Awaiting inspired thought is interesting. It is a little like picking up a signal with an antenna. You look out there you feel for it, is it there? Is it there? Nope, nothing yet. Until… bam, there it is!
It is like putting out a fishing line into a translucent, milky lagoon. You can’t see it with your eyes, but you know there’s something down there–this lagoon has fish! It’s always interesting to see what will come. You can’t force it. Better to be flexible. You might need to come back later, or take a nap by the water until something tugs on your line.
Having written hundreds of music compositions, thousands of lines of rap lyrics, dozens of songs, many poems, over a thousand blog posts, and now a book… I trust that process of fishing in the milky lagoon, expecting ideas to surface.
And so it is!
Sure, sometimes daily blogging can get a little tricky if, for example, it’s the end of the day and I don’t feel especially receptive. It’s harder if you feel pressed for time. Like I said, you don’t want to force it. Maybe I don’t feel like waiting by the lagoon that evening. But in that moment is it is my head state that is translucent. I need to shift my mindset and get into the mode to come up with something.
If a subject is especially tricky, there is also an experience like continually circling around it, waiting for it to give. It’s like circling the castle perimeter, looking for a hole in the wall, some way to get in. For instance, there’s a section of the piano book that I keep working on. I am writing about my marathon experience. Since this is a piano-themed book, I want to tell it in a way that speaks to the reader. I haven’t quite gotten it. I read the passage to my wife, who gave me some helpful feedback. I made some changes. I read it to her again. She gave me more helpful feedback. How to make it fit just right? I am circling around the subject, I am making adjustments, awaiting inspiration.
Perhaps like Michelangelo knowing the statue waits inside the slab of marble, our job as creatives is to feel the inspiration and then strike at just the right point, with just the right force. If we aren’t patient, we risk ruining the slab. The last thing we want is to break it into two.
Tuning into inspiration guides our correct actions.