ANGELS ... WHY MY INTEREST?

            

                                   ANGELS … Why My Interest?                                 

            Angel Talk #1    June 1990

My father was dying of brain cancer. In one of my last visits to his hospital room while he was still very conscious and clear minded he wanted to know what I was doing and who I was counseling. He had always been very protective of me and I thought displeasure would come when I would tell him.

“Papi, the counseling is getting more serious now. I’m helping someone wanting to come out of Satanism.”

My father slowly turned his head toward me. I knew he was in pain but his eyes labored to search mine. “You’ve always had very strong angels, Mayita.” He closed his eyes and smiled. I wanted to ask him what he meant and why he said that but the time didn’t seem right … he needed rest.

I’ve often pondered those words which poured upon me as the balm of his blessing. I knew my father. By not telling me not to do what I was doing he had given me approval. But his words also left me stirred with a pricking curiosity. My dad, who had experienced and shared some of his prophetic dreams with me in the past, dreams that had come true, had he now seen something in his dreams about me? And angels? What did he know about angels? We never had the chance to finish that talk.

Angel Talk #2   Cruise, 1991.

Sunday at sea in a cruise ship heading to Mexico. A group of believers meet to read favorite Scriptures, tell their stories and pray. I’m the last to stand in front and share my story. I speak of voices that pounded my mind in 1979, voices that shouted torturous thoughts, words and commands that almost drove me to suicide. I speak to the small number of believers about the God who rescued me, and afterward they came to pray for me. They cried with me and hugged me; they encouraged me to continue to make known my message. We sang a final song, Amazing Grace together, and I made my way to the door, but a hand on my arm pulled me back.

“I have something to tell you.” A tall man with snow-white hair points to his eyes. “I saw something. Something on each side of you while you were speaking.”

“Yes?” I held my small Bible closer to me and saw that some of the people were still waiting for me outside the meeting room. Who was this person? What did he want?

 “I just want to tell you. There’re two very large beings of light with you. Very large.” The man smiled, nodded and turned to make his way out the door, never looking back. I didn’t see him again during the entire cruise. Once again my interest with angels flared. These two instances started a study and search that will forever be part of my life.

Mayi is the nickname my grandmother, my Abuela, gave me. My father added the ita  Spanish ending at times for endearment.  

If you enjoyed this story here are others that might interest you:

 Why Counseling The Oppressed?   Where The Natural Meets The Supernatural … Beyond The Veil. Story found in (December 10, 2013 blog).

 
               For a chuckle?
                   Pressure Cooker Friend Or Foe … and casabe   (September 3, 2012)

          Spirit, Soul And Bread Pudding  (April 23, 2012)

     A touch for the heart?          The Ten Cow Wife  (August 20, 2012)

                                         The Encounter Left Two Imprints  (June 21, 2012)

                                        The Day God Broke My Dam  (June 6, 2012)

                                        Art Work In Roma, 1995  (May 5, 2012)

                                       The Music Box  (May 1,2012)  

  Welcome to my blog, Dr. Marc J. Yacht, writer, poet, actor, friend! Thank you for so many hours of your volunteer work in our community.
                                                                                                    

   

                                                          Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH

                                                          Hudson, Florida 34667

                                          Retired Director, Pasco County Health Department

 

    Guest Editorial:  Oh no, not more resolutions!

 

Have I made resolutions?  Several years ago, noting a long history of failed efforts; I decided to give greater thought to my promises.  The objectives: to make me a better husband and father, a healthier specimen, less angry, and saner.   I have had no success with “reducing anger” from a previous declaration and frankly I am sure that “irate” is now the norm among citizens who follow the daily events plaguing the nation.  It is doubtful that many are happy.

 

Ergo, my first resolution:  Thou shalt listen to the other side!

 

Watching the demonstrations and the counterdemonstrations that are tearing at the fiber of this nation, the old adage, “I’d rather fight than switch,” cannot encourage a healing process to foster civility. No one is listening and everyone is shouting.

 

And my second: Thou shalt not shout invectives at someone with an opposing point of view!   

 

 I have found it very difficult to win someone over when screaming obscenities and raising fists. Such behavior gets the deserved response.  A friend of mine solved his propensity for cursing.  He decided to penalize himself $5.00 for each profanity.  He would give his mounting fines to a free clinic. Not a charitable person by nature, he found success with this punishment.  The avoidance of fist-raising requires great discipline.

 

For the third:  Thou shalt study the issue well before forming an opinion!

 

It is very difficult to listen to anyone who has no clue what they are talking about.  Listening to TV pundits does not give one expertise.  Study the concern from all angles, then talk.

