The Clock and The Calendar

The Clock and the Calendar

They’re not our enemies but they’re sure not our friends

They cheat and can’t be trusted. They trick us, make us believe

They convince us we are their master

They are fickle, always changing speed to make us chase

Fooling us into thinking we can catch them

We are easy marks, making our plans

Really we are at their mercy

Accepting and embracing this truth, wisely redeeming

The portion we’ve been given brings cooperation

And peace

59 AND… nothing!

Next Friday, January 11th is my 59th birthday. This in itself means nothing really. But its been stirring some really morbid thoughts in me.

In 2017, my brother Larry passed away at age 59. He seemed so very young to be lying there dying. Kidney failure took our mom’s life at 60. It was one of the causes of Larry’s death. He also had very bad diabetes, congestive heart failure, and some kind of fluid build-up in his abdomen.

Now every time I have thought of my impending birthday, I have thought about how Larry passed away at 59. I’m not writing this to be morbid or pathetic; actually, I’m writing this as therapy for my morbidity. I am trying hard to separate the two thoughts.

Yes, I miss my only brother. And it was a devastating loss far too soon. But there is no connection between his passing and my 59th birthday. So there’s no reason for me to mourn my birthday. I mean, other than the fact that I’m OLD!

Finally “MORE THAN SONGS”

My first Christian book “More than songs” is finally published and available on http://www.Amazon.com/books in Kindle format, and available in paperback in a few days.

I spent seven years researching, organizing, writing, re-writing over and over ad-infinitum on this book. I paid a professional editor and literary agent gladly took my money for nothing of any consequence. The book was actually completed in 2013. I submitted to several traditional publishers. I hoped to find one that believed enough in the message and my marketing ideas (nowadays, an author has to be a marketer as well), they would be willing to invest. In almost every case, the response was the same: “It is a very good message, superbly-expressed; however, we don’t see the book as marketable at this time. They always finished with a word of encouragement — “Keep trying!”.

I never had the money for the subsidized (or shared expense) publishers. They will print anything as long as you have the money. Generally, promotion is solely the author’s responsibility.

So, finally, I self-published through Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP). Under the pseudonym of Matt Ice, I have 3 books that have been published there since 2012. I use the pen-name because these books are written for a completely different audience. I don’t want to say I surrendered by publishing this book in this way. I need some extra money, and I feel an urgency for some reason for this message to get out there. By the way, I don’t think I mentioned the book is about worship, from a biblical perspective.