The Quest

I have been thinking through a lot of questions lately.

Sometimes sitting quietly and pondering over where your life has been and where it is going is a good thing to do. I have found it to be quite beneficial to my well-being. It can be difficult to find time in your day to make this exercise a habit, but if you can and when you do, you will see what I mean when I say it is good for you.

The podcasts I've been listening to at work lately are mostly centered around how to live creatively, how to find your path in life, and where to begin doing these things. In the past it has been hard for me to pinpoint what I am supposed to do with myself, but events in recent years have really pushed me to consider the hard things in life and how I am going to navigate this road that is all my own.

First of all, this blog has served as a sort of accountability partner in my quest. I am not the best at writing one or two posts a week, but knowing it is there and always available to use as a tool for my creative development has brought me into a deeper understanding of myself and who I am becoming. There are lots of people out there saying blogs are not the "thing" anymore, which I understand. But From the Mouth of a Prophet is not here to make money but to be used as an outlet for me to share my thoughts (with myself mostly) and any other readers who might stumble upon this page.

As I consider my life up until this point, I can't help but think about my gifts and what I can do with them. One podcast I listened to said you need to look at the world and see a need and, using your gifts, try to fulfill that need if you feel strongly about it. This is basically where I am in my journey at this moment.

My gifts, taken at face value, aren't what you might call marketable in a capitalist society (which is the best system in my opinion), but there are ways I can make money using them. For instance, I've been asked to sing for a wedding in April and will be paid well for doing it. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to sing and have used this particular gift for many, many years to bless people. So do you see what I mean when I say these talents aren't marketable per se, but you can make money using them? I am not a full time vocalist, but I know enough (thanks to many, many voice lessons in middle and high school)to offer my services and be paid well in return.

Another example, and this is more marketable, is my writing. A few days ago I was asked by a friend whom I worked with at the Media Research Center to do some freelance work for the news site where she is now an editor. The offer was totally out of the blue, but it came at a very interesting time when I was thinking about how to use my writing to make money and get my name out there. More on that (because I've got some ideas) at a later date.

To add to all of this, I've been spending more time studying. I will tell you that the combination of homeschooling and college (mostly homeschooling) taught me how to study without being in school. The basics of it are: Read a book, talk about what you've read, then write down what you learned from the text and what it brought to your own mind. As far as I know, not many people do this anymore. Most individuals don't necessarily have the time to read three to five hundred page books about figures of the 18th century and I completely understand that. It takes me months (sometimes) to get through an entire book unless it is really good. I like to read slow so as to take in every idea and mull it over in my mind to essentially "get the full effect" of what the author or biographer is trying to say.

Most recently, I've been reading about writers and other historical figures that specifically inspire me, as a young woman, to WRITE. These women, Hannah More and Fanny Burney, were groundbreakers in their day. What could be more inspiring than reading about women who tore down barriers to knowledge in a time when you were expected to quietly embroider a hanky in the corner while the menfolk talked politics and philosophy? I say, nothing!

And to be good at what one does means spending time with pen and paper, or in my case, at the keyboard. It is even easier for us now to churn out creative work because we don't have to rely on the fading light of a wax candle to keep the page illuminated for as long as it possibly can. We need only to turn on the light (that's a Tolkien reference if you didn't catch it).

I want to live up to the example of Hannah More, Fanny Burney, and Jane Austen, not to mention the countless others, like Ida B. Wells, who came after them.

Life is good right now because my God is in control of it so I don't need to fear anything. But there are moments when I have to step out in faith and know he will meet me there, even when I'm not sure where exactly I am stepping out in faith to go. Therefore, I will continue to be creative, look for ways to learn, read my books, exhaust my pen with writing, and consider any opportunity that comes my way.

I can see how the creatives long dead and gone thought this life a romantic one, sort of in the sense of falling in love not with a person, but with a craft and the God who gave you the ability to do it.

Until we meet again.