Gifts

All of us have been given gifts in our life. Whether your gift is cooking a delicious meal, painting a portrait, writing a song, working with animals, making a movie, working with children, we all have our own, individual, unique gifts. 
I believe they were picked just for us, and given to us for a reason.

When I grew up, I was classically trained as a singer. I sang in choirs in churches and schools, and studied privately, for twenty-five years. I knew my singing voice was a gift. I felt my purpose on this planet was to be a singer. However, after a tonsillectomy, my voice, or what my voice had been, was taken from me. I felt I had lost my gift.

However, through my writing, I have discovered my true gift. I was not put on this Earth to be a singer; I was put on this planet to use my voice. Whether through song or writing, I feel my voice is my gift.

I have often thought of my gift of writing, and my life as an artist. I find that, after my evening prayers, I get most of my inspiration in the dream state.

That makes me wonder-does my writing come from me? Am I being guided in my writing? Am I being given inspiration as well? I know that I have been surprised at some of the things I have written. In looking back at my earliest work, 
I thought: “I wrote that?”

I know that much of my inspiration comes from daily life. I feel I have been given a writer’s eye to help me find inspiration and interpret the information.

However, I have felt that I am being guided on my journey, and that the inspiration I receive is indeed a gift.

In my life as an artist, I have met artists of other fields from around the globe. One such artist described himself not as an artist, or performer, but as a vessel. He recognized that his talent was his gift, and felt he could not take credit for his work, because God was working through him. 

Is that true for all of us, in all of our gifts? Does God work through me in my writing? Is my writing mine, or divine?

I recently found a passage in a book that that I found quite interesting…..

“The artist is the servant of…those angels, that Muse….they know they are not the source of the creations they bring to being. They only facilitate. They carry. They are the willing and skilled instruments of the gods and goddesses they serve.”-Steven Pressfield,
“the War of Art”

I do feel guided as an artist. I feel that someone-or something-plants a seed of a thought in my brain, and I am the one that is responsible for its cultivation.

We are all uniquely different and the same. We were given our gifts for a reason, and it is up to us to act on them.

As for me, I am a willing instrument for the gods and goddesses I serve. I am open to positive, divine inspiration to come my way. I will interpret it, write my truth, what I see through my writer’s eye.

That is my purpose and my gift.  Now that I have found my gift, I intend to play on, learn my craft, and become a skilled instrument.


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