 

 

And the forth:  Thou shalt not riot and destroy property!

 

Sadly the damage is typically borne by the innocent and often a sympathizer.  Wonton destruction and looting serves no useful purpose. The police have every right to drag the offenders off to the slammer.

 

For the fifth: Thou shalt respect an opposing point of view!

 

Remember, no matter how right you think you are; you could be wrong! Remember the bet

on the sure winner that came in last. Recall that stock market pick that went south and cost a bundle. No one is right all the time.

 

And the sixth:  Thou shalt consider that everyone is right!

 

Agreeing with someone is a good start to defuse a hostile encounter.  It’s possible that the opposing party will show similar respect and agree with you. Finding agreement is a win-win and may lead to a beautiful friendship.

 

 

For the seventh: Thou shalt love thy spouse!

 

Kids will grow up. They never call or write.  You’ll rarely see the neighbors, and relatives can bring more trouble than your worst enemies.  Co-workers are fleeting and eventually you will retire.  In the end, the two of you are all you have – cherish each other.

 

And the eighth:  Thou shalt expect nothing! 

 

With such an attitude whatever you receive for you efforts or charity is better appreciated.

 

For the Ninth:  Thou shalt lighten-up!

 

Have a sense of humor, chortle and enjoy a good joke.  America has lost its sense of humor and is dying for want of a good laugh. 

 

That’s enough for this year.  It is doubtful I will keep any of them…maybe one or two.  However, I remain optimistic, which brings me to…oh never mind!

 

Accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

 

Dr. Marc Yacht, MD, is a retired physician.  This column courtesy of Context Florida.

  
Marc J. Yacht MD, MPH
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RAFTERS AGAIN! HOW MANY AND WHY?

                               RAFTERS AGAIN!   How many now and why?

Oh yes, conditions are so much better in Cuba. Who are they kidding? What are their motives? When I read some newspaper articles and hear those speaking of how much better off Cuba is today….

The empty rafts speak … and those rafters that survived the odyssey.

According to an article in The Tampa Tribune, October 12, 2014, the number of Cubans fleeing the island and attempting to reach the United States by sea grew nearly to 4,000 people this past year.

Who lives and who dies in the search for freedom? The article speaks of the danger for rafters. One of the worst Cuban rafter tragedies this year involved the 32 people leaving Cuba and lost at sea for nearly a month. By the time a Mexican fisherman found the rafters, 15 people were still alive. Two of those survivors later died. Some so desperate they drank their unrine and blood.

Why don’t Cubans come in other ways? According to another article in The Tampa Bay Times, October 12, 2014, for the past ten years, sophisticated smuggling networks that use go-fast boats were responsible for the vast majority of Cuban migration. Today, a crackdown on those boats and the high price they charge, which few Cubans are able to afford, stopped that operation.

“I believe there is a silent massive exodus,” said Ramon Saul Sanchez, an exile leader in Miami who has helped families of those who died at sea fleeing Castro’s regime.

A massive exodus?  And with what vessels? What are these floating devices like?

“We have seen vessels made out of styrofoam and some made out of inner tubes. These vessels have no navigation equipment, no lifesaving equipment,” said Cmdr. Timothy Cronin, deputy chief of enforcement for the Coast Guard’s Miami District.

                                                            

A Rafter’s Story:

Yannio La O, a 31-year-old wrestling coach who came to Miami after the shipwreck landed him in Mexico said, “If I had to save $10,000 with my monthly salary of $17, to make it to the United States in another way, I would not get here until I was 80 or 90 years old.”

Yannio and 32 others departed from Manzanillo, in southern Cuba, in late August, on a boat they put together in three months. They had engine trouble and their food was contaminated by a sealant they brought along to patch up holes in the hull.

“Every day at 6 a.m., or 6 p.m., somebody died,” La O said.

Are Cuba’s conditions better now? Why don’t we ask Yannio La O.

 "I would tell anyone in Cuba to come. It's better to die

 on your feet than live on your knees,” Yannio La O said.

     Art work by Tony Mendoza for the book, Cuban-American, Dancing On The Hyphen.

 WHAT'S UP WITH AMARILYS RASSLER ... (MARGGIE) ... 
        ANSWERS FOR BLOG INTERVIEW - Feel free to help me out, please. 
          Was asked to be in a blog interview. Want to help? 
 Were there answers that left you asking more questions? 
            If so, what were those?  Thanks! 

 AUTHOR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR BLOG INTERVIEW! 

Where do you find your writing inspiration?

