Inspiration can be seen as many things. It can be the ”muse” that figuratively sits softly on your shoulder as you begin creating. When you are inspired to capture the picture that’s in your mind and translate it into art, it’s as if your pencil just glides across the page almost of its own accord, and the drawing takes shape before your very eyes, exactly how you envisioned it. Or you are inspired to write something close to your heart and the words just flow. You can hardly keep up with your thoughts as you try to get them down on paper (or computer) before they take off on a journey of their own. Or you look through the lens of your camera and realize you are about to capture the true essence of your subject. Or music flows from your very soul and you know you have created something very special.
An elusive gift
This type of inspiration feels like a gift, and you know you have created because you were inspired. But I think this kind of inspiration can be elusive, and sometimes results in the artist or author feeling they must wait for inspiration to strike before expressing themselves creatively. When it doesn’t, they find themselves staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank screen and trying to force themselves to create something incredible. Frustration ensues and they give up because they have “writer’s block,” or if there is such a thing, ”artist’s block.” Most professional creatives would just say, “Write! Write something every day, don’t wait for inspiration!” Or “Draw every day, and maybe inspiration will come and light on your shoulder.” Easier said than done, you say? I’ve got you covered.
Challenged to create
Two of my muses!
There are many different kinds of creative challenges developed for both artists and writers, where the organizers encourage you to just create. “Inktober” is one such challenge, where you draw a different picture each day in October to correspond with the official list of themes here. Or the American Writers & Artists Institute’s (AWAI) annual 30-day challenge in April. The 2020 writing prompts for AIWA can be found here. If you feel particularly motivated (dare I say inspired?) to write a novel, November is your month and NaNoWriMo is your challenge. Some best-selling novels have been written during this event. You could be next! If you are a photographer, this site has several tips and challenges. And of course you can use these ideas and prompts at any time. These are ways to create your own inspiration when you feel your muse has skipped out on you while you were looking the other way.
Prompted to create
If you struggle thinking of something to draw or write, prompts can give you direction. You can ask your favorite search engine to find contests, challenges, or prompts in your chosen area of creativity. Because I love to draw and write, my girls have fed my passions by giving me books and journals with writing prompts and drawing ideas. For Christmas our daughter gave both my husband and me books with prompts to write down our life experiences and stories for our grandchildren. I’m excited to get this done! It’s funny how stories pop into your mind when something happens to trigger memories of your childhood or early adulthood. You know, things that happened before you were *this* many years old.
Memory sense
So many things can evoke memories, good and bad. They can come out of the blue and make you smile or laugh, or hit you in the gut and make you wish you could forget them. Each of our five senses gets involved with our memories. You can see a playground and remember the days when you and your friends spent endless recesses on the jungle gym and swings in elementary school. Or a picture can whisk you instantly back to the time and place depicted in the scene.
Mama sees all
The other day one of my Facebook friends (who has actually been my friend since about 50 years before Facebook arrived on the planet) posted a photo of a mama turned around during church, a rubber spatula in her hand, giving THE EYE to someone (presumably her offspring) in the row behind her. No one could mistake that look. I saw the picture and immediately was transported to a moment of chagrin that has stuck with me my whole life. My friends and I were in our church of about 350 souls, sitting with our preteen group in the second row. Unfortunately, we were whispering at the worst times (Imagine that!). My mom was sitting 7 rows behind us. The person behind me tapped my shoulder to get my attention, then pointed over her shoulder to a man who pointed over his shoulder to a woman who pointed over her shoulder… This went on for the entire 7 rows that had just done it in reverse as Mom had them tap the shoulders on the way to me. I cranked my head around until I met her disapproving, disappointed eyes and saw her finger beckoning me to come to her.
This is the kid that got in trouble!
I tried to convey in saintly looks and earnest gestures that I would never talk in church again as long as I lived, but it was no use. I had to get up and trudge all the way back past all 7 rows to sit with her, my path followed by an array of pitying and disapproving eyes. I was mortified. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me.
It still makes me cringe
50-some years later, I commented on the aforementioned Facebook post and asked my two best friends if they remembered this humiliating moment. Surely it was only burned into my consciousness and no one else took that much note of my walk of shame. WRONG! They both remembered it vividly.
