I was once catching up with an old friend who had become an artist. He was in the middle of a big project and had fallen in a rut, that had lasted for several months. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that what basically had happened was that he had lost his muse and he was trying to find it again.
Lost his muse... What is a muse? And how does one lose it? More importantly how does one find it again?
According to Webster,
"Muse" verb;
to be lost in thought noun; (Rooted in Greek and Roman Mythology)
a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. Each person is an artist of sorts, regardless of how creative one happens to be. Some are just more obvious about it, or I should say more artistically creative than the rest of us. Accountants could be said to be artists with numbers, just as a roofer could be considered an artist with a hammer. So don't sell yourself short. Whether we're artists or not, we all need and seek inspiration.
We all have days where we 'lose our muse' or as I'm seeing it, need to find something that preoccupies our mind in a good way. We are looking for that something or someone that will inspire us to do even better. No one can find for you. You have to find for yourself.
Recently, I've been wonderfully surprised by interesting conduits for inspirations. Why does it take us so long to open our eyes and see all that God has put around us? If this day finds you lacking in 'muse', here are few things that I have found to inspire me.
People who are starting over - no matter how big or small
The sun glistening on the morning dew
Chimney smoke
The 19 yr old, who is majoring in music with her upright bass
The stillness in a fog
The Japanese girl who is seeing God for the first time and told me, "God is beautiful."
The uninhibited laughter and play of children
When random strangers break through social barriers to give another stranger a compliment
Answered prayer
Open your eyes and see...
~
Psalm 51:6
"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart."
Someone recently told me that rearranging books is very therapeutic. I wonder at this logic, since it seems to take me forever to move my books. Once I have them a certain way, I leave them like that... for years! The more I know about the authors, the more fun I have puting them on the shelf. Dickens goes next to Hawthorne - But I think that they would fight so I might let alphebatizing slide and let Hemingway mediate. Can you imaging a fight between Dickens and Hawthorne being refereed by Hemingway? Ridiculous. Hemingway would have them wrestling before a bell could toll. Whitman would probably have to come in and calm everyone down by talking about leaves and grass. Or I could just let Louisa May Alcott distract everyone with her tales of long, fatal love chases. (Thats why I keep the female authors on a seperate shelf - Too racey and distracting for the likes of the Old Man at sea and too improprietous at the House of Seven Gables.) However, I keep Grace Livingston Hill with the ladies, because the men would make fun of her for writing the same book with different settings 32 times. They all agree upon my 'special' collection having a shelf of their own; Lewis, MacDonald, Chesterton, and Sheldon - to name a few.
DECEMBER 1st
