There Is Sunshine After the Rain

Making It Through Life's Struggles
by Patricia A. Saunders 


 

 

Sitting there with the pieces of your life around you, there seemed to be a pattern. There was faith, love, deceit, lust, and loss—in that order. You didn’t think you were deserving of love. That is why everything was being taken from you, and you were ready to give up on life. Through your poetry, faith, and learning from your past, you can rewrite the story. It was after coming through all the experiences and being stronger, you realized there is always a new chapter. 

 

There Is Sunshine After the Rain: Making It Through Life's Struggles will take you on the journey of a young girl growing up in Connecticut, who had to take some stumbles along the way to come into her own and realize instead of tearing herself down for the decisions she made, there is a lesson. Love is greater than anyone can imagine and can warm you like the sunshine after the rain. You went from the beginning, the journey, the test, and the testimony to say, “There Is Sunshine after the Rain.”
 

 

 

There Is Sunshine After The Rain: Making It Through Life’s Struggle 

https://www.amazon.com/There-Sunshine-After-Rain-Struggles/dp/1543918662

Non-fiction > Biographies & Memoirs.  Black Pearls Magazine featured book. 

 

 

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Chapter Excerpt from There Is Sunshine After the Rain

 

There were men who came into my life that I loved with all my heart over the years. One man after another disappointed me for specific reasons. I found some had wandering eyes, cheated on me with my best friend while I was away at school, or I found out that they said all the right things, but their actions spoke another.

 

My wall went up to protect my heart and my new love became my job. I strived to be the best at whatever position I had. The people at my job were my friends, my family, and my child that I never had. There was something still that I felt missing, and it was on a trip to California that I felt my calling. I came back to tell my elderly parents that I was leaving, and it was my father who looked in my eyes and said, “I won’t always be here.”

 

Something in his tone let me know that it was the right decision because I needed to become independent. I had family in California, so I had support. Within two months I had given notice at my job, packed two suitcases, sold my belongings and had a one-way ticket to California. I knew no one except my family, and I slowly began to venture out to the unknown. I was working sometimes two jobs to make ends meet. Because I couldn’t go back to Connecticut. Because I didn’t want to fail.

 

My father’s health was declining and I would come back annually to see him. I had so much excitement to see him that I would just lie on the covers next to him. Just listening to him breathe and feeling protected from the storm. I remember like it was yesterday I came home after he had surgery. It was snowing and I went outside to shovel the snow. Being that I was the youngest, a girl, and my parents always paid a neighborhood kid to do this. Well the kids had all grown up and moved out of the neighborhood. I never had done this task of shoveling. Something that my father had done for years and made it seem like the snow was as light as a feather.

 

He sat and watched me and I struggled, but he stayed in the window from afar. It felt like the muscles within my chest had exploded and I was in so much pain, but I couldn’t let my parents down. I thought I had done a good job. While I was inside recovering from the ordeal, my father had changed clothes and slipped outside. Shovel in his hands and as the man of the house—no matter if he had a hole in his side, wasn’t to lift anything, and was supposed to be recuperating—he was still going to be the man and complete the task.

 

When I saw what he was doing, I lost it because of the fear he would injure himself. We got into the biggest argument. I was leaving the next day and we were still mad at each other. I kissed him goodbye and sat on the shuttle crying all the way to the airport. It was something within my being that knew that it was the last time I would see him. I wanted to become the protector and do everything in my power to show him I could be strong, I could provide, and I was the woman he raised me to be. He, being the proud African American patriarch of the family, not wanting to be seen weak, even in the months before his death wanting to be remembered as strong.

 

Within months he was in hospice, my mother had called to tell me to come home, arrangements were made. I spoke to him and he could barely whisper into the phone. I said, “Daddy, I love you. I got a new job paying me good. I will be able to take care of Mommy, it’s okay if you want to go. I was to leave on a Thursday morning and at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday while getting ready for work my mother called to tell me his condition. She placed me on hold because another call was coming in. She came back on the line, and I could tell by her tone something was wrong. I said, “Mommy, what’s wrong” and she said, “They said he’s expired.” She had to get off the phone and go to be with the man she called Honey. She had to see him before he was gone.

 

I sat naked on the bed, called my sister who lived close by, and said, “Daddy’s gone.” She rushed to my apartment and there I sat in shock. She helped me get dressed, she hugged me while I wept, and she took control of my life for the next seventy-two hours. She placed calls to get me home immediately, few words came out of my mouth, and she took time away from her family to bring me home. It was a blur from that point on while preparing for the funeral, making sure my queen was taken care of, and my king was laid to rest.

 

My father died eight days before my birthday and we laid him to rest on St. Patrick’s Day, aka, St. Patty’s Day. As I delivered his eulogy, I recited all the accolades about this man we all loved. The question that I proposed to the group was “Who will have my back now”? The minister, from the podium, answered "God will always have my back.”

 

As we drove to his final resting place, my brothers, nephews, and grandnephews came to hug me, each whispering in my ear that they would always have my back. The tears flowed, and my father was lowered into the ground as I said my final goodbye.

