Fresh Starts

There are times when you find yourself facing a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to do things differently.

It’s as if the canvas of your life gets to be reworked, changed, or created anew. Maybe you’ve graduated from high school or college, gotten married or divorced, lost your job or changed jobs, moved houses or moved to an entirely new city. Perhaps a long-time partner died or an unexpected turn of events left you undone.

Whatever your particulars might be, you find yourself peering into an uncharted future that is kind of scary and yet percolating with possibilities.

Fresh starts…
can’t be rushed…
should be savored…
allowed time to ruminate…
prayed over with ample requests for wisdom…

My fresh start is retirement. Retirement feels like a wet rag wiped clean the whiteboard of my life—no more career to get meaning from; paints packed and stored from the move; writing journal hauntingly blank; blog posts embarrassingly outdated. I’d waited for the urge to hit—the desire to write, to paint, to do anything artistic, but weeks turned into months and without a creative space to call my own, I just didn’t have it in me. I felt frozen like the snowman my daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids created.

Nine months had passed since my husband and I started house repairs in order to list and sell our home so we could move closer to our children and grandchildren. Months of packing possessions; listing and staging our home to sell; moving boxes and furniture into storage; living out of suitcases while living with children. Then came the purchase of our new home with all of the unpacking, buying, and settling in. Then, finally some quiet time to ponder my purposes.

Yes, there’s been wonderful vacations and time spent with family. Lots of beautiful sights seen, adventures explored, and possibilities pondered. Even a couple of speaking engagements in the field of education. But creative inspiration didn’t readily come.

One would think, “Ahh…. these must be the best days of your life,” and magnificent as they have been; for this artistic soul, finding fulfillment goes deeper than strolling along beautiful vistas.

Finding fulfillment for this creative means pressing into my Creator in search of His best for my life:

• Praying, “Lord, I want your will, your plan, your purposes for my life!”
• Examining what seemed right and then making changes.
• Sifting through the good in order to find the best.
• Waiting for creative desires to return.
• Flowing with new inspiration.

One of my favorite scriptures, Isaiah 43:19, reminds me to look on the bright side when I face fresh starts:

“Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”

I don’t know what my future holds, but I strongly suspect it will fill with much of what I love in terms of family and friends, travel and exploration, creativity and art. I’m longing to spend hours painting in my new creative space. I’m also excited to start a consulting business, Luna Arts & Ed, so I can continue to help educators integrate the arts into instruction.

So, if you find yourself in a creative limbo when nothing seems to motivate you to start a new project or finish an old one, know there’s someone out there who understands. Someone who gets how exhausting it can be to figure out new direction.

Someone who would love to pray for your fresh start!