inspiration can be found...anywhere

Inspiration can be found anywhere, if only you allow yourself to find it.

As a small girl, I found inspiration amidst the solitude of my pink bedroom. With the door shut and locked, my imagination ran free, through fields of yellow and white wildflowers and into the open arms of a beautiful dark-haired man who would one day be my husband. I found inspiration as I built a cardboard box house with painted curtains for my beloved black and white kitten. I found inspiration in the stacks of paperback books carefully arranged along the bedside table and dark carpet. Inside my world, and inside my head, I found inspiration.

As a teenager, I found inspiration among my disappointments and shattered innocence. Through altered states of consciousness and in the lyrical voice of Bob Dylan, I found inspiration. Gazing intensely under black lights at the florescent lizards on a Jim Morrison poster, I found inspiration, and dark poetry flowed freely from my pen and lips. As I read the story of Holden Caulfield’s life and feared that I might one day be emblazoned by a scarlet letter of my own, I found inspiration. Inside my confusion, and inside my blindness, I found inspiration.

As an adult, I have found inspiration in life’s emblematic shadows and rays of sunlight. Four years ago, I played my antique piano by candlelight and wrote letters of regret in the early morning hours. As words of sorrow and shame graced the page, so was I graced by inspiration. Three years ago, my office was filled with children’s books and play-doh. Through the tight morning hugs of a four year old boy and the heart-wrenching tales of a fourteen year old girl’s attempted suicide, I found inspiration. Two years ago, I lit patchouli candles and sang along with the ballads of Sarah McLaughlin, finding inspiration as I sorted through the heartbreak of a failed marriage and the end of my carefree youth. Last year, I flipped my life upside down and inside out, exploring the depths of myself and the potentials of my life. As I found the courage to embrace my dreams, I found inspiration. And now, here I am, still walking through this world of broken hearts and momentous fears, and yet I am finding inspiration. In the beauty of the river’s changing currents and the majestic heights of smoky mountains, I am finding inspiration. In the words of feminist scholars and romantic poets, through the creativity of world-renowned artists and the talented brilliance of new-found friends, I am finding inspiration. As I shop for used treasures of another person’s life, as I inhale the breathless honesty of my own hidden past…as I watch a man dancing with abandon in the open air of this world, as I let my own spirit dance with the changing melodies…I am finding inspiration.

Inspiration can be found anywhere, if only you allow yourself to find it.