Category: Musings

A Special and Earth-Shattering Event

On By dotluvs2writeIn art, Beauty, blogging, Christmas and other Holidays, humanity, Inspirational, Life, Musings, Nature, ReligiousLeave a comment

In two days, my family and I will be celebrating the birth of Christ, Who took on flesh from his Holy Mother, the Theotokos (or Virgin Mary).

I remember my family visiting the Natural History Museum up in Denver many years ago, and the timeline of human history displayed on the wall.

In the middle of that timeline was the birth of Christ.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been rather bothered by the lack of mention of Christ’s coming birth and rarely anything in stores carrying Christmas decorations and cards even mentioning the Christ Child.

I think in the past couple of decades, the meaning of Christ’s birth and how it impacted the world has been minimized.

Yes, we recognized the commercialism aspect that really took off many decades ago. However, it seems on steroids today!

The colossal event of Christ’s birth and coming in the flesh and walking among us humans is nothing short of miraculous and amazing! It is why the Natural History Museum couldn’t leave out that event in human history.

No matter the change of Before Christ to Before the Common Era, I asked myself, what does that actually mean? What was the “Before the Common Era”, and what does “Common Era” actually mean?

Looking up info on it, the term is also called “Before the Current Era,” which also means “Before the Christian Era”.

Obviously, we know this was done for religious neutrality. Although, I find that ridiculous. Because Christmas is all about Christ’s birth.

Other holidays that fall around this time and wishing those celebrating them a blessed one, I’ve no problem with.

However, I do think that although “Merry Christmas” seemed to have been somewhat muted in the past 10-15 years, it’s actually back to being said for those who wish to say it, which usually are us Christians, but sometimes others say this as well.

Unfortunately, I came down with an illness yesterday afternoon and have been in bed since then, I’m hoping I’ll be on the tale end of this bug when Christmas Day is here in two days!

I’m planning a roast beef dinner, and my oldest son, Nicholas, will be cooking duck for the first time!

As I’ve been reading the Gospel of Luke, I’ll leave these beautiful verses that Linus echoed in the Peanuts’ Christmas:

8″Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9″And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

10″Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.

11″For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12″And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

13″And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

A very Merry Christmas, everyone! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

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The Mistake of Book Reviews Equaling Books Read! Duh!

On By dotluvs2writeIn Fiction Writing, Inspirational, Life, Marketing, Musings, News Events, Publishing, Reviews, Writing Techniques4 Comments

After the years I’ve spent writing novels and novellas and receiving a modest amount of reviews and knowing how it all works, in the past few months, I’d totally forgotten all of it!

It wasn’t until a few days ago my novel, Painted with Good Intentions, was named a finalist by N.N. Light Book’s Heaven’s yearly awards in the genre of inspirational fiction/romance, that this misleading appearance came to me.

Oh, I suppose I should explain a bit about my book’s nomination and being a finalist in that genre I mentioned. To make it easier, I’ll post part of the email I received from the company who reviewed my book last year so that you understand what I’m talking about!

The email reads:

Each year, we rate the books we’ve given five-star reviews (December 2022 – November 2023) and award the best book of the year in select categories. We’ve tabulated the votes and we’re pleased to announce you’re a finalist in the category for inspirational fiction/romance.

We’re announcing the finalists on N. N. Light’s Book Heaven on Friday, December 15.

The winners will be announced on Friday, December 22. 

Congratulations on becoming a finalist. Out of the 1,200 books we read and reviewed in 2023, yours is one of the best. 

So, that was pretty exciting.

After receiving this email, of course I had to post it on my Facebook page.

I also must tell you that I’d nearly given up writing due to the enormous effort it takes promoting and marketing my works. I don’t have much time to do that because I work five days a week and really haven’t had the mental or physical energy to focus on my work-in-progress for several months now.

So, I thought my writing days were over. After all, the highest number of reviews for my books is 31 on Amazon, and, well, that isn’t that much. It’s not awful, but it isn’t what I was hoping for.

