Where do you find inspiration?
Listen to the podcast episode here or read below.
Where do you find inspiration?
I don’t have a brilliant answer.
I don’t have a formula or 5 steps to become inspired.
I simply have my eyes and ears and hands and heart open.
Oh and coffee.
Coffee helps.
Unless you’ve had too much and then coffee does not help.
Everything in life is a balance.
When it comes to creating this is what I have learned about myself as a writer.
And i think that what I have learned goes beyond creating, but is more about living.
And this is where I get a little artsy, so hold on for a minute.
I look for the shadows and how the light continues to meet the darkness.
I watch the bare trees begin to turn green and I celebrate its growth in the same way I mourned when it was stripped of its coat.
I slow down and listen for how your voice changes when you are speaking.
In the early hours of the morning I quiet my breathing to better hear the birds singing.
I hear them chirp and whistle about how they have made it through the night and into a new day.
In my head, I do my best to sing along with them.
My hands have become quick to open. I have learned to be quick to receive a story or emotion, just as I am open to sharing a story or emotion.
And my heart is a polaroid camera. It captures what I see.
It gathers the colors and smiles and brokenness and moments in time.
And when I am done sitting with the light I’ll show you what I have found.
When it comes to inspiration, I have learned how to wait and watch and go deeper.
I don’t just listen to the music, but I read the lyrics.
I don’t just read the book, but I learn about the writer.
I dig.
I search.
I look for the thing behind the thing behind the thing, because there is always something behind the thing that is right in front of us.
I have also learned this about myself: I need to write.
I have friends who need to run or workout or read or go on an adventure.
I need to write.
With or without inspiration, this is what I need to do.
Sometimes inspiration finds me, other times I tell inspiration to try and catch up to me.
Sometimes inspiration hides and I have to go find it, other times I just put myself in the chair, close my eyes, and pray the words find the screen.
Here is the secret: If you want to create something - a song, a poem, write a book, paint, whatever - you have to keep showing up.
I am currently reading Andrew Peterson’s book Adorning the Dark and he reveals what musician Rich Mullins said about writing and creating: songwriting is like going fishing. Sometimes you sit by the pond all day and never catch a thing. But sometimes you snag something beautiful. The point is, you never know unless you go to the pond and wait.
Creating takes consistency and patience.
It also requires you to remember why you are doing what you are doing.
Tie your hopes and dreams to consistency and patience as you continue to show up.
Because showing up can change everything.
I have been told that I feel too much.
And it’s true.
I do.
You can’t help how you feel or how you were created.
I’ve always been sensitive.
Most days I am moved to tears by something.
A tv show or commercial.
A song or a story told on a podcast.
An unanswered prayer.
A headline or joke.
My emotions invite me to spend a lot of time in my head.
It’s one of the reasons I write.
It’s one of the reasons I have to write.
Writing allows me to see what I feel, believe, wonder, and think on a piece of paper.
And I feel, believe, wonder, and think about many things.
Recently, I have been thinking about how I would like to be remembered.
I am not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but it’s something I have been thinking about.
I don’t want to be remembered as a poet or writer or podcaster.
I don’t want to be remembered for what I have achieved or for that cinnamon roll tweet.
I don’t want to be remembered as an Orlando Magic fan or whatever else I happen upon in this life.
Sure, I’d love to be remembered as a husband and friend and son and brother and Lord willing, a father.
But all in all, I want to be remembered as someone who was available.
How I had my eyes and ears and hands and heart open.
And I think when we are available we can find inspiration.
Or inspiration can find us.
Either way, I’m making my way down to the pond and I hope you’ll join me.
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