Life Block

I’m sure that everyone has heard of the term “Writer’s Block”. Dictionary.com defines it as, “a usually temporary condition in which a writer finds it impossible to proceed with the writing of a novel, play, or other work.”

Because I consider myself more of a songwriter than any other kind of writer, I think “Songwriter’s Block” usually suits me best when inspiration isn’t coming. But today I would like to propose something a little different that I feel is most fitting. I realize that this might come across as really cheesy but I’m just going to come out and say it…I think I am currently suffering from a severe case of “Life Block”.

In other words: I don’t know what the HECK I am doing with myself. Sometimes I want to write music. Sometimes I want to paint. Or reupholster furniture. Or become a photographer. I want to learn Spanish. I want to travel. Sometimes I want to be a social worker. Sometimes I don’t like the idea of that at all.

Let me illustrate just one part of my Life Block. I love babies. They are adorable. Sometimes when I am at the mall I see little babies with big flower headbands and cute, chubby little faces smiling at me over their mother’s shoulder and I want one SO BADLY. My co-worker needed a babysitter last night and I volunteered quite excitedly. He has a four-year-old boy, a two-year-old girl and a baby who is only a couple of months old. The baby was relatively good. She cried a bit and I had to feed her, change her diaper, etc. That wasn’t difficult. What was difficult was holding her while I was helping the others get what they needed, keeping them occupied and the baby happy. The older two had so much energy. While I was there I was picturing myself as their mother. It was an exhausting thought. Suddenly I was grateful that I got to go home to a quiet house and sleep through the night without having to get up to take care of a baby.

My point? Maybe it is this: the grass is always greener on the other side. Or maybe it is simply this: we don’t always know what we want. I usually don’t know what I want.

I gave a lesson in Relief Society a few weeks ago and was able to choose whatever topic I wanted to speak on. I thought of my own life struggles and questions and went from there. I ended up giving a lesson on “Living A Consecrated Life”…which also could have been titled, “How to Survive a Quarter-Life Crisis by Heeding the Lord’s Prophet and Apostles”.

Maybe you have had Life Block too. I keep a quote book. Here are a few life quotes that help me get through moments when I have Life Block:

“With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow.”

Richard G Scott

“In suffering we may in fact be nearer to God than we’ve ever been in our entire lives.”

Jeffrey R. Holland

“Patience is far more than simply waiting for something to happen-patience requires actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results don’t appear instantly or without effort.

“There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can-working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Ask God to put you just where he wants you, and to tell you what he wants you to do, and feel that you are on hand to do it.”

Brigham Young

“The only way to get through life is to laugh your way trough it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

“I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not.”

President Thomas S. Monson

“God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted, and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and the glories of creation.”

President Thomas S. Monson

Don’t give up and don’t get discouraged! That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. Sometimes what I want to do is drop everything and move to a foreign country…to stay for a long, long time. If you feel so inclined to make a donation to this noble cause of self-discovery and travel please send a check made out to Emily Peet at 781 North 1050 East, Provo, UT 84606. (Joking of course…or am I?)