THE CREATIVE GIFT

When I was a little girl I fell in love with books. My mother told me that when she sat me on her lap and read to me, I always wanted to hold the book. On my sixth birthday I received a gift of two hard cover books that had no pictures. I didn’t mind because those were “big girl” books with pretty blue covers. I was so proud of them and so longed to read them myself. My mother told me that I learned to read quickly, and my reading scores in elementary school were high.

When I was in fifth grade I wrote a story that had a beginning, middle and end. My parents were so proud when my teacher gave me an A+. I continued with my story writing and often drew pictures to accompany them. In High School I hated grammar class, but I loved literature and enjoyed writing essays.

My other passion was music. As a child I wanted a piano so badly, but we moved Florida and lived in a small trailer for five years. Knowing my love of music, my parents gave me a ukulele for Christmas when I was ten. I learned chords quickly and played and sang at home, or in the car. I was fourteen when we moved into our new house and at fifteen my parents gave me a piano for Christmas. I learned quickly and after two years, my piano teacher gave me a job teaching some of her young beginners. Of course I had to go to their homes which meant riding my bicycle or taking the bus if it was too far to ride. The kids were fun and some I bribed to practice. If they did well at the next lesson, we would play the popular duet “Heart and Soul” as a reward. Most of the time, it worked.

When I graduated from High School girls had limited choices, or so we were told. We could marry or become a secretary, teacher or nurse. None of those really appealed to me. I really wanted to follow my music teacher’s suggestion and major in music.

Since college was very expensive, I decided to become a nurse. For Forty years that was my job. In 1989, I had to quit working because of illness. Fibromyalgia entered my body. After several months, the condition left me relatively helpless for three years.

As a retired RN, I can look back and realize how happy I am that I made that choice. Nursing not only gave me a guaranteed profession, it gave me knowledge about medicine that has helped me. I have been able to help many of my friends who have questions about health that I am qualified to answer. If I don’t know, I can at least refer them to their physician.

I still love music though. Over the years I played a ukulele as a child, and a guitar, especially in the 60’s and 70’s during the folk era. Now, at 72, I’ve decided to play music again. I recently bought a keyboard, and it sits proudly in my living room. I’m not quite as quick with my fingers on the keyboard as I once was, but it’s OK. It’s fun. I have a ukulele too, and an old guitar that needs strings. Who knows, maybe I’ll put new strings on it, or maybe not.

Right now my attention is on writing again. Since I was given the message that I was to write three books and have only written two, it will be my primary focus. I wrote this to encourage you to keep your creative juices flowing as you grow older. Don’t shy away from trying new things or resurrecting those that you stopped and miss today. All of us have creative gifts that we can share in some way. If you don’t know what yours is, ASK your inner Wisdom. It will enrich your life.


With Much Love and Many Blessings,
Barbara


Rev. Dr. Barbara Rasp
www.wisdomsvoice.com