Flows of inspiration
As a Druid, I consider inspiration to be sacred, and as an author I find it to be utterly essential. As a consequence, low inspiration periods are really awful, and undermine my whole sense of who I am. Inspiration is not hard to find – the world is full of possibilities. And yet at the same time, too often lately for me, inspiration has been in painfully short supply. The quest for inspiration has been an integral part of my spiritual path for a long time, but to seek effectively, I have to understand what inspires me.
I know what destroys my inspiration: Exhaustion, feelings of futility and failure, lack of input. Inspiration absolutely has to be a flow, or it doesn’t work, and isn’t sustainable. When I get into most trouble is when I am not able to sustain that flow.
Creating has to go somewhere. I’ve sung to the skies before now (I was doing that yesterday) and that’s fine, if the weather is good and I’m feeling upbeat. Much of my flow involves a need for human interaction, though. I need to create things that resonate for other people. I’m not unusual in this regard. The need to be liked, appreciated, loved even, impacts on a lot of creative people and few of us are sufficiently self-absorbed to keep creating without affirmation that someone loves our stuff. Periods of not being able to find an audience, can be hard. I write best when I have a few very specific people I am writing for. People willing and able to be both muse and audience, who actually want words from me, and can cope with the emotional intensity this inevitably involves. That kind of relationship enables me, and it helps if there are a few (Tom does a sterling job) because I range more widely if I’m writing for more than one person.
The person who can be both muse and audience for me, is by definition someone I find innately inspiring. (Tom again!) That can be about their creative work, and often is. However, anyone who lives with passion and integrity, pouring soul into what they do, is likely to inspire me. Brilliant, wonderful, dedicated people do not reliably have time on their hands to be messing about reading my scribblings.
The flow of inspiration depends very much on my human relationships. I am inspired by nature, by landscapes and skies, but these things do not need a poem from me. They need my words dedicated to political activism, and might benefit from how my words impact on other people. I do that as best I can, but they do not need my poetry in any way I have ever been able to discern.
The answer to block, and lost direction and an absence of inspiration, is relationship. Where am I needed? Who can I offer my words to? Who feeds my mind? Can I find people who inspire me but who can also spare the time to interact with me? Sometimes those answers are bound to be negative, and perhaps the only thing to do is quietly weather those fallow periods, and keep looking for places where there might be flow.
