old Vincent Lombardi, who sits at my imaginary round table as one of my advisors.


He said two simple statements. “Adversity is the first path to truth. Prosperity is a great teacher: adversity is greater.” For me, the adversity was the distress of having to change.

I like quotes from people who talk from experience. Lombardi built a winning football team, and they were the very first to win the Super Bowl.

So, I moved into the second week prepared to face myself.

Joy rose as I read the blogs from the rest of the participants. With some of their postings, I laughed, and with others, I was amazed, and then there were some posts where tears flowed and others that brought me into deep contrition, contemplation, and repentance. The articles were all that good and inspiring.

If you have read my postings during the 30-Day Challenge, you know I had doubts, frustration, and regrets. Yet through all of what I felt, I am delighted to have stuck with it. Vince was right. Facing my adversity is more remarkable than never having done it at all.

Would I do it again? YES! Undoubtedly. Not this year, but whenever I see it offered again.

Does this mean I am going to blog every week to prepare myself? NO! However, I have decided to blog on my author’s website once every two months to release some new SNIPPETS. 🙂

Therefore, on this last day of the Challenge, I leave you with another quote by Vince: I do my best to walk with this quote every waking day of my life.

“When we place our dependence in God, we are unencumbered, and we have no fear. In fact, we may even be reckless insofar as our part in the production is concerned.
This confidence, this sureness of action, is both contagious and an aid to the perfect action.
The rest is in the hands of God–––and this is the same God who has won all His battles up to now.” (By Vincent Lombardi)

My list of new and open items for this week includes the following:

  1. Revising the first 10K of my new novel. It usually takes me at least four to six days to fix 10K. I like to send her my final draft so that she understands the direction I’m moving in.
  2. Answering emails and text messages, Daily
  3. Finishing the last revision of my first novel.
  4. Co-hosting the IWSG on Wednesday
  5. Releasing my new short story. (Na-Doo is still jumping for joy, and I’m laughing. She’s a sassy woman, but I love her the way she is.)

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!
Peace!

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

DAY 27, JANUARY 28, 2023, A DAY IN MY LIFE…SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @pat_garcia @Tweets4RWISA #RWISA #RRBC #RRBC_Community #ADayinMyLife

DAY 27, JANUARY 28, 2023, HOW DO YOU SAY GOODBYE?

This morning, after my contemplation, I read Nonnie Jules’ blog posting for Day 26. After reading her poem, I went to the blog posting of Shirley Harris-Slaughter and read her Day 26 posting.

Shirley’s article is entitled How Do You Say Goodbye?
Her question, along with Nonnie’s poem, threw me into contemplativeness again.

John Donne and his Meditation 17 rose within me. Especially the line that says, “any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell toll; it tolls for thee.”

We are all a part of humanity, whether we accept that or not. No one can guarantee they will make it through the day or wake up the next morning. Yet, we treat life as something we dictate, which is sad.

How do I say goodbye is the question that Shirley asked.


I don’t have an answer to that question. Living on another continent, far away from my family and extended family, I do everything within my power to love them in the now with phone calls, text messages, video calls, and visits when I am in the USA.

I tell and show them that I love them every chance I get. Who knows if I will have the opportunity to say or show that tomorrow?

I want to know that whenever one of them leaves this world, if they go before me, and step into eternity, I will have given them the most precious gift I possess, which is to love.

Knowing I have loved them doesn’t take away the sadness or the pain, but it comforts me.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”*
(New International Version 2011, Zondevan, The Gospel According To John John 15:9-13)

(NONNIE JULES’ POSTING is linked to this posting, and Shirley’s article is linked. You are welcome to read both postings. The links will take you directly to their blog articles.)

My list of open items includes the following:

  1. Revising the first 10K of my new novel. It usually takes me at least four to six days to fix 10K. I like to send her my final draft so that she understands the direction I’m moving in. 
  2. Answering emails and text messages, Daily
  3. Finishing the last revision of my first novel. 

Have a lovely Saturday. 

