March 2021

Greetings and good morning from the beautiful Bitterroot Valley!  It is now 2:11 a.m.  I went to bed at 11 last night and was awoken at midnight, absolutely drenched.  I don’t get night sweats, except when God shows up and wants me to write.  Knowing that this column is due tomorrow, I remained quietly in bed wondering if I was going to get up and write this column or if I was meant to write another book.

            Writing has always been easy when it’s inspired.  I hear about authors that take years to write a book, struggling or researching. 

            I have a guest here visiting from San Francisco.  I met Debra Jones 25 years ago when I was teaching my second workshop in Boise, Idaho.  I hadn’t seen her since then.  We got reacquainted by telephone and have talked several times over the last few months.  She’s now peacefully sleeping in my guest room and I am being as quiet as a mouse in my home office.

            A week ago, I did my first Podcast.  Music is being downloaded to it and artwork prepared.  It had been planned to do a video and at the last minute, my co-hostess Miss J chose to begin with an audio.  I hung up the phone, took two steps away, and had the thought to go to my office because I was going to write another book.

            That thought surprised me because I hadn’t been having any ideas about doing so.  As I took the steps towards the office, I wondered if I was finally going to write the love story about Kirk’s and my relationship.  I have planned on writing Love Letters in the Sand and having it made into a movie, as well.

            I sat behind the computer and the words, “Care & Comfort for the Covid Blues” was written.  “Oh,” I thought, “I guess I’m going to write a book to cheer people up from the depression experienced by the pandemic.”

            The free book I just wrote and gifted to the world began much the same way.  I was watching a movie with a friend in the living room.  I heard myself say, “I have to go to the office.  I’m going to write another book.”  Like this latest one, I had no prior thoughts that I would be doing so.  No planning at all!

            This new book is written in “Go Within or Go Without” style, coming into my home.  This time, I am inviting you, the reader, in for a three-day girlfriend slumber party.

            As girlfriends, we are going to talk about intimate subjects, politics, and spirituality intermingled with miracle stories that I have experienced.  I had a busy week last week, teaching piano lessons twice each to two little eight year olds, got my chimney cleaned, answered emails/texts and kept up with telephone calls of those seeking to be uplifted.

            In a three-day time frame, this book wrote itself in 14 hours through me.  I went to the grocery store and Kate in Customer Service asked me, ”What have you been up to, Gloria?  I haven’t seen you for a while.”  I said, “I just wrote another book this week.   She giggled and asked, “You mean you wrote a pamphlet?”

            “No, Kate.  I wrote another book.”  She looked at me like I was from another planet.  It’s difficult for people to understand that I can type 120+ wpm and just write a book with no forethought.  I guess, if it was me . . . I would think, “Well, it can’t be very interesting or worth reading if you just barf up enough pages to write a book in such a short time.”

            Coming from my perspective of it happening through me – it makes me definitely aware of a Divine Presence working through me and feeling almost urgent to get loving, helpful information to His kids.

            When I was under contract with the New York Publisher and their five-book contract with me, they would call and say, “Now, Gloria, you do know that another book is due in three weeks, right?!”  I would respond, “How would I know that?  You haven’t followed anything per the contract since we began.”

            Nevertheless, they had a book on their desk and ready to go to press in three weeks.  Who does that?!  Me.

            I called my daughter on the third day of writing and asked if she could come by the next day and make a jacket cover for it.  I LOVE THAT KID!  She knows her momma well and she isn’t afraid to be honest with me.

            “Momma, I don’t like your title, it doesn’t even sound like you.”  She, of course was referring to “Care & Comfort for the Covid Blues.”  I agreed with her – it didn’t feel like it flowed and in fact, I couldn’t even remember it without having to look at the first page to see what I had called it.

            I asked her to go to the site where I buy my artwork and to find a cartoony couple hugging to soften the title.  When she opened the site – the very first image took my breath away.  It was perfect!  A little teddy bear holding a sign saying, “GIVE ME A HUG”!  Out of my mouth came the words, “AND DON’T LET GO UNTIL I TELL YOU.”

            I say those words IN REAL LIFE every time I am completing a healing.  I said it throughout the book to you, my guest, giving you a hug when you arrived and each night before you retire to my guestroom to go to bed.

            In the book, I pick you up at the airport, drive you to my home and here we go . . .

Let’s get your luggage into the house and get you settled in.  Your guest room is large and comfy with your own bathroom.  I think you’ll find everything you need and if you don’t, please just ask.  Guest towels are under the sink and washcloths in the top drawer of the vanity.  Extra blankets in the closet should you need them.  Let’s sit your suitcase here on the luggage rack out of your way.  While you are getting unpacked and settled, I’ll get a pot of coffee started or I have fresh iced tea made if you prefer.

I made a light lunch to serve you since you had to get up so early and the stress of traveling. It’s a pot of homemade vegetable soup with filet mignon diced into it and some warm homemade bread to go with it.  There’s a menu on the refrigerator of the already prepared meals and desserts to enjoy while you are here.  I do all of the prep work I can before you arrive so I can enjoy every single moment with you.

Friday Lunch:

Homemade vegetable soup with diced filet mignon and homemade bread.

