Crack Open Your Inspiration Wherever Your Are Whenever You Want!
I
have a story for you today about a time devoted, conscious action invited
inspiration to crack open within me – and how to tap into inspiration anytime
using any creative medium or method.
The illustration uses photography and writing. These experiences can be translated into any form of creativity, even if that creativity is related to building your business or strengthening a relationship or writing a poem or sculpting a new form.
Take what I offer and let the words help to crack inspiration open in you in a profound, new way.
These are the beginnings of a salt shaker sketch
I
know you are ready – and willing – and have intense desire and focus.
Step into it, now – with me.
My friend Victor and I were in the midst of a conversation about motivation and inspiration yesterday. We were talking about feeling it and not feeling it and what our responses were, either way.
I told him about my recent journey from Bakersfield to Corona del Mar and back again in one day for my Uncle’s funeral. It felt different, that day, because I didn’t feel compelled at all to pull my notebook from my backpack and catalog my experience with words. “It was strange,” I noted without further reflection or judgment.
Pop Art Salt Shakers
I
added, almost absently, “I did take a lot of photos, though.”
I took a quiet breath. “It was something, taking photos.” My words sounded almost like an apology.
I turned the conversational attention to my friend.
“What about you?” I asked. “What have you photographed lately?”
“Not a thing,” he answered. “Nothing has interested me.”
I coughed, gagged and sputtered. I heard some version of a vocalized “What?!”
Editing photos is another way to crack open inspiration.
burst from deep in my lungs.
He asked me a question, “What am I going to photograph here in Podunk, USA?”
I was speechless, absolutely speechless. Victor has taught me so much about making forward progress no matter where I am, my dear friend saying there is nothing to photograph in his version of Podunk, USA, which is very similar to my town, a similar version of Podunk.
Victor’s lack of inspiration right where he was, Podunk or not, shocked me right into wordlessness.
I decided to take a slightly different angle to our conversation.
“Remember how you have complimented me for having a great eye in my photos?” I asked him.
It was the salt shaker's twin, taking form in front of my eyes.
He
nodded yes. “How do you suppose I developed what you describe as ‘a great
eye’?”
Silent pause.
“You take a lot of pictures.” Victor responded.
“Yes, I take a lot of pictures. Every day I take pictures. Here, in Bakersfield, my version of Podunk, USA, I take photos every day. I write on most days."
Every day I take photos of aspects of life I find interesting because I choose to find the images right in front of me interesting. I choose to be interested in objects which may not be notable to anyone else but me. I want to be fully engaged so I engage with what is in front of me. It is so simple.
Later in that week, Victor sent me some photos he named, "The Pepsi Can Series" which I followed up with my "Salt Shaker Series" which include the photos you see in this essay today.
That’s what living a creative lifestyle is about, it is about an invitation to become more fully engaged in your life.
What will you choose to be interested in today?
I choose to be interested in the metaphors during my journey of the past several days. Of architectural elements, of cornices, archways, doorways, the tiles in benches and walls. I choose to be interested in changing perspectives, in looking from the undersides, in noticing how the changing light changes how I see and experience things. I choose to get right up against things, to let me lense get microscopically close to a subject.
I choose to engage wonder about the bark on the palm tree in my front yard and then turn to engage in the wonder of the bark on the palm in my backyard, which is different than the bark on the front palm. I choose to engage wonder with the spider web, the leaves on the mulberry tree, the window sill the spider web is woven upon, the movement of the sun throughout the day and throughout the seasons.
It is in these moments when I notice the beauty around me coupled with the conscious action of taking photos of “uninteresting things” in my version of Podunk, USA that creative magic happens.
This is when inspiration cracks open inside me. I allow myself to be devoted to seeing in a new way without being attached to “being inspired” – believing I need inspiration in order to crack open creativity and instead, allow inspiration to be cracked open through the devoted actions I take.
My devoted, conscious action invited inspiration to crack open within me.
I invited inspiration to come in and as always, inspiration didn’t fail me.
This is significant. Remember this message: I didn’t wait for inspiration to be there. Instead, I invited it to join me and consciously acted in a space and attitude of wonder, of gratitude, of engagement.
You don’t have to wait for inspiration, either. You can choose to crack it
open by engaging with life right in front of you, right there, right now.
There are in an infinite number of forms and images in front of you right now, waiting for you to “fall into inspiration” with them.
Look around your space right now, with a renewed sense of wonder.
What do you see? Smell? Feel? Hope? Wish?
Take what you see, smell, feel, hope, wish and wrap it up in a creative adventure with words or photos or song or prayer or sketch.
Crack yourself open to the inspiration all around you right now.
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