Rise Up My Love. The Winter Is Past And Gone.

This time last year my legs were shaky, and I was swaddling around in uncertainties. Disappointed in the progress of my first book I was pondering over whether or not I had the stamina I needed to be the kind of writer that I desired to be.  Rise up my love. The winter is over, the rain is past and gone.

 Sure, I got encouragement from other writers.  I even flirted with self-publishing, just to prove a point to myself, but facing my own reality, I knew that wasn't the problem. The real problem lay within me.  I needed to know within myself whether or not I had something to say, regardless of whether I wrote fiction or non fiction, regardless of whether I was writing a blog article for a senior editor on my platform or for my own blogs. That was the question, and as I said last year in my last blog article I was Caught On My Blindside.

Not to mention that I had surgery, wrestle with the complications of having a sick partner, and living in a foreign country.  But, those were secondary problems that only covered the face of the real problem: what was going on inside of me. Like the Ground Hog article written on February 1st, I tried to leave my hole, but I finally went back in my hole to contemplate my misère.

Anything different from the majority sticks out. I don't care what it is, and whom you are. You can have the same bone structure, same color of skin and the same hair particles, but you will stick out like a sore thumb when your soul is not at peace with itself.  People recognize that something is going on with you.  They may not be able to identify it, but it hangs like a shroud between you and them until it is resolved.

So there I was in 2013 wrestling with myself in all areas of my life. Wrestling with my soul as I came to grips with the direction I was heading in, which brings me down to what I want to say. Rise up my love. The winter is over, the rain is past and gone.

You'll find me writing fewer blog posts this year than I have in the past. Not because I have given up writing, but because I decided that what I write has to make a statement. I don't want to entertain with my blogs. I am trying to jar the minds of men and women and challenge them think, to agree or to disagree with my opinion, in other words, to communicate. It is my desire to establish a dialogue of communication in my blogs.  That means that when I don't have anything to say, I'll keep my big mouth shut.

As my mouthpiece, my blogs reflect my experiences on my journey, my beliefs, my struggles, and my overcoming.  They mirror how I see the world.  This does not mean that my view is correct. Many times it might be twisted, but I will never know that unless I challenge myself to listen to what others have to say. Thus, the rhythm of my blogs appearances will change to the following:

Walk On – four times a year,

Garcia's Talks about Apple Products – four times a year,

Pat Garcia Book Reviews – twelve times a year,

Pat Garcia and Everything Must Change – seven times a year,

Garcia's Views on Body Soul and Spirit – four times a year,

Wind, Rain, Winding Roads and Sunshine - seven times a year.

This will also give me the time I need to concentrate  on looking for the right agent for my books, establishing a much larger author platform than I have, taking the needed writing courses to improve myself in the ever changing requirements, in the Literary field, and to attend writing workshops that will let editors, agents and publishers know that I am out there.

Some of you know that I am a singer and musician too.  I travel quite a lot, giving concerts and conducting workshops here on the European continent.  Therefore, another reason I needed to structure myself was for my music. Sometime this year, I would like to record a blues CD in cooperation with music and lyrics from a Canadian musician whom I admire deeply.

Without writing and music or music and writing, I am an empty hull searching for air so I can breathe. Rise up my love. The winter is over, the rain is past and gone.

 So, as I rise, letting go of the shackles that keep me from moving out into the unknown and launch out on the water before me, I hope to meet you along the way as I travel further.  I invite you to enter into a conversation with me on my blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Linked in, on WordPress, on Blogger, on American Diversity Report or anywhere else that I might write and to let me know how you see things happening around you or share with me your view of your state, country, or the world, and to disagree with me when you have a different point of view.  Disagreeing points of view do not mean that we have to be enemies. It means that we stretch ourselves to learn from each other and hopefully come away respecting the other's opinion. 

Finally, I hope you will share your joys and triumphs.  There is nothing that makes my soul merrier than to be able to listen to others as they share their joys, their happiness, and their struggle to overcome.  

Hence, I challenge you to rise and move towards your life's purpose; to rise from wherever you have hidden yourself, to look at the winter of your journey and say, the winter is over, the rain is past and gone as you move towards that which you know to be your destiny.

 So, Rise up my loves wherever you are. The winter is over, the rain is past and gone!

Shalom,

Pat Garcia

* Rise up my love. The winter is past and gone.  Song of Songs 2:10-11.  ZONDERVAN. NEW INTERNATIONAL BIBLE.  1984