Category: Blog

Being In-Spirit…Being Inspired

Dr. Wayne Dyer said that inspiration comes when we move back in-spirit with a power greater than ourselves. When we let our EGO dictate our life, we Edge God Out and fall out of being in-spirit. Being in-spirit is a significant theme of my novel, Life in Harmony. The theme plays out in the central couple’s return to a more natural setting (God is represented in nature). The theme of being in-spirit is also represented as Kate opens up her acceptance of being one with a heavenly spirit.

When I first began developing the story, it was going to be nothing more than a ghost story but then inspiration took hold of the story and it went further down a path of spirituality than I had originally intended.

I had always been drawn to stories that included God’s use of the supernatural to make his point. The bible is full of God’s direct intervention in the lives of common people. It was an angel that visited both Mary and Joseph separately and told of the baby she was to bear. When you look at the story of Christ’s birth alone, it is filled will God’s divining hand in ensuring things happened as intended. From the use of angels to the wise men, God guided the course of Mary and Joseph’s life in the opening of the gospel story.

Boo RadleyTo Kill A Mockingbird, Shoeless Joe Jackson/Field of Dreams and the movie Grand Canyon are favorites of mine because they dance very close to a divine force watching over us, guiding us, toward a greater goal. Being in-spirit comes in many forms in these titles and it reminds us that God is at work and uses whatever means possible to ensure his “plot” is followed. Whether it’s a stranger on the street or homeless man in Grand Canyon, the angelic Boo Radley in Mockingbird or J.D. Salinger in Shoeless Joe Jackson (character was renamed in Field of Dreams), we are reminded that God works out the details of inspiration in whatever manner necessary.

In Life in Harmony, our main characters, Kate and Michael, are at a crossroads and inspiration gathers like a rolling stone in the beginning of the book. A hand rubbing a back inspires an agreement for a trip. The open road with seemingly endless possibilities leads to a turn off that changes the course of events (pay attention to how the roads in the book come to dead ends and how that plays a part in the journey).

Inspiration comes from our willingness to be joined with a greater power than ourselves. My inspiration to this philosophy came from Dr. Dyer and in my appreciation for use of supernatural elements in the books and movies I mentioned above. Life in Harmony shows what life out of inspiration (not being in-spirit) and in spirit is like.

The term supernatural these days takes on a non-spiritual element and is more aligned with scary elements related commonly to ghosts (another word with more negative connotations than it should have…will save my thoughts on that for later). Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines supernatural as being unable to be explained by science or the laws of nature; relating to… a God.

Being inspired literally means being aroused or imbued with the spirit to do something, by supernatural or divine influence. Life in Harmony is a story inspired by and about being in-spirit with something greater than ourselves.LIH Cover 2015

If you haven’t picked up my novel, Life in Harmony, yet please buy it today (click here for more info).  If you have read it, let me know what you thought. I hope you find it inspiring. Dyer Book

An additional resource for inspiration is the Dr. Wayne Dyer book Inspiration: Your Ultimate Call. I was saddened by his death earlier this year as his books and lectures changed my focus in life. I will always be grateful for his inspiring me to get back to what my Spirit wanted from me – to write.

 

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Stories that Inspire

My novel, Life in Harmony, (Available Tuesday 12/1/15) is a book that I hope inspires. With the creation of Pangloss Sea Books, I was inspired to focus this blog (along with Twitter and Facebook) on stories that inspire. In looking at the other stories I am working on, there is a consistent theme of hope, faith and redemption in them. I appreciate stories that have a very positive uplifting ending. I should preface that it doesn’t always have to have a completely happy ending but it should be a story that gives hope or an inspirational message.

In the movie, Silver Lining Playbook, Pat (Bradley Cooper) is upset by the ending to Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.” He rationalizes that life is hard enough as it is. “Can’t you have a happy ending?”

Pat reads Hemingway and looks for a happy ending!
Pat reads Hemingway and looks for a happy ending in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Too often in our modern world we are reminded of news that takes us away from inspiration. Tragedy befalls the news daily with reminders of what isn’t working in the world. Lately, social media seems clogged with hate-filled rhetoric and frankly who wants to read that after a long day of work? Not me!