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

DAY 24, JANUARY 25, 2023, A DAY IN MY LIFE…SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @pat_garcia @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA #RWISA #RRBC #RRBC_Community #ADayinMyLife

DAY 24, JANUARY 25, 2023

Good Morning,

Today, I am working on finishing the revision of my first novel. I am very thankful I have a publisher who is patient with me. I am a hybrid author and am grateful to have found people from both spectrums of the independent/traditional publishing world who care about me. They listen to what I say, and at the same time, I listen to what they are saying. It is a two-sided coin. 

It is not always easy getting me to see the tiny fragments that make up a story that might need to be clarified or come too soon for the reader. But I move further when they leave me alone to see it myself. I am smiling right now because usually, when they get to the point of living with my decision, my eyes open, and I see what they mean. This is why my editors are crucial for my writing, and I take writing classes, attend writing conferences, and meet up with other writers wherever possible. 

I have said once or twice during this Challenge that no man is an island. I believe that wholeheartedly. This phrase comes from one of my favorite readings by John Donne. Most people think it is a poem, but it is a Meditation, contemplative words (here I go again with contemplation) that Donne wrote at an appropriate time in his life that fits exceptionally well in our lifetime.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”* (taken from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death’s Duel by John Donne and is recorded as he originally wrote it)

I ended yesterday before my fireplace with a tasty cup of Sanddorn Tea. I wanted to show you how beautifully my fireplace burned as I daydreamed before it. 

My list for this week includes the following:

  1. Revising the first 10K of my new novel. It usually takes me at least four to six days to fix 10K. I like to send her my final draft so that she understands the direction I’m moving in. 
  2. A letter to write. I had decided to wait until after the Challenge, but my gut is telling me to do it now, which is what I will do. 
  3. Answering emails and text messages, Daily
  4. Finishing the last revision of my first novel. 

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

DAY 17, JANUARY 18, 2023, A DAY IN MY LIFE…SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @pat_garcia @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA #RRBC #RWISA #RRBC_Community #ADayinMylife

DAY 17, JANUARY 18, 2023

Good Afternoon,

I finished my yearly treasury reports for 2022 and am relieved and happy today. Our board meeting is tomorrow via Zoom. I usually have them complete and sent out by the first week of the month, but adjusting to the Challenge has caused me to slow down and readjust to the pressure, and some of my typical responsibilities are behind. 

I’m not a person who has nothing to do. I have already made people I want to work with this year aware of my new plans for 2023. I take my time and succeed most of the time.  

For example, in this year’s second half, I plan to go back on stage and do five or seven concerts with my band. For a woman like me, five or seven gigs are a lot. 

We will start rehearsals sometime in June and then take the autumn months to be on the road on the weekends. I look forward to it. When I sing, I connect with my audience; these are the times that I am pleased that I am fluent in German. 

My audiences are a mix of all cultures, and because they live here, they speak German. If I want to connect with them, I must communicate in their language. That’s one of the things I learned from the German Professor who was so strict with me. I have seen too many Americans fail to connect in Europe because they refused to learn the language of the country where they live. 

I am blessed to be able to travel to Italy, France, and the french speaking parts of Belgium and communicate, even though my French and Italian could be better. 

I will take a break in a few minutes and will close now. 

I have an hour of knitting today with my little old ladies. One of them has already texted me on WhatsApp and asked if I would come. I quickly arranged my calendar for today, so I could be with them for an hour. I so look forward to being there. 

The open items from my list for this week to include new items are below. 

  1. I’m revising the first 10K of my new novel. It usually takes me at least four to six days to fix 10K. I like to send her what I call my final draft so that she understands the direction I’m moving in.
  2. I have a letter to write. I had decided to wait until after the Challenge, but my gut is telling me to do it now, which is what I will do. 
  3. Answering emails and text messages, Daily
  4. Attend my writing classes and do my homework,
  5. Catch up on blog comments,
  6. Knitting Group at the Post Office
  7. Send one of my stories to the person who will do the critique I won for winning the WEP. 

