Today I find myself simply grateful to be at the end of a very long day that commenced at 4 a.m. as I rose to drive my daughter to the airport. Although I took an all-too-short nap when I returned from the airport around 5:30, it was too brief to really be much value. So here I sit nodding off at the keyboard, the computer resting somewhat precariously on my lap (though I’ve never dropped it) pondering the many things I am grateful for today. I remain grateful for my friend who had been in a terrible car accident yesterday. This afternoon I spoke to him about his ordeal, hearing details about just how bad the crash had been and that although he was sore and stiff, he was quite grateful to have escaped more serious injuries. On the one hand it was sobering and a bit frightening just to hear about how the accident unfolded (and how the woman who was at fault has lied about her role in causing it), but on the other it was relieving simply to be talking to him and knowing that he’s essentially alright.
I also continue to be grateful for creative inspiration. At times I have thought it a curse to be an idea person–I can scarcely sit down to work on one idea before another has popped up in its place. It reminded me of a quote I’d thought I’d heard somewhere about several good ideas before breakfast. When I went to “the Google” and searched for it, I found what I’d been looking for and it was only mildly applicable. It came from a conversation between Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame and the White Queen:
Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
I’m not sure I’ve practiced believing six impossible things before breakfast, but I often suffer from the production of three to six really good ideas before breakfast. Given that I write in my journal every morning, sometimes the good ideas emerge rather naturally from that daily practice. Now if I can begin to turn one or two of those good ideas into a useful activity or a productive project, that has been time well spent. I am grateful for the creativity that invites me to see possibilities everywhere: a handful of words that form into a song lyric, the sculpture that peers out from a piece of uncarved wood, the garden that takes shape from a barren patch of landscape, the story that follows the words “once there was…”
Sometimes, like this evening, I am too tired to bring the creations to life, but it’s fun to envision them nonetheless. This is why writing daily haikus throughout the month of May was so cool–no matter how tired I was, I could write a haiku–a brief burst of creativity which I also wrote, coincidentally with this blog, at the end of the days. I kept writing a blog a day (the daily haiku was part of a challenge issued to the online creation group I am part of to do something creative every day in May) right on into June and only missed one day since I began writing on May 1. It’s been a lot of fun and has inspired other members of the group to write haikus as well. Some pretty good ones have emerged.
Inspiration and creativity are wonderful things. Even in the midst of drama and trauma, we can be inspired by what’s happening around us. If we are fortunate, our inspirations can find expression through some action or artifact that we are able to produce. I am looking forward to getting back into some of the creative pursuits I used to engage in: songwriting, woodcarving, wire sculpting, fiction writing. In the meantime, I can content myself with a haiku per day, joined in time by another small expression of creativity.
