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By The Light Of My Prayer 4 Years Later

By The Light Of My Prayer 4 Years Later

Last updated on: May 10, 2024 at 7:04 am by Mark Wilson

By The Light Of My Prayer 4 Years Later 2024-05-10T07:04:05-05:00 Mark Wilson

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Four years ago the Triune God answered my particular prayers and this blog post your reading now is part of that prayer. Most writers probably don’t publish an article on their writing anniversary. But writing on this blog site is one of my dreams that has come true and is still continuing and I’m thankful for it which is why I am blogging about it. It’s also another date that I can start over and begin again. Just like the fall when kids go back to school and new tv shows and seasons come out. Like when the new church year begins only to be followed by the regular new year a month later. Just like on my wedding anniversary on January 2 and my birthday on January 27. Then we have the beginning of Lent, then Easter, then Pentecost and then today, May 10.

Careful Computer Skills

You’ve got to be careful when your typing on your computer. One wrong move can erase words written and composed leaving you to rewrite and conjure again from scratch what you had already composed once. I hate that. That just happened with this particular blog post I had started. I hit some wrong buttons and POOF it was gone. It came back up again thanks the computer backup recovery system. But then I hit another wrong button and it disappeared again. Has this ever happened to you? When verbally trying to explain something to my wife this morning she interrupted me to let me know I wasn’t saying the word button correctly, thus disrupting my train of thought. That is what not saving your work on the computer is like.

This happened to me once in high school and college with some papers that I had written. All done and completed but not saved before the computer was shut off. So I had to start the painstaking process over once again.

Life is like that isn’t it?

A series of starting over and over again even when we have already completed something that had been achieved through blood sweat and tears. Your dreams and goals arrived only to fall into an abyss and yet again you have to start them over due to circumstances beyond your control. But of course it sometimes produces something new that wouldn’t have been produced before, such as these first two paragraphs you just read.

What Dreams in Your Life have you achieved,
only to have them taken away?

Did you start them over again?

Did something new and better come from them?

Life Reflection

Looking back on my life, I know that God has answered my prayers and allowed my dreams to come true. I got to go to the Disneyland of Catholic colleges, Franciscan University, and earned a Masters in theology which allowed me to get a job at CatholicTV. This combined both my degrees I had earned. A degree in communications at Fitchburg State College and a Masters in Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

But those dreams were taken away. I meet some interesting people at FUS and had some great experiences such as going on one of my first real travels out of the country by plane to Honduras. But the only legacy of my time as a grad student was debt so high my wife thought I would never be able to pay it off. It made me question whether or not going there was the right decision. Well thanks to a college loan forgiveness program that my mother in-law pointed out to me it is now paid in full. However unlike my undergraduate days at FSC I never made long lasting relationships that went beyond just social media like two of my best friends and my wife. I worked at CatholicTV for 7 years and then lost it and didn’t go back to work in that field.

The Lord Giveth Dreams and he Taketh them away again.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

4 years ago I was working at St. Patrick’s Manor and living in Massachusetts. After losing my job at CatholicTV I lost the energy and drive I had in life and have never fully recovered it. I still thought to do something with my talents and skills and was unsure what I could still do with my degree. I had lost the practice of making and editing together videos but still had the desire to write. An avenue was granted to me for this to happen and on Mother’s Day May 10, 2020 during the Covid pandemic I published my first post at Patheos Catholic.

By The Light Of My Prayer

And now here I am 4 years later living in Rhode Island still on Patheos with this being post #635. It is the length of time most American teens go through high school from Freshman to Senior. Of course this gig could end at some point. But right now outside of work and my relationship with God and my wife and others it is the main thing I pour my energy into.

Time Management

When I could be spending quality time with my wife on my days off from work I usually spend my time researching and writing for posts that I don’t think all that many people read including Kristin.

When I’m at church and my mind should be focusing on God and what is happening right there in front of me, I’m thinking of the research I want to do for my next blog post.

Kris got me a subscription to Masterclass for Christmas. I haven’t used it that much as I have been busy looking up information for Catholic Bard articles.

There is a new Exploding Kittens Zombie card game my sister in-law gave me that I haven’t taken the time to learn to play yet because once again I was browsing the net looking for facts.

I have neglected calling friends because I wanted to concentrate on doing research that is necessary if you want to write a well informed article that would be worth reading by other people.

I could have gone to $5 movie night this past week. I have plenty of movies to watch here at home so there is no need to go out to the theater unless what I’m going to see I can actually write about. But if I take the time to do that I then can’t do research for this other project I’m working on.

I don’t get a chance to write as much as I want because I have to go to work and I lose the energy I need from lack of sleep. So when I get the opportunity to write, I do so. I write when the inspiration hits such as this late hour in the middle of the night. And sometimes I write when I want to accomplish a goal even when I want to quit and lie down and do nothing. Doing research causes me to neglect some things such as cleaning the house. Is it worth neglecting certain things to achieve these goals? I have been given a gift for writing that is exercised on this platform of blogging at Patheos Catholic. It is a dream that has been allowed to continue. I don’t think I’m supposed to just abandon it. But I’m not supposed to neglect other areas of my life either. Trying to weave it all together is something I will continue to work on.

So far I have been granted 4 years of writing for Patheos Catholic. I hope to have many more years of writing. I hope to expand as a writer. Kristin and I were hoping to publish an actual book this year and then sit at a table at the next RI authors book expo in December. I would like to take some of my articles and turn them into e-books. I would like to start a podcast and to edit videos again. I would like to refresh some relationships that have lied dormit. I also want to have a better relationship with God and my wife. I still want to write as well. And I pray that I can still keep writing and I pray I won’t neglect the things I need to do.

Where are you in maintaining your dreams?

What do you neglect to achieve them?

Can you do both your dreams and responsibilities?

The last question I need to explore more.

In Conclusion

If I can’t do both may I do the right thing and love others. If I should ever stop writing for Patheos I hope to still use my talents and skills to live out my dreams in some capacity in whatever way God wills. Until God directs me in a different direction this is the path I’m going to keep walking down even if I have to alter my steps or eventually take a different path.

May God grant you your dreams that he has put into your heart.

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