Inspiration: Where do you find yours?

The definition of inspiration: an inspiring or animating action or influence.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Albert Einstein.

Everyday I try to walk my 12 year-old golden retriever, Wally. Not only does he need it and expect it, I need it too. He is getting older so we only walk about 4 blocks, but during those 4 blocks, my mind relaxes, lets go. I see things I wouldn’t normally see; a lizard sunning itself on a rock, a bird gliding with the wind currents, and the many different greens in the grasses, trees and bushes to name a few. This is a time in my day that I feel inspired.

As I wrote in my last blog, Lin Oliver said to take lots of showers. The running water, the feeling of calm, or the lack of inhibition, for any of these reasons, many of us think of our most creative ideas in the shower. I have to wonder, how many writers have ran out of the shower soaking wet in fear that the idea will leave their head before they had the chance to realize it’s full potential.

I also get inspired as I’m drifting off to sleep. That’s when I reach for my notebook and scribble in the dark, my wonderfully brilliant idea. The next morning, I can sometimes even read it!

There are so many ways and places to feel inspired. Read books, blogs, magazines, anything. Listen to music, view beautiful art, or go to the beach or a park and just sit and listen to the world around you.

Whatever works for you on that day, find it and do it.

So in the words of Mark Twain:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

In other words, be inspired.

Have an inspirational week,

Meredith