Searching for Inspiration

Inspiration, when it is circumstantially stimulated, sometimes comes at a high price. When I was a teenager feeling the first pangs of romantic affection, poetry just pulsed through my veins. I wrote songs, and poems and prose of all sorts, ranging from the ecstatic to the despairing. Now as a mature adult who can still feel the surge of emotion at a Roy Orbison song or the moving rhythm of “Dust land fairy tales”, I don’t have the luxury of wallowing in the depths of despair in order to embody the necessary condition for attainting what used to be true inspiration.

Inspiration is an ever morphing requisite, as age and experience increase.

Yet, as age and experience inevitably increase, inspiration seems to decrease unhealthily.

Life can be jading.

Inspiration now must be sought after in the simple features of life, in the passing moments that leave slight but indelible marks on ones soul.

Here are a few every day inspirations:

1. Having a hand to hold. My husbands strong hand as we walk about or fall asleep at night. My baby’s mini fingers wound tightly around my own as he toddles around. My dads hand as we take a minute to talk over coffee. My kids hands as we cross the street.

2. The stars. It is easy to forget to look upwards when so many artificial lights detract from the brilliance and vastness of the night sky.

3. The words of Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strength your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
4. Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique. Listen to that bad boy and tell me you can’t drum up a surge of inspiration. That composition runs through all the emotions and leaves you feeling hopeful and empowered.
5. Baby kisses.

And the list could go on an on. Try looking for that sometimes elusive optimist of the mind. You might just find him everywhere.