GRANT WHITE

If you had told me when I graduated from university that I would be living in Finland twenty-five years later, I would have shaken my head in disbelief. The path from the plains of central Kansas to the very different world here has been anything but direct, and very different from the path I thought I was entering back then! It has taken me through some of the greatest cities and educational institutions in the world, and from the United States to Finland, England, and back again to Finland.

In the course of this journey I have had to rethink myself more than once. Who am I, really? What are my gifts? Where is my Achilles' heel? What do I want? Am I flexible enough to bend rather than break? What is most important in my life? Where do I need to grow?

In contrast with what my earlier self thought, I've discovered that the straightest path is not always the most interesting, or the most satisfying. That sometimes our lives present us with situations and challenges that call forth from us resources, skills, talents we didn't know we had.

Creativity, flexibility, learning, change, growth: they require a kind of deep listening and attentiveness to our selves as whole persons. It takes effort, persistence, time, and patience to pay attention to ourselves at all levels: mental, spiritual, physical.

As we seek to respond to creative challenges, it can help to have someone there who can encourage, guide, ask questions, point to resources, provide support. Someone who doesn't pretend to have all the answers, but someone committed to helping you discover the answers you need in your situation. I would be very happy to serve as such a person for you.