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Shalom aleichem

Pat Garcia

DAY 11, JANUARY 12, 2023, A DAY IN MY LIFE…SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @pat_garcia @RRBC_ORG @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA #RWISA #RRBC_Community #RRBC #ADayinMyLife

DAY 11, JANUARY 12, 2023

My morning started with bangs! I woke up to rain. While dressing, I heard the waste disposal workers picking up the yellow bags we use to dispose of our plastic trash. They come once every two weeks and usually come around eight a.m. The fact that they arrived early had a consequence for me. I packed my bag the evening before but decided to wash my dishes before taking my yellow bag out to the sidewalk to be picked up. I decided to do it when I went downstairs in the early morning. Well, surprise! the workers came early, and now I have to store my plastic trash bag away and wait for the next pick-up in two weeks.  

It was still very dark when I went downstairs, but I could see a tiny bit of light breaking through clouds. One of my high points is watching the daylight peek into full daybreak. I can feel the earth turning. 

An hour later, I reached into my fridge for the butter that sat on one of my favorite glass dishes I keep in the refrigerator to use whenever I need to store something. Pang!!! It went as it fell to the floor. Broken glass and splitters everywhere. I said thank you that it didn’t fall on my feet, and I got my broom to sweep up the chaos. 

I got my coffee, ate breakfast, and read three chapters of an audiobook I am reading. I read non-fiction when I have breakfast. It is incredible to me how writers of non-fiction catch my mind and bring me into their world. Like being in a classroom, I absorb what they are saying and learn much. 

Now I’m sitting at my Mac, and I’m chuckling. I look forward to the rest of my day. Do you remember me mentioning that my hairdresser was ill and had to postpone my appointment? It was on my to-do list from the first week of the Challenge. Yesterday, I got a WhatsApp message that I could come today. So, where will I be in the afternoon? I will be spoiling myself, YEAH!

Congratulations to all of you participating in the Challenge, A DAY IN MY LIFE! We made the ten-day mark yesterday. HURRAH!!! I’m cheering for us all to make it to the finish line.  Here’s my certificate. I know you received yours.

I’m going to follow Ms. Nonnie’s leading, the woman responsible for this Challenge, and close with one of my favorite quotes on my whiteboard, right next to my desk, by one of my mentors, Vincent Lombardi, who passed away some years ago. 

THE DESIRE FOR THE REWARD OVERWHELMS THE HUMAN INSTINCT TO QUIT AND COMPROMISE, TO TAKE THE SAFE ROUTE.

Have a lovely day.

Shalom aleichem

Pat Garcia

A DAY IN MY LIFE…SUBTITLE: SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia @pat_garcia @RRBC_ORG @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA #RWISA #RRBC_Community #RRBC #ADayinMyLife

DAY 5, JANUARY 6, 2023

Good Morning,

I ended my day well yesterday. I’m always happy when I can break a mold of rigidity that has secretly formed in my life and is unknowingly keeping me from who I am. Vulnerability is a trait I desire. It is not something you acquire only once because it consists of different processes. Once you open yourself to vulnerability, you have committed to change whenever you feel stagnation in your routine. 

I smiled as I looked at my list of things to do this morning. I have two more important things to do, and I put them at the top of my list. 

  1. Get in touch with the person who donated the prize I won for my WEP win.
  2. Do my grocery shopping and go to the bakery. 
  3. I’ve changed my journal back to DAY One, and I want to transfer my journal notes from Evernote to DAY One.
  4. Bring in enough wood that will last me until Tuesday for my fireplace. 
  5. I’ve already communicated with my developmental coach and will send her the first 10K for the second novel in my series. She is a godsend because I get wild in my writing. I first met her in a class. She was instructing a writing class on Deep Point of View. My first assignment was one I’ll always remember. Oh, did I come away with hurt feelings and pained feet. She had stepped on my toes, but I forced myself to stay in the class. Little did I know that this woman would become a dear friend. Nor did I know then that she was responding to me from a bank as I stood in the middle of a river trying to find my true self in my writing. I see it now, but I didn’t see it then. She was standing there saying let me help you get to where you want to go with your writing. She’s a tough person but has a big heart, and as I look back, I’m thankful I stayed in her class. Thus, today, I’m going to pop two or three bowls of popcorn and continue writing the first draft of my second novel. 
  6. Close my day out with some gooseberries and a glass (maybe even two glasses) of dry, red wine from Southern Italy, and look at my fire as my mind roam freely, putting this past week in containers so I can close up shop Saturday evening. 