I find my writing inspiration in modern and classic poetry and in books written to inspire writers. For example, The Right To Write, by Julia Cameron and The Courage To Write, by Ralph Keyes. Music, art and cinematography can also easily feed my muse.

What is your favorite fictional character or creature?   

Lucy Pevensie, from The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. I feel a  camaraderie with her because she saw another world around her and characters in that world that no one else from her own family saw till much later. When I was a child, living in Cuba, I first saw spirits at the age of four. I love the way Lucy sticks with her beliefs and claims as true that which she saw even though no one else at first believed her.  

What is the one writing tool you couldn’t live without?

Definitely the internet for research and for excellent access to dictionaries and thesauruses.

Do you have any writing rituals?

Yes! I pray for inspiration, turn on a gurgling fountain, put on soft music of the culture of the character I’m creating, pick up pictures from the internet of the neighborhood most like the one in which my character lives and then I see myself there with him or her.  

What path did you take for publication?

Cuban-American, Dancing OnThe Hyphen, my first book, I self-published. I am so glad I did! It is a cultural book, with the flavor of Cuban culture. It’s prose and poetry that tells my story as one of the 14,000 children who escaped Cuba alone in the exodus of 1960-1962.  I dedicated it especially to my mother who was able to enjoy the book for more than a year before she passed away. I have also written stories and poetry that were published in the traditional way in print magazines and on an online magazine.

If you could be any character in one of your stories, who would it be and why?

I’m very close to self-publishing a second book, The Chairs, the story of the visit of two angels to the seaside town of Dunedin, Florida, summoned by the prayers of an elderly couple. I would like to be one of those angels, the one I called, the centurion. Why? I love the insight and power he has over the darkness in the spirit realm.

Are you writing anything now? Tell me about your next project!

Right now I’m working on my spiritual memoir, Beyond The Veil, the story of my traumatic trip in 1979, into the spirit realm.  I’m also writing a speculative fiction novella, a suspense-romance, Commuters. It’s the story of a Chicago detective who rescues a little girl from a serial killer, falls in love with her young widowed mother and then realizes that the demons from the serial killer have transferred to the girl. Can he once again set her free?

What are you currently reading?

Writing romance, reading romance! I’m presently enjoying Richard Paul Evans’, The Last Promise. Writing speculative fiction, reading speculative fiction! I just finished The Chair, by James L. Rubart. Super drama about a chair supposedly made by Christ and protected by a select group of women throughout the ages.

When you’re not writing, what can we find you doing for fun?

When I’m not writing I’m making memories with my family. You can also find me reading while drinking strong coffee at a café or cooking to make my hubby happy!

What is the best advice you have received (writing or otherwise)?

The best advice I have received on writing has come from what Julia Cameron says…

“Write because something ‘touches’ you, write because you want to ‘touch’ someone else, but most of all write to ‘get in touch’ with the divine or because the divine somehow has ‘gotten in touch’ with you.”  

You can find stories by Amarilys G. Rassler at Fiction 365. www.fiction365.com

More about Amarilys at her website: www.guavanewton.com  

Other stories, etc. at:  http://www.marggie-withheart2write.blogspot.com

www.facebook.AmarilysRassler.com

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS ... A LA MARGGIE ...

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS!   EASY DOES IT!

                                                                  

            

                           STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS … A La Marggie   Easy Does It!

Ten medium size green peppers

1 ½ lbs. of ground beef

¾ cup cooked white rice

2 cans Manwich – (Sloppy Joe Mix)

Small bottle of pimentos

1 cup bread crumbs mixed with ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

½ stick of butter

½ onion chopped fine

Block of Sharp Cheddar Cheese / Shred about 2 cups

Cayenne Powder to taste

Cut off top of your green pepper and then cut out the middle. Clean each so that there are no seeds.

In big pan boil water. Cook green peppers in water till tender but not soft. When you take them out of pan they should be able to still be firm enough to stand and salute. (LOL) Well, just stand.

Place them in glass pan after you drain all the water out of them ... doing their standing thing.

In frying pan, fry your ground beef with the onion.  We buy very lean meat so I don’t have to get rid of extra grease. But if there’s grease in beef drain it. Cook ground beef and onions at medium heat so that the onions don’t get burned. Make sure beef is cooked well. Pour into meat, the substance from the Manwich cans, the cooked rice, contents of small bottle of pimentos, sprinkle the sugar over the top and also the cayenne powder. Mix all this well. Taste to liking. You might want more or less sugar, more or less cayenne. We like it spicy and sweet to make a contrast with the cheese and bread crumb mixture.