When I began to think of how I would use this website and social media channels, I made a commitment to seek out stories that inspire. Whether it is something that I have written or something I read or watched, I plan on sharing it here. I want this to be a place where you can come and find something filled with hope, something that inspires or something that just balances out the negative in your life.

Life is too short to sweat the negative stuff…why not look to hope in filling that void.

Here’s a sample of what types of stories I plan on sharing here:

This story appeared this morning on “CBS This Morning” in a piece by Steve Hartman.

 

LIH Cover 2015It’s official! Life in Harmony has a publication date – December 1, 2015!

Yes, this is exciting and long overdue news. You can pre-order e-books now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is also available for Kobo, Overdrive and various other formats. It should be available on iTunes hopefully before of the end of the year. Print Books will be available starting 12/1 on Amazon.

Over the next 10 weeks, I will be having a Blog Blitz covering various topics and themes connected to Life in Harmony.  I will also have other important announcements about the book and some other exciting opportunities related to the book’s publication.  Subscribe to this blog (top right) now to stay connected! Please also subscribe on Twitter or Facebook for more frequent updates!

 

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The Albatross Necktie

Close-up of Claucasian mid-adult man straightening necktie.I know it’s been two years and just when you think I’ve given it all up… I’m back!

The truth is this has been a long time in coming. Raising a family leads to making decisions that you insist you would never have to make, but do because what you want rides secondary to what responsibility holds. All during the past two years, I have had the publication of “Life in Harmony” hanging around my neck like an albatross necktie. I know that term is incredibly negative and in reality it’s not entirely the way it sounds. Has it been choking me with reminders of what should be? Absolutely! Sometimes we need those gnawing reminders to eat at us so we don’t forget about what lies deep inside us still yearning to get out.

Certainly, the daily grind of life and responsibility can weigh us down. It detracts you from affording the mental capacity of personal goals. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children and wouldn’t change my life with them for anything. No one tells you in person or in any parenting books the level of sacrifices you will make to show your children love. With them as my priority, most of my writing efforts in the last two years have been dedicated what has become known in our house as the annual “Summer Binders” (Books that guide my boys through their summer months in productive ways …more on that at another date).

The truth is I wouldn’t allow myself to work on anything else because of that albatross I wore as a reminder of something left unfinished. I knew what I needed to do to get “Life in Harmony” to publication but didn’t have the time or mental capacity to see it through except on vacations from the Monday-Friday, bill-paying job. And while sparks of creativity would tempt me into writing something else, I refused out of guilt. I needed to see this through to the end first. So I wore “Life in Harmony” around my neck not doing much else with writing because if there was time to write, it should be used to get the book into print.

So slowly but surely I built the bridge to this very personal goal one stone at a time. Finally, the bridge looks LIH Cover 2015complete and the necktie is coming off. “Life in Harmony” is finally ready for its close-up.

What has emerged is a good story that I hope others will enjoy. In working with my new incarnation through Pangloss Sea Books, “Life in Harmony” will hopefully be a new start for a new way of publishing and marketing books. The book will enjoy a soft release this holiday season. A soft release is a slow release where we can hopefully build an audience for an eventual larger release sometime next year.

For the few of you who are reading this I thank you. You can expect more consistent posts in the next few weeks. That necktie is now cast off and I am ready for what comes next. Look for this blog to take a strong turn toward positive story-telling with a new emphasis on “Stories that Inspire!”

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Priorities & Purpose

While we all start off with the best of intentions with goals for ourselves, sometimes uncontrollable circumstances change what we had in mind. Being a writer doesn’t pay the bills for over 95% of us who generally pay our bills doing some other sort of work (“the day job”).

So while I would have loved to continue to spend the second half of 2013 prepping for the release of “Life in Harmony” in the fall, course corrections in life led me down a different yet purposeful path. With only so many hours in a day and days in a year, priorities must be made and goals must be organized based on those priorities. Changing the day job this year became priority one. So while the goal of releasing “Life in Harmony” this year had been the highest priority when the year started, priorities changed as the year went on.

I have long believed that all things happen for a reason. Most times we are so close to the events taking place that we can’t possibly understand the purpose but somewhere down the road in our life we see what the stall, detour or tragic event helped us do. I believe this is the case for 2013. So while “Life in Harmony” was supposed to come out this year and is really close to being ready, 2014 will be the year for its debut. For everything (including delays) there is purpose. God’s timing is always perfect and this is just a part of that plan.

