Can You Hear the Call?
When the call to change your life comes, you’ll know.
It may appear as a thought, an impulse, a nagging feeling that something is missing. It may come in dreams, in fantasy, or a longing for something new. It may come in feelings of doubt, anger, inexplicable grief, periods of depression or jealousy. All is not well, yet you don’t know what’s wrong.
The call can come anytime, but many hear it first in midlife. When we have seen the early fruits of our choices about career, family, and lifestyle. Whether we are pleased or dissatisfied with how life is progressing, the call invites us to look at ourselves anew. To consider the possibilities. As we hit important milestones, we think maybe it’s time to write that book, start a business, learn to play the piano.
We have two lives. The familiar life—our accomplish-ments and roles, how we see ourselves, how others know us. And the second life waiting within. What we might do. What we really want to do, but can’t because it won’t pay the bills. What we promise ourselves we’ll start when we have more time.
Many people are unaware of their second life. They are often content. Many are happy.
Some live out their inner life. They may or may not be happy, but they count themselves among the most fortunate of beings.
Those who don’t heed the call of the inner life are often seriously unhappy, for they have allowed fear to stop them.
If you yearn to live more creatively—to write, sing, dance, paint, design, start a business, volunteer, or reinvent yourself in other ways—you know what I mean.
The unlived life nudges us. Say yes to it, and that nagging feeling of missing something important will vanish. Say no, and it will keep waiting, mostly silent, except for the occasional soft whisper. Until you turn to face it, that whisper will make you uneasy.
The call of the Creative Self invites you to pay attention to the seed inside that longs to be born into the light of day and world of time. The voice of the Creative Self is subversive. It brushes aside concerns about schedules and to-do lists, instead offering suggestions about composing a poem or a symphony. It can roar like thunder, or whisper only in the moments between sleep and waking. Don’t be fooled by volume.
Anyone moved to make art, work at a craft, learn a sport or a new skill is listening to the message of the Creative Self: grow, develop, find out who you are, and how much more you can become.
Stop for a moment. Be still. Forget all the things you need to do. Just listen. Be honest. Something is stirring. You’ve heard it. Maybe you dismissed it, but you know it’s real.
Call it inspiration, destiny, or drive. It all flows from the same source. You can do it, your Creative Self whispers, because it knows you can.
