Recently, my vocation turned away from career towards writing. Despite my company’s support with workplace accommodations, in 2021, I stopped working altogether, due to worsening and persistent symptoms from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I could no longer manage the pace or the intensity of my job as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor, so I went from being a practitioner to being a patient.

Leaving paid employment was a disorienting time, complicated by complex grief. In my work role, I listened to courageous narratives all day long, told by people in difficult situations, who were striving to make changes in their jobs and vocations. I helped people pivot away from hardship and loss, towards balance and hope. But I had not anticipated leaving my own job- work was my happy place. Just as I became seasoned and mature in my career, I ceased working, walked away from becoming the regional manager of my department, abandoned my role as an accreditation specialist with an esteemed international organization, and declined my place in grad school.

Despite being an ardent optimist, I started to feel diminished and disempowered as I dealt with government disability services and employer insurance applications. I admit, I began to wonder if my career serving individuals with mental health problems and substance misuse challenges had been for not: I struggled to complete the very same forms I used to help clients with. Fortunately, a friend challenged my brooding and invited me to consider that perhaps my career had been an apprenticeship for my true vocation, writing. Her query jostled my soul and sparked a joyful curiosity towards the future. At age fifty-two, I realized that I could, conceivably, live into my eighties, thus having ample opportunity to follow my bliss. Suddenly, I had the time and inclination to redefine how I made meaning in life.

Because I live with a chronic condition, I am especially interested in how the process of writing intertwines with healing and health.  Everyone experiences adversity, yet we can turn to storytelling to enhance wellbeing. And I believe that we can learn from others who have engaged curiosity, volition, and persistence, in tandem with developing writing craft.

It is possible to embrace creativity while living gracefully (or even, not so gracefully!) with a persistent illness, injury, or disability. I believe that writing and storytelling are rehabilitative and restorative. Writing helps us to discern our soul’s whispers even when we do not share our stories with readers. I also believe that we can live into chosen narratives rather than being bound by our current or past circumstances. For me, this pursuit has fostered a passion for spiritual life writing.

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