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No Matter What You Believe… You Gotta have Faith!

Faith is an interesting thing. It’s one of those things that’s hard to describe to a kid or even an adult. How do you define what faith is for you? It’s not always easily put into words. Yet it’s something we use everyday. We have faith that our car will stop when we press on the brake. We have faith in our spouse that they won’t cheat. We have faith that the breeze we feel is really just the wind and not that of a spirit or vice versa.

In Life in Harmony, faith is a major theme. In the story, we get as varied of opinions on faith as we do in real life. People (based on their degrees of faith) handle situations, particularly losses, differently.  Here is how I detail the faith theme in the story:Life in Harmony

It (faith) is our choice as to whether we believe in divine intervention or simple coincidence. Not everyone believes in the miracles they witness. Those who choose faith see the circumstances all the clearer and experience a divine harmony in their relationship with God and the people in their lives.  

I think that pretty much sums up what the religious faithful gain from putting their faith in God. It’s something those against religion don’t have going for them.

What are your views on faith? Have you ever thought about the similarities between your faith in science and a faith in religion? Share your comments below.

The novel, Life in Harmony, will be published in 2013. If you are interested in reading more about the forthcoming book subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive e-mail updates every time there is something to share.

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Let’s Talk About Heaven…What’s it like?


As humans, we will never understand the depth of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. The bible itself talks about a multitude of people in heaven from every place, race, tribe and language. It begs the question whether heaven is for all religions or only a select few. 

In my novel, Life in Harmony, the topic of heaven and what its like is addressed in-depth. My personal view of what heaven will be like is very much represented in the book. I based my idea of heaven on my own interpretations of scripture to support my claim (something I think we all should do). 

In Harmony, Kate’s dealing with both the loss of her baby and mother. She’s struggling with losing people on opposite ends of the spectrum of her life and it’s an important dynamic. In one relationship she’s the daughter and in the other the potential mother (this dynamic is a central point in the story).

In addition to her grieving for their deaths, she struggling with understanding what death and heaven is. She’s not traditionally a religious person and in a time of loss (like so many people) she wants the comfort of knowing those she has lost are at peace. In particular, she wants to know her mother who suffered a painful, cancerous death is happy. Ruth, who runs a shop in town, describes for Kate what my interpretation of heaven is. Here’s a compressed passage from Life in Harmony:

The truth is I don’t think heaven is a physical place at all. Heaven’s not up in the sky like so many think. It’s a place of mind. It knows no boundary. I believe a soul is at peace once it arrives in heaven. It does not wander or wonder. It knows. And when we die, our soul goes to that place of peace. The soul is in harmony with the spiritual realm and all its elements. Void of time, pain and distance. It’s unlike anything we could imagine…heaven is hard for anyone to easily describe…While heaven is beyond us and it is still a part of us.

What Ruth is talking about in the end of that passage is the fact here on earth we catch glimpses of heaven. In the form of God’s majestic creation, in our soulful connections to other people and in the miracles He brings to our lives.

I want the reader to understand we have human limitations to understand what God and heaven are. We can never truly know just how great heaven is. At the same time, we still have these spiritual connections to both God and paradise.

In the novel, I set the story along California’s Central Coast in the real life coastal town of Harmony, California. For me, personally, California’s Central Coast is as close to heaven as I get. It’s my “place of mind,” my little piece of heaven here on earth.

I believe heaven will be different for everyone. What I see and experience will be different from what you will experience. I will find a beach more perfect that can be found here on earth. For a glimpse of the Central Coast and my view of heaven, I’ve included a photo by Dagmar Collins from Flickr.com of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on the Central Coast. The lighthouse (and the legend I created for it in the book ) plays a significant part in the story. It’s a part of the story that reaffirms the harmony with the heavenly realm we experience here on earth and what heaven is to each of us.

What do you see when you visualize what heaven is for you? Who will be in heaven? Share your views below. Thanks for reading and sharing.

If you are interested in reading more about the forthcoming novel, Life in Harmony, subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive e-mail updates every time there is something to share.

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