Inspiration

Where do you find it?

Published on July 25, 2006 By dynamaso In Blogging

Inspiration… It is a lovely word. It means a lot of different things to a lot of people too. The dictionary meaning is fine to understand the word, but it just doesn’t impart the full impact of inspiration, of being inspired and of inspiring others.

I was reading something recently, where one JUser mentioned he’d been inspired by a couple of other JUsers. One of those mentioned responded that she was surprised to inspire anyone. This got me thinking and inspired me to write this. But what I got thinking more about was why someone would be surprised they’d inspired anyone else. If you think about it, inspiration is one of the major ingredients required for us all, everyday, in order to keep on keeping on.

Inspiration occurs to me lots of times throughout the day, regardless of what I’m doing. I’ve been inspired by snippets of conversation, overheard on a train. I’ve been inspired by music and words. I’ve been inspired by others being inspired around me. Inspiration, to me, is contagious. If I can be inspired by a simple bird song or the rhythm of cars on the street, then imagine what it might be like for me to be in a room with a couple of truly inspirational people. I fairly buzz with anticipation of creation.

Quite often, it is in doing the mundane, daily chores where I find my most inspiration. I think ‘housework’ for me, anyway, is another word for meditation. I often have really cool musical ideas while washing dishes. I get wonderful story ideas while vacuuming or sweeping floors. My wife thinks I’m nuts and my band mates don’t believe me but it is true. Washing dishes must put my mind in some sort of trance that opens up my music conduit or something. Whoa, that last sentence certainly sounded like hippy dribble, but anyway, I have a question for you, dear JU friends; where do you find your inspiration?

Comments

Dr Guy

on Jul 25, 2006

So where did you get the inspiration for this article.

And house work inspires you? Are you the one who wrote "I've been working on the railroad". You know the second stanza "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah...."

Seriously though, inspiriation can be a person, place or thing. An event, or article. You are correct, there is no magic Muse that sprinkles fairy dust on us to inspire us. But my best place is the shower.

foreverserenity

on Jul 25, 2006

Nice artlcle Mark. I, like you get inspired doing anything! It could even be watching television. Reading a paragraph in a book or like you, from snippets of conversations. I think it takes a very creative mind to be that way (and that's not bragging). I also often get inspired by many people here as well. Hey, you inspired my article on Tatoos!

Shovelheat

on Jul 25, 2006

Inspiration, where do i find it? To me it's like finding a twenty dollar bill in a gutter while walking down the street on the way to the grocery store- it's a serendipitous thing. To me it's just like that- I either fing it or I don't, there is no middle ground and more often (WAY more often, it seems) I don't.

But the thing I've learned is not to push it and be patient. Twenty dollar bills are, after all, not found in gutters every day.

Sally jacobs

on Jul 25, 2006

Haha...have I inspired another article...I'm impressed with myself, lol. Some days I have nothing, no inspiration, no nothing, and the harder I try to find it, the more it avoids me. Then all of a sudden it will hit me. I get inspired alot when I am eating. Haha...and I'm not joking. Although many other things inspire me, I think JU has to take alot of credit for my inspiration, you all make me think. I can#t ask for a better gift than that.

dynamaso

on Jul 25, 2006

Arrrrgggh, I had posted a response to you all but JU has been glitchy and for some reason, my response is gone. Oh well, suffice to say it was charming, witty and to the point

KellyW0498

on Jul 27, 2006

If you pay attention there is inspiration everywhere. JU just has a whole lot of it around.

dynamaso

on Jul 27, 2006

Kelly,

So true... JU has a lot of very talented people and I really get inspired by what a lot have to say here.

InBloom

on Jul 28, 2006

Most of my inspiration comes from the simplest things...a little bit I came upon in a newspaper, a word I saw in a novel, small talk with my loved ones, a sentence I saw written on this site, a scene I saw on T.V., a thought just passing in my mind...just simple everyday things, as others have mentioned.

Now and then I do get inspired from a huge occurence or event in my life as well.

dynamaso

on Jul 30, 2006

InBloom,

I believe it is often the smaller things, as you say, that can be of more inspiration because these leave so much more space between for us to fill in the gaps. If I think about it, some of the best song lyrics, for instance, are not about momentous events but about simple expressions of love, desire, change or anger. I am so inspired by simplicity, mainly because I'm often unable to process complex situations

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