About Me and My Writing
I suppose I could describe myself as an intellectual with an artist’s heart. My natural tendency is to seek truth through logic. I’m good at organizing and synthesizing information, and I’ve excelled academically and in my role as a medical doctor. So, people tend to be surprised when they find out that I’m also a dreamer, a romantic, a visionary. I feel emotions intensely. I’m drawn to fairy tales and fireflies, wishes and dreams come true, integrity and hopefulness.
I struggle with clinical anxiety, and I’ve found that clinging to hope is often challenging. It involves nurturing my innate sense that there is more to life than what can be measured scientifically. I have great respect for science as a means of explaining the natural world. But can every part of human experience be reduced to scientific truths? As intricate and astounding as our brains are, our resiliency of spirit points to something more. As humans, we yearn for beauty, desire deep connection with other people, and can often find meaning and hope in painful circumstances. I believe these qualities suggest that we are not just complex combinations of cells but creatures with souls.
There are many differing views about life, its origin, and its purpose. I respect people whose views differ from mine, and I don’t claim to have all the answers. I believe it’s healthy to ponder these questions and to seek truth openly and persistently. As I near half a century of life, I look back on the time I’ve spent questioning and searching for meaning. Both logic and experience have led me repeatedly back to Christianity and the tenets it presents as truth. As I’ve navigated the joys and heartaches of life so far, I’ve found that the Christian faith resonates most with the reality existing deep within me. As I’ve opened my heart to seek God, his love has begun to bring healing to my soul.
C.S. Lewis wrote of a unique type of joy accompanied by a wistful longing that can’t be fulfilled in this life. Based on this experience, he suggests, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” We often find these types of unsatisfied yearnings expressed in the various forms of art. Visual art, music, and literature can elicit deep emotion within us. For me, this type of joy-infused ache and the resulting hope of fulfillment are most often evoked by story.
Books were my first love. The internet was nonexistent and children’s TV shows were rare when I was a small child in the 1970’s. My mom took me on regular outings to our local library, where I would fill huge cardboard boxes with books to bring home. They gave me glimpses of a world bigger than the one I knew and filled me with excitement and wonder.
As I grew older, I found that certain stories resonated with the hope residing deep within me. As a pre-teen, I read Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. The tales evoked in me a sense of delight tinged with wistful yearning. These books encouraged me to love goodness and crave deeper joy. My desire now is that my writing will inspire others to do the same.
I enjoy writing in many forms. I’ve written poetry, short stories, inspirational non-fiction stories, articles, and devotions. My hope is to someday publish an allegorical novel as well as a non-fiction book about my personal journey with anxiety.