In glass bowl, microwave the butter to melt it. After it’s melted add to it the bread crumbs and the Parmesan Cheese. Set this aside.

Shred enough sharp cheddar cheese to cover well top of each green pepper for final touch.

Fill each green pepper almost to the top. Leave room for a couple of tablespoons of bread crumb mixture. After filling with beef mixture, place the bread crumbs mix on top of meat mixture in each green pepper and then add shredded cheese. VOILA!  Place glass pan (or a lasagna pan) with green peppers in preheated oven. Bake about 20 to 30 minutes at 375*. Keep an eye on the cheese so that it does not get brown. It should be melted but if oven tends to be hotter than normal ovens, watch for the melting of the cheese. Bake according to how cheese melts without it becoming toasted.  (I have one of those ovens).  Actually, everything is already cooked when you place the green peppers in the oven. They just need a touch of oven and the cheese to melt right.

I like this recipe because the Manwich helps season the meat easily. It does some of the harder work for us.

To make life easier, I usually plan a meal with white rice and make it the day before. I save about a cup of rice to use for the stuffed pepper meat mixture for the next day and that way I don’t have to make the rice just for the stuffed green pepper meal. Things go faster that way.

The bread crumbs mixture and the melted cheese add a good balance to the dish. My family loves this recipe. HOPE YOUR FAMILY DOES TOO! ENJOY!

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                      La Cantina … A bar?  No.          A gift from a man to encourage me.          

 He sat at my kitchen table and drank his espresso, his cap on a chair. He was staying a while.

 He looked around at my messy counters and the pressure cooker rattling at full blast.

“Spanish bean soup. Making extra,” I said.

“Si? Why?” He arched his brow.

I checked the food to make sure nothing would burn and came to sit by my father.

“Someone’s sick at church. Going to take food to the family.”

His forehead wrinkled. “You did, last time I came. Again?”

I poured some espresso for me in a demitasse. Should I tell him?

He put his small cup down. “Why?”

I turned to face him. “Remember when we lived in the $30 apartment in New Haven?”

My father nodded and moved his chair to face me too.

“Every day I came from school to that empty apartment. Every day going up those steps to the apartment I knew there wouldn’t be anyone to greet me. My sister and I alone, ‘til you and Mami came home late at night from your second job. Cleaning offices.”  I paused to search Papi’s eyes. His eyes looked soft. Interested.

“I know you had to do it. To bring Abuelo and Abuela here.  But I miss Mami being there like she was in Cuba.”

My dad pushed back his chair a little and leaned back.

“I got a gift, Papi. What I wanted. To be able to be with my children when they come home from school.  And I’m so grateful. I wanted to give back something since I have the time. So I cook and bring meals to sick people from church. It’s my way of saying thanks.”

My dad stared at me for a minute or two, then, he looked around at the pressure cooker and at counters cluttered with groceries for the meal to be made.

He smiled one of his big wide smiles. “I know. I know what you need!”

The next week my father came with bag in hand and a déjà vu smile.

“Mira. Aqui. La Cantina. You do good for people,” he said, as he drew out of a bag a tower of metal pans, stacked and kept together by long metal bars. La Cantina, a Cuban icon from my childhood. My parents used to take food to my grandparents in one of those cantinas, a Cuban way of transporting food, a treasured memory from the land of azure seas and royal palm trees.

I gave my dad a kiss and held back tears till he left. Did I ever communicate to him the great encouragement of his words and actions?  I look back now and think, not enough.

But the story doesn’t end there. Today I made food to bring to my daughter who has three children and a new baby. A mom who well deserves a rest from chores.   

I often call her house asking for her and one of my granddaughters answers, “Mom’s not here. She cooked food for someone at church who’s sick and went to deliver it.” 

                                                                                           

                                              

C.S. Lewis ... Did Your Know?

           C.S. LEWIS DID YOU KNOW?


            My Week With C.S. Lewis ... Did you know? 

1. C.S. Lewis had a dog that died when C.S. Lewis was 4. At that time he announced his new name to be "Jacksie," after his dog. Friends and family called him "Jacksie," or "Jack," most of his life.
2. He fought in the Battle Of The Somme, with over 1 million casualties. He was sent hom in April 1918 wounded.
3. At the age of 15 Lewis becomes an atheist. He converts to Christianity at 33 in 1931.
4.He married when he was 58, and continued to raise his wife's sons after her death.
5.He died one week before his 65th birthday on the same day President John F. Kennedy died.
6. His friend, J.R. Tolkien was so critical of the book, "The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe," that C.S. Lewis almost didn't finish it.