Today I feel inspired. And exhausted.

Although writing is my first true love and life-long passion,  by day, I work as a therapist in a community mental health center. This is not only the job I have to pay the rent...I also really love it.

Today we had an art show for our clients who participate in the program. Each of the artists was able to display and/or sell their own unique works of art. I was amazed at how talented these individuals are. The show went well overall. I purchased a painting called "Lost." When speaking with the artist, she said that she painted this as a representation of one of her most frighting experiences. However, when I look at it it, I feel a sense of peaceful melancholy. I can imagine walking through a forest near sunset in late autumn, dried leaves crunching under my feet and the sting of cool air on my cheeks.

In so many ways, art transforms us. It transports us to another time, another place, another life. While the artist might intend to communicate fear and loneliness, the audience might perceive peace and connectedness. Neither is right, neither is wrong. It simply is.

There is such beauty in that.

I have no talent for drawing or painting or sculpture. I love words. I love knowledge. I am intensely curious about the world and the people and places in it. This is where my love of writing begins: with the question of "What if?"  That is also, in part, why I love being a therapist too. What if our lives really could be made better? What would happen if I made this choice over that choice? What would have happened to me if I had been born in another location, to another family, in another socioeconomic status? How would I have been different? Would I still be me? Am I the sum total of my experiences...or is who I am predetermined by an unknown, unseen, all-powerful force?

I love these questions. They get me going like just about nothing else can. When writing, these questions inspire my imagination and my mind takes flight. When I'm in a counseling session, these questions increase empathy and make me work really hard to help my client through their issues so that they can come out better on the other side.