 

 

( Continued… )

 

 

Purchase There Is Sunshine After The Rain: Making It Through Life’s Struggle 

Genre: Poetry >  Non-fiction >  Biographies & Memoirs >  Women

https://www.amazon.com/There-Sunshine-After-Rain-Struggles/dp/1543918662

 

 

 

 

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BPM: What made you want to become a writer?
As a kid I was always writing poetry to express myself and stopped. Once my mother passed from Alzheimer’s, I thought about what my legacy would be if I inherited the disease. How would my words be kept? I started writing and the rest is history. I published my first book in 2012, but I have poems from when I was a child that was printed in newspapers and yearbooks.

 

BPM: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
I would write for different blogs and submit for different projects to hone my skills. I had to learn by trial and error. Taking webinars to challenge my creativity helped so much. I was always afraid to write nonfiction, but I had a story to share, so I took a leap of faith and here it is.

 

BPM: Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
I feel like it’s therapeutic. It helped me through the grieving process.

 

BPM: How has writing and poetry impacted your life?
While writing on various subjects from being molested, raped to doubting my faith, I became free enough to use different styles of poetry as a way to share my stories with the world. My drive to create was enhanced by the different editors who challenged me to use my words to touch someone’s life.

 

BPM: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That someone else has experienced what I went through; men and women reach out to me and let me know they felt each emotion with me.

 

BPM: How do you find or make time to write?
I jot down story ideas on the memo app on my cell phone, so that when I have quiet time I can write. Also, if something impacts me like seeing a shooting on the news I must write about it.

 

BPM: How did you choose the genre you write in?
I was afraid to write nonfiction and I was comfortable with poetry. Writing this nonfiction book came to me like putting on a pair of comfortable slippers. Fear be gone!

 

BPM: Have you considered writing in another genre?
I have written a chapter in a book of non-fiction on bullying. So, when a reader suggested that I expand my writing to let the reader know the behind scene it was like God said don’t be afraid. I signed up in November to write 50,000 words and I made an outline. The words came along with the tears.

 

BPM: Tell us about your most recent work, There is Sunshine After the Rain.
There is Sunshine After the Rain  is an autobiography with poetry infused in it. I have chapters titled The Beginning, The Journey, The Test and The Testimony. After each chapter are interludes that have poetry. I feel it is my best work! The readers follow my life, the struggles I experienced and the triumph of making it through life’s struggles.  Yes, it’s available on Nook and Kindle.

 

BPM: What was your hardest scene to write?
Writing about leaving for college and experiencing date rape was traumatizing at first. The bond between my parents to protect me came flooding back to me. I wrote about it and it was like I relived the whole experience. By writing about something that happened over 30 years ago, I shared with readers how it shaped the woman that I am today and the choices I have made about relationships.

 

BPM: Share one specific point in your book that resonated with your present situation or journey.
I also wrote about working in a hostile work environment and how my upbringing was instilled in me that you never quit. The stress of the job was making me sick. I had to seek help to know it was okay to walk away and that God and my family had my back.

 

BPM: Is there a specific place/space that you find inspiration in?
I love being by the water. Looking at the wonders of God inspires me to pick up my journal and let the words flow. I also write majority of my books at my kitchen table with soft music playing, candles burnings and a nice glass of wine.

 

BPM: Are there certain themes or ideas you’d love to work with?
I find that majority of my books are about overcoming challenges and the victory found in remembering faith will bring you through.

 

BPM: Does writing energize you?
Writing gives me an inner peace. I find that when I write and go through some hard circumstances that I am faced with that I must remember that God is always there.

 

BPM: Do you believe in writer’s block?
Oh yes! I had it last year I couldn’t finish the book. I booked a flight back to Connecticut and it was the first time in ten years that I wanted to visit my mother’s grave. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but the people who stepped into my life at that time to encourage me, love on me, and make me laugh had me finishing the book on the flight back to California.

 

BPM: Do you try to deliver to readers what they want or let the characters guide your writing?
I write and hope that the vision I had when I wrote the book resonates with the reader. When the reviews come in that they got it I am overwhelmed with joy!

 

BPM: Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
I touch on everything. In this last book, I put it all out there.

 

BPM: Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others?
Love. The desire to be loved and not taken advantage of. The fear of dying alone. It’s real not imaginary so it’s more difficult.

 

BPM: What projects are you working on at the present?
Right now, I am promoting my latest book. Also writing titles of poems that I want to write about. I haven’t put the sixth book in the works yet, but the year isn’t over.

 

BPM: How can readers discover more about you and your work?
Website: http://www.patriciaAsaunders.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/blessedpoetpat
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/blessedpoetpat
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/blessedpoetpat
Blog: http://www.blessedpoetpat.blogspot.com

 

Purchase There Is Sunshine After The Rain: Making It Through Life’s Struggle by Patricia A. Saunders
https://www.amazon.com/There-Sunshine-After-Rain-Struggles-ebook/dp/B078J836Q3