Friday Dinner:

Quiche with mushrooms/sun-dried tomato/onion/broccoli/pepper jack cheese  -or- Quiche with the same vegetables/including bacon.  Homemade banana bread, banana/apple fruit bowl

Breakfast Choices:  (Everything homemade)

Cold cereal (Banana/Walnut Crunch)

Variety/flavored oatmeal

Breakfast Burritos with scrambled egg/hash  browns/sausage/cheese with salsa/sour cream

Biscuits & Gravy

Sausage/Egg/Cheese Biscuits

Pancakes with real Maple Syrup

Saturday Lunch:

Clam/Shrimp Chowder with grilled cheese on homemade bread

Saturday Dinner:

Hot Wings, stuffed potato skins, jalapeno’s stuffed with cream cheese/wrapped in bacon, stuffed mushrooms, vegetable tray w/ranch dip

Sunday Lunch:

Bacon/Lettuce/Tomato on homemade bread, potato salad w/sweet jalapeno pickles, home-fried chips w/homemade garlic dip

Sunday Dinner:

Rolled Pork Roast with apricots/figs, potatoes/carrots/gravy, fresh green beans w/bacon, Stir-fried Asparagus w/garlic, homemade dinner rolls

Desserts Available:

Homemade Rum Cake                                      Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

Homemade Banana Cream Cheesecake                             Homemade Mounds Bars

Homemade German Chocolate Cheesecake          Tuxedo Mousse Cake (Costco)

Could you please give me a hug and don’t let go until I tell you before you go to your room and get settled in and relaxed for lunch?  I just want to tell you, “Welcome home . . . I am so glad you are here!”   **********

FAIR WARNING!  Don’t come to my home if you are on a diet unless you have self-control!!  I am a food pusher.  Like I said – fair warning.

The outside back cover says:

EXPECT THE WARM FUZZIES when you join Dr. Gloria D. Benish in a best friend, three-night slumber party at her home in Montana.  As a spiritual healer and teacher, she shares heartwarming true modern-day miracle stories that will touch your heart and feed your soul.  In a weekend of self-discovery, you will learn how to experience your own miracles.  She has a lighthearted way of making you feel like you are definitely a part of her spiritual family.

            She may be pint-sized in stature, but her Spirit is enormous with a passion that burns brightly to love all of humanity.  Add her irrepressible humor and her outspoken honesty and it only adds fuel to the fire.  This little firecracker is known as “Dr. Glo-bug – Just here “to lighten things up” and she lives up to that promise in every way.

Fun loving and steeped in the depths of mysticism, she walks with balance and God’s Grace.  A spiritual healer known nationally and internationally for 26 years, author of 8 published books including “Go Within or Go Without” (A Simple Guide to Self-Healing), “Spiritual Life Savers,” “Spiritual Training Wheels,” and “As God is My Witness,” to name a few will delight you in her down-to-earth voice.  If you step over the threshold to Dr. Glo-bug’s world, plan on having your life change.  Fears, depression, anxiety, and illness . . . among other ailments will melt like butter on a hot biscuit.

            Reading this book brought me right back to a few weeks ago when I had the honor to come stay in Gloria’s guest bedroom.  She truly is one of the kindest, most giving persons I have ever met.  She treated us to all her talents in the kitchen (and she is blessed with many).  She filled us with the Presence of God and a wonderful sense of being home.  She has a way of making you feel like you’ve been best friends for years.  There is no pretentiousness when you see Gloria.  You get ALL of her.  And it’s like having the most positive, glowing, uplifting spirit around you 24 hours a day.  Her book portrays her perfectly.  (Patti Ramler)

         My sister and I have had the honor and privilege of reading “Give Me a Hug an Don’t Let Go Until I Tell You” as Gloria wrote each chapter.  This book takes the reader on a weekend visit to Gloria’s house.  You will experience the love and care that Gloria shows everyone who enters her world, and will be left wishing for more.  When you have finished reading this latest creation, you will, indeed, know that you’ve been kissed on the forehead by God.  (Nancy & Leslie Whitman)

**********

My visiting guest Debra lies in the guestroom sleeping as I write these words, living the experience that the reader will encounter within these pages.  My dream of having a healing center where the nation can come to be nurtured, pampered, and loved has not yet manifested.  Until then, I can bring the reader in to enjoy it without traveling.

Believe me, it will feel REAL to you.  It certainly did to me.  On the third day, God woke me up at 2 a.m. to write.  I came in to the kitchen to start the coffee brewing, quietly opened the cabinet, walked quietly, and stopped and thought, “Gloria!  You are the ONLY ONE HERE.  There is NO ONE in the guestroom to disturb.”  That is how real it felt to me while writing it.  I actually got seconds and thirds of coffee and both times, I quietly entered the kitchen off the guestroom so I wouldn’t disturb my guest.

My daughter will be getting it made into an Amazon Ebook and Books on Demand ASAP.  With Covid social distancing, being kept from our loved ones, and the depression it caused has the world hungry for hugs, closeness, friendship, and love.  The world has been bombarded with fear!  I can’t even take credit for the idea of what this book brings.  But, God evidently wants His kids to know how deeply loved they are – and I got the honor of getting to be the one He used to “git r done” and get His love flowing.

I will keep you advised of the upcoming physical and electronic printing.  It would be such a pleasure for me to take you in my arms and whisper in your ear,  “Thank you so much for coming!  GIVE ME A HUG AND DON’T LET GO UNTIL I TELL YOU!”

Until next month, take care . . . I care . . .

Always,

Gloria D. Benish, Ph.D.

AKA:  Dr. Glo-bug – Just here “to lighten things up”

To download your free copy of ‘GUTS & GLORI(A)  From Fear … to Eternity”

Go to: www.miraclepublishingdistribution.com