As you may have guessed by now, I lived through it. Probably because I was a preacher’s kid and had been called down from the pulpit a few times during my young life. I was no stranger to embarrassing moments in church. At least Dad wasn’t preaching that day—it could have been so much worse.
So much to say
I was also the child who constantly got in trouble with the teacher for talking in class. I just always had so much to say! 😁 I like to think I’ve outgrown such things, but I admit I occasionally talk when I shouldn’t (I just have so much to say!😂). I pretty much turned the tables on those who wanted to keep me quiet, though. When I grew up and became a teacher, I could talk in class whenever I wanted to!🤣
That unfortunate church incident has provided inspiration all these years later with a poignant—if totally embarrassing—memory, with no muse to blame.
Inspiration on the daily
This is one way I find inspiration in daily life. Not necessarily inspiration to write or draw, although I do love to do both those things, but to find joy in life, in memories, and in stories. I’ve written often about the different ways music inspires me. Roberta Flack’s song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue,” Robert John’s “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and The Carpenters’ “Hurting Each Other” (among lots of other songs) take me back to my dorm room and I feel all the feels again. I can even get homesick for California like I did when I was in college 2,000 miles away when I hear Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California,” even though I’ve been back in California for decades.
The nose knows
When I touch my granddaughter and smell that sweet baby scent, I remember the silken, soft skin of my own babies and feel again that new mother (now grandmother) overwhelming, all-encompassing love. Every time I’m with her I feel the same, and it’s like I have mother/grandmother emotions swirling within me (not to take anything away from my daughter, her awesome mother, of course). I’m excited and eager for my second granddaughter to arrive this year so I can smell that incomparable newborn ambrosia! Oh and love on her, too, of course!
Scent can be one of the strongest inspirations and memory triggers. At certain times of the year I start feeling a sense of sadness and loss, and it usually takes me awhile to realize that I am smelling the flowers on the breeze and other fragrances that permeated the atmosphere during the times I lost close family members. My mind picks up the scents and my emotions respond before I consciously connect the time of year with the anniversary of the loss. Aroma memories can be more powerful than any other type.
It was the tuna
The last of the five senses is just on the tip of my tongue. Oh yeah, taste! 😝 Who among us hasn’t tasted something that instantly brought us back to the kitchen we grew up in? A few years ago my sister made tuna sandwiches for a church potluck and had some left over. The next day I was with her and she brought out the sandwiches. They were on white bread and had gotten a little soggy overnight. You’d think ewwww, right? Not me! I took one bite and immediately was transported to my elementary-school years and the white-bread tuna sandwiches my mom wrapped in waxed paper and packed into a brown lunch sack to sit and sog until lunch time.
If you had asked me if my childhood sandwiches were soggy I wouldn’t have remembered that, but when I tasted them again I didn’t know how I could have forgotten! I have to admit, though, that I don’t seek out soggy sandwiches, even though that one brought back a precious memory. Am I saying food can be inspiring? Of course it can! All I have to say is “Remember the most romantic meal you’ve ever had?” or “Think of your favorite dessert,” or “Describe your traditional holiday meal,” and you’ll probably be able to taste it in your mind.
Sensing stress?
Besides finding inspiration in the five senses, you can also use these senses intentionally to help relieve stress. Center your mind by looking at something beautiful. Remember the taste of your favorite food or the scent of your favorite flower or perfume. Touch something with a pleasant texture (a fluffy pet or a fuzzy blanket works extremely well), or listen to relaxing music. Focusing on these things can put you in a much calmer and relaxed state of mind, which will help you to be better able to deal with the stress.
Inspiration from above
You know, God is pretty amazing, isn’t He! Not only did He breathe into Adam and Eve the breath of life, He created us to be inspired and renewed by our senses, by beauty, by imagination, creativity, and memory. Who needs a muse? 😉
I’d love for you to share some of your inspirational thoughts and memories in the comments. And sign up below if you want to be notified when new posts come out and also receive goodies. I’m all about inspiring! Remember, you won’t have to seek inspiration if you simply let it find you, and recognize it when it comes!
Here’s to being inspired,
