New Year, New Chapter - Amy Schisler

Merry 5th Day of Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend and is looking forward to the new year.

2021 wasn’t all that much better than 2020. With the exception of things opening and the promising vaccines and treatments, the fear rippling through our world remains, especially with non-stop news coverage of the dire situation we’re in. Despite the vaccines and treatments and lower risks strains, everyone is still being told that this is practically the end stages of Armageddon. Of course, if that is the case, I know that I had better step up my game before that final day of judgment!

The point is, there’s a lot of hope that 2022 will be a game changer. We want life to go back to normal, to be able to spend time with friends and family without fear, and to travel, go to the theater, and do all the things we used to do (and without masks). No matter how you feel about the virus or the treatments or the masks, I’m sure you hope that the day will be here soon when we can live like it’s 2019!

And that has me thinking…

What do you plan to do in 2022? No, I don’t mean where will you visit or how many public events will you attend. I mean, what you do plan to do with YOU, with the person you are and the life you lead?

Let’s say we are in the midst of Armageddon, and Bruce Willis can’t come up with some fancy way to save the world. What do you still need to do in your life that you haven’t yet done? More importantly, who is it that you have yet to become?

You are the author of your own life story.

Many years ago, long before I was a full-time writer, someone gave me this little wooden plague that now sits on the bookshelf behind me. If says, “You are the author of your own life story.”

Yes, I recognize that ultimately we all live by the hand of God and His plans for our lives, however, we are all given free will. We are faced with making decisions every single day that impact our lives and influence the people and events around us. We all have the ability to grow and learn and take our knowledge and do something with it for the better of our lives and our world. We have the ability to help others or do good in our community. We have the ability to reshape our lives and become something, someone, better than what we are now. We are the authors of our own life stories.

So many people live day-to-day with the belief that nothing in their lives or nothing within themselves can or will ever change. So many are mired down in depression or with anxiety, or simply an unhappy life. No matter what weighs upon you, you do have the ability to change things even if the only thing you have at the onset is sheer determination.

2022 could be your best year yet. Perhaps it’s the year you land your dream job. Perhaps it’s the year you buy a house or move far away to somewhere you never thought you’d be living. Perhaps it’s the year you start a family or head to college or journey on to your eternal home. Whatever it is, you are here now, a living being, a person with capabilities beyond even your own imagining.

It’s not easy to take the bull by the horns. It’s not easy to make changes. It’s not easy to change yourself. Maybe you are rooted in addiction. Maybe you are tied to a job you hate but don’t have the skills or the courage to move on. Maybe you feel unloved and unworthy, and that’s what holding you back. Thee good news is, you are not alone! Even if you don’t have family or friends surrounding you, there is someone who loves you. There is someone concerned about your welfare. There is someone who is willing to do anything to help you. This person may come to you in the form of a counselor or therapist, or a Good Samaritan, or a priest, or volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. This person was sent to help you if you open yourself up to being helped. Be open to a word of encouragement from a friend, a helping hand from a family member, or a smile from a stranger on the street.

If you’re not in need of a counselor or Good Samaritan, or if you’re not down on your luck but down on yourself, you, too, have someone to love you and encourage and support you. Whether you’re homeless or feel heartless, you are loved. You are special. You are a beloved child of one who only wants the best for you. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God” (1 John3:1).

At the core of my books are characters who are searching, who need help, who aren’t the people they were meant to be. They all must accept help from others, most often strangers, and all must accept and love the person they are inside. All my characters discover life and love, and how to live the life that was meant for them and to love themselves. Life is a gift. To live life to the fullest, realizing your own potential and striving for that goal, is how we show appreciation for this gift. Finding our true selves, the people God created us to be, is the highest and most rewarding place we can be in this life.

Let 2022 be the year that you succeed, that you grown and learn and trust, the year that you discover God’s plan in your life and make the choices that take you to His path for you. Let 2022 be the year you pick up the pencil and begin writing your own life story.

Come see Amy on one of these dates:

March 9, 2022 – Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, Wayne, PA 6:00PM – Lenten Reflection
April 9, 2022 – First Landing Wine and Arts Festival, St. Clement’s Island Museum, Clements, MD
June 4, 2022 – Christ Church 350th Anniversary Fair, Broomes Island, MD

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What I was writing about one year ago this week: Not Your Grandmother’s Egg Nog.

Would you like Amy to speak to your parish, your women’s group, your reading patrons, or your book club? Did you know that Amy leads women’s retreats?

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Amy Schisler is an award-winning author of both children’s books and sweet, faith-filled romance novels for readers of all ages. She lives with her husband and three daughters on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her books, Picture Me, Whispering Vines, and Island of Miracles are all recipients of Illumination Awards, placing them among the top inspirational fiction books of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Whispering Vines was awarded the 2017 LYRA Award for the best romance of 2016. Island of Miracles has outsold all of Amy’s other books worldwide and ranked as high as 600 on Amazon. Her follow up, Island of Promise is a reader favorite. Amy’s children’s book is The Greatest Gift. The suspense novel, Summer’s Squall, and all of Amy’s books, can be found online and in stores. Her latest novel, Island of Promise, was recently awarded First Prize by the Oklahoma Romance Writer’s Association as the best Inspirational Romance of 2018 and was awarded a Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2019 for Inspirational Fiction. It is the 2019 winner for Best Inspirational Fiction in the RWA Golden Quill Contest, Best Romance in the American Book Awards, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award of Fiction. Amy’s 2019 work, The Devil’s Fortune, a finalist in the Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Awards and winner of an Illumination Award, is based, in part, on Amy’s family history. The third book of Amy’s Chincoteague Island Trilogy, Island of Hope, was released in August of 2019. Amy’s book, Desert Fire, Mountain Rain begins her new Buffalo Springs series. Book two will be out in early 2022. The Good Wine, the sequel to Whispering Vines, is now available in all formats.