Happy Friday, everyone. Have a good one. 

Shalom aleichem

Pat Garcia

A DAY IN MY LIFE…SUBTITLE: SNIPPETS OF ME By Pat Garcia

DAY 3, JANUARY 4, 2023

My life flows like a river; that, I believe. I had the privilege of reading a book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled Flow when I attended university. This book has influenced my life ever since. He talks about discovering your flow and how time flies when you move in flow. I began using myself as a trial specimen to determine if his observations were accurate. I am happy to say that they are. I watch the river within me every day, searching for my flow. 

I don’t make a year’s plan because I don’t follow them. A month’s plan takes me out of my flow, and believe me when I say there are a lot of events, people, groups, and things that try to distract me. I usually write down a series of things I plan to do during the week, where I can add stuff as I will and put a line through things I have accomplished. 

What does this have to do with today?

 Well, I had an appointment today with the hairdresser. My hair has been screaming that it needed a hair treatment. My hairdresser is a German woman whom I met four years ago. She was going through a difficult time when I met her. We were in a group in the church study we attended. I felt her desperation and couldn’t ignore it, so I reached out to her. A year later, I chose her to be my hairdresser because I want her to discover the same peace I have and how to protect it by being true to herself.

This morning, after I entered my office, I received a text that she had to postpone the appointment because she had the flu and didn’t want to pass it on to me. I wrote back immediately, letting her know it was no problem. I didn’t mention my hair, but I wrote a prayer for her in the text message and wrote that she should drink thyme tea and peppermint tea and eat tomato soup or chicken noodle soup. 

Afterward, I didn’t regret not being able to go to her. Not because she was sick but because I saw clearly that my schedule had been arranged differently than what I had planned, and as I started moving in the way that had opened, I began moving in my flow, and time began to fly.

So today, one of the two groups I have been with for ten years or more has our blogging day. I enjoy this group because they are so different from me, and almost ninety-five percent of the participants are not Romance Novelists. I learned so much by visiting their blogs and leaving comments.

I plan to visit the blogs for the Challenge, leave comments wherever I can, and send out tweets too. 

Answer my emails and text messages,

Check on my last story with my editor at 4Wills,

Get in touch with my developmental editor, and

Pick up some fruits.

Until tomorrow, take care.

Shalom aleichem

Pat Garcia

Just Thought I Would Share…@rrbc_org @rrbc_rwisa @pat_garcia #WEP #IWSG

Good Morning, Everyone,

Just thought I would share.

Monday morning of last Week, I was informed that TURN THE LIGHT ON has received the 2021 Kathryn C. Treat Award Contest.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

RRBC KCT International Literary Award Contest

AN AUTHOR INTERVIEW BY ROX BURKEY, CO-AUTHOR OF THE ENIGMA SERIES AND A DELIGHTFUL CHRISTMAS READING, HOT CHOCOLATE, FEATURING PAT GARCIA @1rburkey #RRBC #RWISA #IWSG #WEP

Good Morning Everyone,

I had an interview with Author Rox Burkey, the co-author of the Enigma Series.

Please join me by dropping by her blog and saying hello.

Wishing you all a great week.

Shalom aleichem

Pat Garcia

Turn The Light On, By Pat Garcia, Is Being Featured On The Writer’s Treasure Chest, By Blog Owner Aurora J. Alexander @RRBC_ORG, @RRBC_RWISA, @AuroraJean_A

Hello Everyone,
I am being featured at the Writer’s Treasure Chest by Aurora J Alexander.

A.J. and I got to know one another when she was living in Switzerland. We had many opportunities to get together and discuss the craft of writing.
She lives on the Pacific Coast now, and I, for one, miss her.
A.J., thank you for inviting me.
Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

P.S. I have closed the comments on this post and have put the link to the blog post on Writers Treasure Chest below. Thank you for dropping by her blog.

https://aurorajalexander.wordpress.com/2021/06/17/author-spotlight-pat-garcia/

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