What are you to do when a creative idea comes to you, and you want to seize the moment and run with it? The muse doesn’t always come when you call it. The muse may well come when you are not looking for it, when you may be cooking dinner, when you may be having people over for dinner in twenty minutes, when you are supposed to keep an appointment. The muse may well come when you can’t sit down with it. Before you can get to sit down with your muse, the muse has left. The song you were going to write down is gone, the poem, the great novel, all gone.

There are opportunities when you can stop what you’re doing. When you are doing your bank balance, who says that you have to finish it and so put the earthly first?

When you are driving the car, perhaps you can pull over. Perhaps you can always carry a notebook with you or a sketch book.

Perhaps when you are cooking supper for your family, perhaps, you can stop cooking, turn the preparation over to a daughter, or pull out something from the freezer instead.

What comes first in your life? That is the question. You cannot always come first. At the same time, you don’t always have to come last of all, now, do you?

If you do not find time for the creative pursuits you would like, then make room in your life for creativity.

Perhaps you are caught up with daily life like a horse that automatically goes to the barn. Perhaps you aren’t motivated enough. Maybe creativity isn’t truly so high on your list any more. Perhaps it’s just a hobby and not a vocation. Perhaps you simply are not passionate enough. Or perhaps there is a temporary lull, and your passion will come back full-force. Even so, make time for yourself.

Perhaps time for yourself is to jog. Or just read. Or play the piano. Whatever time for yourself may include, make room for it. No one else is going to arrange it for you. You cannot blame anyone else for preventing you from what you truly want. You are the one who has to respect your yearnings. Then others will.

You are the major influence in your own life. You are your own driver. You are your own start button. You are your own light switch. You are your own ignition.

Perhaps there is within you an issue for you to resolve. It is your life, after all.

Be good to others, and be good to yourself. Love yourself as you do love your neighbor. Be as good to yourself as you are to your neighbor. You don’t have to always sit up in front in your life, nor do you always have to sit in the rear.

Now let Me say something that may seem to be opposite. You are your own decider, and you need no defense. When it is your happiness to serve your family, for instance, and that is your true inner need, when this is your true desire, then follow your true desire. When you are content, be content. It may truly be your mission to stay at home. It may truly be your mission to not be ambitious.

One thing you can know. It is not your mission to be resentful. It is not your mission to foist responsibility onto others. It is not your mission to regret. Nor is it anyone else’s mission to tell you what to make of your life. Not even all the books that experts write to tell you what you are to do with your life are infallible. Their advice may be excellent. It may not be excellent for you right at this moment.

Freedom is yours, beloveds. Use it.