Therefore, I believed I did not have much of a readership, even though I know my friends have read my books, and some people I don’t know. Nevertheless, this didn’t make much difference to me.

It wasn’t until I posted about my book being a finalist in the company’s yearly awards and a couple of people under my announcement posted they had read and really liked my book and recommended it that the realization hit, and I remembered that most people don’t leave reviews on books or anything else.

The nomination and this realization that more people than 31 do read my books and that I do have a following resurrected my desire to write and to go back to working on Relics of Life, that already has nearly 59,000 words written so far! How could I not finish it? That would be a wasted effort!

It’s a joy to be able to delve back into this story and be reminded by another poster that I have a gift. Yes, this gift is from God, and I shouldn’t hide it or bury it.

Hoping this is a good reminder for other writers that may have, somehow like I did, forgotten about the fact that not many reviews doesn’t mean that people aren’t reading your work!

Keep on writing!

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Peace on Earth. Is This Really Ever Attainable?

On By dotluvs2writeIn Beauty, Christmas and other Holidays, Cultural and Political, humanity, Inspirational, Life, Musings, Nature, Religious, warLeave a comment

In the last month, I’ve been listening, once again, to podcasts by a dear archpriest who reposed a few years ago. He had several years of podcasts before his repose, and I listened to every one of them and am going through many of them again. His name was/is Fr. Tom Hopko.

I found epiphanies, discoveries, spiritual nourishment, and comfort in his talks.

Last week, I caught one of his talks he had done near Christmastime. He brought up the well-known saying I’ve heard all my life: Peace on Earth and good will toward men.

The first time I listened to his unpacking of that meaning was probably about 10 years ago. And anytime I read anything spiritually-centered, whether through the Scriptures or through books on the Saints, I will pick up different aspects of the verses or things said than I did in the past.

This was so for the meaning of peace on Earth and good will toward men.

This “Peace” is Christ, not the actual meaning of peace all over the Earth.

Fr. Tom explained that peace and good will is supposed to take place in the hearts of every person. They find peace through Peace = Christ. And Him only.

Because I’m one that is against wars and imperialism and the pursuing of power and money, I had been perceiving peace as an outward ability to tangibly have peace in the world through ending wars and people working through their problems diplomatically globally and through discourse within our communities.

So when I listened to what Father was saying, things clicked inside of me. Ah, I got what he meant.

Of course, I know and have known since being a practicing Orthodox Christian, that this world is broken and fallen, and there never can be real peace in this world. There cannot be any type of utopian place on Earth.

What I’ve noticed is when people are striving for that here on Earth, we may forget that the total harmony of humanity, the peace between all life, etc. is only in His Kingdom, and in that life afterward if we are blessed and through God’s mercy, we someday go there.

Pondering all that was said in that podcast, there was the thought that, well, peace within a person or many persons can bring about some peace because when one is in Christ and finds peace in Him, they emit peace toward others.

So, I have seen this in the Saints.

However, I don’t think it’s wide spread, especially in today’s spiritually dark climate.

But we can still work toward finding peace through Christ and trying to acquire it. The Holy Spirit within us helps us toward these spiritual pursuits.

Knowing this different perspective on peace, I see it as just a shifted view of what peace means. In a way, it’s a relief to me because, oddly enough, I think one striving to find this peace in and through Christ within our relationship with Him may be a much more attainable goal than “world peace”.

I say this may be “easier”, but it still feels like quite a mountain to climb. But it’s a good thing to pursue, and so I will continue to do so, no matter how many times I fail.

After all, life is about falling down and getting back up. He who endures to the end is saved, as Christ Himself says in Matthew’s Gospel.

And as Mother Gavrilia said, it’s the effort that counts.

I wish there was a way to permanently stamp those words into my brain. To remember it and have it before me always.

Everyone wants to live in peace, and knowing what that means and Who it is, I believe, helps guide us on the right path toward it.

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