Have you ever begun a project thinking you were doing one thing and ended up doing something completely different?  I am in the middle of that kind of experience right now.  I started working on a paper this week.  The paper is for Applied Psychology and the topic is Positive Philosophy.  I knew this would be a fun and interesting paper before I began.  I also knew I would run into some deep challenges as I looked into how a counselor works with people whose lives are affected by traumatic events in their past and how or if the philosophy mentioned can be employed to help bring about healing, resolution, or relief.  All of this is proving true already.  I am finding the books fascinating and the topic of positive philosophy really uplifting for myself.

However, because my priority list is overloaded always and I struggle with what to do right now in this minute, I am always wondering what about that over there; when do I get to it?  I have been feeling this way about some of the writing projects I am working on.  One project is about our adoption experience.  The project tells how we came to that decision, the process of adoption for us, how it affected our four children at that time, and finding and adjusting to the new child.  There is so much more to our story though.  We adopted again. And there was so much stemming from the point of adoption, healing processes for both children, and things that affected who we as a family and individuals became because of the experience of adoption.  I initially gave the journal I am using as my jumping spot to several people connected to our adoption journey as a thank you gift. I gave it to a few friends who adopted also.  I was challenged to turn into something more and I am doing that. But writing it has meant finding the line between privacy and my children's right to their own life and the information that may help someone or bless someone or encourage someone who is adopting or facing some kind difficult issue connected to the adoption or process.  I recently picked up the story and began changing it to a fictional account.  Not sure how that feels yet.  I will probably keep it true.  But mostly I felt like I don't have the time to pour the kind of emotions and thought into the project right now. So I sat it aside.  But I kept thinking about it and wondering how to balance the things I need to include with my children.  I certainly would not include anything they are not ready for me to say. But then, that could be a good portion of the book and is there a way of communicating it without betraying them?

So I have been bouncing it around and my uncle asks me how that story is going.  He has read it for me and encouraged me to get it published.  I told him my concerns in detail and he gave me some valid advice. Let it sit for a time.  Children grow up and their needs and perspectives change as they do.  Good advice.  I can see that even through my own adult life.  Let it sit and the time will come when it is ready, time is full, and the need in others will still be there.  So I am sitting on it and moving on.  Is there something you can set aside until the time is better?  Something that you don't want to let go of but could put on a shelf for a season in order to do other things or wait for a better time?  Trust God to bring it back around when the time is better and he will or he will simply remove it and give you the peace to let it go.