Sunday Scribblings: Inspiration

Don't ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes YOU come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

When I feel truly inspired, I feel alive INSIDE. That feeling on the inside spreads out from me and in to the world around me. Being inspired makes me feel beautiful, funny, grateful, confident and energized.

Until my ex-husband moved out in 2004, I lived for nearly 12 years feeling absolutely no sense of inspiration. I was a ripe piece of fruit literally dying on the vine. I know what it felt like then to feel completely void and useless on the inside. As soon as I found myself on my own and alone for the first time in 12 years, amazing things started to change my world ever-so-slowly. Inspiration began to fill me up on the inside. Where once I hardly created anything, I now create beautiful things daily. I actually look at the world around me in such a different way than ever before. When I began to really look at myself on the inside and stop asking why the world around me wasn't giving me the joy I craved, that's when creativity and inspiration began to flow like a river through me. God has given me talent and inter beauty that was being shut down for far too long.

Yes, I do have some frustrating days where there seems to be no inspiration. We all have these days. For me, when I feel this way, I take a step back and ask myself what it is that I'm feeling on the inside. Usually, I'm stressed or overwhelmed about something ongoing in my life. Then I realize that I'm losing that focus of the gifts I have on the inside. I'm letting the pressures of the outside world take over. What is the result: I lose my inspiration. I make a choice for peace and joy. I get out my camera and take a drive on a back road out in the country. I sit and play with my art supplies. I go for a nature walk. I sit with a cup of coffee or favorite herbal tea and daydream. I flip through some of my favorite magazines or go to a beautiful fabric or yarn store. Sometimes, I dig through my kitchen and look at all the different colors and textures of my food. Nature, color, books, old paper and just about anything has the ability to inspire me. Every day, I write in a journal and take some time to look at every thing around me. No pressure; just observation.

For me inspiration begins inside of me. When I honor myself and pay attention to where my emotions are at, every thing on the outside falls in to place.