Since starting out on this writing journey I have felt the amazing force of the waxing and waning of creativity. I have had weeks where I've been pulled to post every other day, and dry spells where I sweat bullets fighting to arrange a collection of words into a post, desperate just to get myself back into the flow. I have posts that I love, that feel rich and inspired, and others that seem like total garbage. And I'm searching for the rhyme or reason behind the drive to write, or create anything for that matter.
I wonder where the inspiration comes from? Is it something I can learn to summon in times of need, something that can be willed to emerge? And if it can, I haven't yet figured out what lures it out. Sometimes I sit down to write, and stare at a blinking curser. I force out a clumsy sentence, and immediately delete it. I give it another go and another miss, and my frustration mounts. It feels so unnatural for me to force writing, and even when I do manage to choke out an uninspired paragraph, I usually return to it and find it lifeless. Missing that vital energy that makes inspired writing so soothing. Maybe I just need more practice, more discipline, more time with my nose to the grindstone to learn how to get the gears turning. Maybe the creativity can be strengthened like a muscle. Or maybe I need to really look more closely at the other areas of my life to find the inspiration before I sit down at the keyboard.
Yet there are these times when words start stringing themselves along into sentences in my head, randomly. It catches me off guard, and usually I'm somewhere other than at the computer, lying in bed, or driving down the road, or changing a diaper. And as these sentences emerge I think to myself, Man this is some good stuff! I need to remember this, I HAVE to get this in writing! So sometime later, maybe later that day or the next, I do sit down and try to reconstruct the storyline that was literally stitching itself together so beautifully, but it's never the same. I may be able to capture the gist, and a poetic phrase here and there, but I can never recreate it verbatim. And then it's gone.
The thing I'm seeking is a marriage of the two, a way to harness the inspiration when it hits, get it to hang around a little while rather than fleeing. And I know it's absolutely unreasonable for me to want the words to just flow every time I set out to write, but I wish there were a way to store it away for the moments I get the chance to write, or a way to recall it more purely.
The only thing I'm sure of is that this little angel has been the single greatest source of inspiration in my life.
She inspires me day in and day out to participate more fully in each and every moment, to show up and be present for each day that I'm blessed with.
And she ignites my appreciation and gratitude for the little things.
She shows me the world from an entirely different perspective and amazes me continually.
Because of her, I am constantly inspired to be a better mother, a better wife, a better woman.
I wonder where the inspiration comes from? Is it something I can learn to summon in times of need, something that can be willed to emerge? And if it can, I haven't yet figured out what lures it out. Sometimes I sit down to write, and stare at a blinking curser. I force out a clumsy sentence, and immediately delete it. I give it another go and another miss, and my frustration mounts. It feels so unnatural for me to force writing, and even when I do manage to choke out an uninspired paragraph, I usually return to it and find it lifeless. Missing that vital energy that makes inspired writing so soothing. Maybe I just need more practice, more discipline, more time with my nose to the grindstone to learn how to get the gears turning. Maybe the creativity can be strengthened like a muscle. Or maybe I need to really look more closely at the other areas of my life to find the inspiration before I sit down at the keyboard.
Yet there are these times when words start stringing themselves along into sentences in my head, randomly. It catches me off guard, and usually I'm somewhere other than at the computer, lying in bed, or driving down the road, or changing a diaper. And as these sentences emerge I think to myself, Man this is some good stuff! I need to remember this, I HAVE to get this in writing! So sometime later, maybe later that day or the next, I do sit down and try to reconstruct the storyline that was literally stitching itself together so beautifully, but it's never the same. I may be able to capture the gist, and a poetic phrase here and there, but I can never recreate it verbatim. And then it's gone.
The thing I'm seeking is a marriage of the two, a way to harness the inspiration when it hits, get it to hang around a little while rather than fleeing. And I know it's absolutely unreasonable for me to want the words to just flow every time I set out to write, but I wish there were a way to store it away for the moments I get the chance to write, or a way to recall it more purely.
The only thing I'm sure of is that this little angel has been the single greatest source of inspiration in my life.
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| If these aren't the cutest piggie tails I've ever laid eyes on! |
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| Love them! |
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| Milani watching the snow out the window last Saturday |
She shows me the world from an entirely different perspective and amazes me continually.
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| With her face literally pressed to the glass. |
Because of her, I am constantly inspired to be a better mother, a better wife, a better woman.
If you have any insight or methods that you find helpful to conjure up inspiration or ignite creativity I'd love for you to leave me a comment telling me about it!