Axiom of the Faithful: God, being omnipotent, leverages each of us within our circumstances to work God’s blessing in the world.
That is, either God placed you where you are in order to do something specific with regard to your placement, or God works with where you dropped yourself and makes God-things happen.
I vote I’m category A: placed with intent. I have my reasons—though one could argue that, for me, God’s working with a modified B-placement.
And I’m reasonably certain of God’s current larger intent for me: to write things.
After that I bog down. Borrowing contractor terminology, I’ve been at this placement for five months, and I feel less acclimated today than I did the first day I got here.
What things am I supposed to write? How many things?
If God measures time differently than I understand it, it wouldn’t surprise me if God measures work-output differently than I understand it,
which probably makes any “how many” questions utterly beside the point. Does that then mean “not a word for weeks” is a reasonable outcome?
If God directs my working, does that mean getting fidgety in front of the page is a bad sign and I can go do laundry with a clean conscience?
What about reading thrillers non-stop for four days?
If I have a demonstrated track record of high-speed garrulity when I’ve been alone for a week, what the heck does God intend by giving me a solo job in an isolated space?
Or, for that matter, by giving me a solo job requiring focus and then handing a teenager back to me?
What, really, am I supposed to be doing here?!
Things I might learn from solitude
- What’s worth thinking about vs. what to consign to routine
- How to respect my physical frame so it best supports me
- A key to unlock mood from work/inspiration
- What activities will decompose into brain-compost?
- What activities spark the creative glow?