The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides

I know now that when I have an agenda for a picture, a predetermined idea how it should turn out, it never works. It remains stillborn, lifeless. But if I’m really paying attention, really aware, I sometimes hear a whispering voice pointing me in the right direction. And if I give in to it, as an act of faith, it leads me somewhere unexpected, not where I intended, but somewhere intensely alive, glorious—and the result is independent of me, with a life force of its own.

This is a very personal passage for me ― this is very much my voice speaking through Alicia. I’m not a painter, so I transposed what it feels like for me as a writer. The more I meditate and operate in a state of awareness when I write, the more likely I will catch that whispering voice of inspiration pointing me in the right direction. Unless you are very quiet and still, it’s often easy to miss it.