Inspiration

What inspires you? That is a good question. I don’t think much about inspiration. Why? I don’t know. The word inspire means to fill someone with the urge to do or feel something, especially creative.

I wonder what fills me with the urge to be creative. I know that I like to think and, when someone is on the same page as I am at a given time, I like to share those thoughts. I find that when I am talking with someone, the creativity flows. I am able to reach for thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere. Sometimes my first encounter with certain thoughts is when they come out of my mouth. These are the times when I believe the words that are flowing through me are inspired.

When I write, whether it is poetry or a story, I seldom know what I am going to write when I sit down. In fact, quite often I think the words will not flow. I am always wrong, they do flow, and the more I write, the more the words come. When I first decided to be serious about writing a best-selling author gave me this piece of advice; ‘ put words on the page and don’t try to edit. Go back to the story later and edit.’

Once I started doing that, The writing flowed more easily. It works the same way during conversation as well. I don’t think about where the inspiration comes from when I am writing or talking. I believe that what the listener needs to hear, and what the reader needs to read, will present itself during conversation or reading.

I believe that when I write or speak, the words that come, are important to someone. I know that the words are important to me, because, whether I am writing or speaking, I am learning something. People with whom I interact learn something also.

This is why it is imperative that when I speak or write,I do so in such a way as not to bring another person down or put out someone’s candle, it won’t make mine shine any brighter. When I am in ‘The Zone’ the words that flow are good, but when I speak from that other place, the everyday place, sometimes I say things that are better left unsaid.

I am learning as I write that I should treat each moment of speaking or writing as a moment of Truth that will have a lasting impact on someone. It would be better by far if that impact were uplifting.

Maybe I do know where my inspiration comes from. Maybe it comes from helping others along their own personal journey and seeing them grow to their full potential.