I find myself today on the last page of the journal I began almost 4 months ago.  After much pondering in Target as to which one I wanted, yesterday I purchased my next journal.  This may seem like a minor occurence but it’s really momentous for me.  You see, this is the first journal I have actually finished since I was in high school.  I have started and left many journals incomplete over the years mainly because I didn’t have enough time or rather, I didn’t set aside enough time to write.  What changed, you might ask?  Everything really.  I’ve had a total shift in how I visualize the rest of my life.  The things I thought were important earlier in my life have changed.  Not that what I focused on in the past was bad, but I now need to move on to a different stage of life.  I doubt that I would have made this move if I hadn’t been forced in a way.  Change is difficult and inertia keeps most of us where we are for fear of the unknown.  I am no different in this regard.  But I think God has another plan for me instead of continuing in the private practice of medicine for 10-15 more years.  He allowed me to paint myself into a work corner that was overwhelming then gave me a way out.  My present job is a gift.  I still get to interact with patients and other medical people but the pace is much more relaxed.  I have regained my sanity and my time.

I have been so time pressured for so long that initially I wasn’t sure what to do with the extra space I was given. I stumbled across a book through a series of God “coincidences”  that helped my focus.  It’s “The Early to Rise” book by Andy Traub who happens to be a native Hoosier and a Christian. At the time, he was hosting the podcasts for Andy Andrews but is now running his own business and writing full-time.  His book challenged me rise early and use this time to create.  His contention is that the early hours are our most productive time but most of us miss this opportunity because we are rushing out the door in the morning to our next scheduled activity.  I have shifted my schedule so I have an extra hour before I need to leave for work to read, to pray, and to write.  Initially I was concerned that I would be too tired to accomplish anything.  I really do have to force myself to start but once I do the ideas start to flow.  Very little of my journaling is anything close to profound but it helps me sort my thoughts through free writing.  This is a concept I learned from another great book, “Accidental Genius” by Mark Levy.  In free writing you just let your mind go and put on the page whatever thoughts you have without screening yourself for correct grammar.  You go back later to pull out the ideas you want to expand in further writing.  Through this method, a few good thoughts come out of my journal to become blog topics.  It’s really quite amazing.  I think this same method could apply to other forms of creativity.

Writing serves many purposes for me.  It helps me sift through ideas and thoughts to come to conclusions I wouldn’t have otherwise.  Writing holds me accountable since I feel more ownership of something I have written.  I lift prayers up in my journal and I can look back over them later to see God working to answer them.

Writing isn’t for everyone but I bet it would help many people even if they never shared a word with anyone else.  It is a creative outlet just like art.  We all have a bit of the “Creator” in us.  What other living creatures love to create but humans? The need to create is hard-wired into us.

So create! Do whatever your heart desires.  Writing is my creation but drawing has been in the past.  Who knows maybe I’ll start that again too.  How old was Grandma Moses when she started to paint?  I don’t know but I would guess much older than I am.  How do you choose what to create?  Look to whatever creative pastime you enjoyed as a child but gave up when you became an adult.  This will give you a place to start.  Carve out the time to begin creating whenever it works best for you.  Early morning just doesn’t work for some people. You might have to make some major changes for this to happen like I did.

I do often miss things from my past life, mainly patients who had become dear friends.  It is amazing though how many people I have run in to since I left practice.  We hug and generally cause a scene in whatever place we find each other.  Friends aren’t really lost even though we are separated by space and time.  I feel very strongly that God wants me to embrace this next stage of my life.  I am trying to watch and listen obediently so I can follow where He is leading. The journey has been very exciting so far.