Surviving the Hard Times

Where do we get inspiration? I'm always inspired by a great craft tutorial that I'm sure I'm going to make. I even get so far as buying the materials. Then life happens and I have to put things aside. Just this week, I've bought fabric and cut out a skirt for my daughter. Here it lies beside me, a sad testament to life's ability to keep me from creating. Yesterday, I spent a bit of time out in the cold weather seeing to a neighbor's broken pipes. No, I didn't fix them. Just used the phone to track them down, call the water company, rouse the troops to shut off the water. Now, I'm behind on the cleaning and decorating for the party. It was inspiring to help a neighbor. Helping feels good.

When I started writing this, I thought I was going to write about how music is inspiring. But maybe my real topic is how helping people is inspiring. Maybe the topic is both things. I've always wanted to write a story about a neighborhood or cluster of houses band together in really, really hard times. Maybe this is the start of that story. I just can't seem to get a plot going. So maybe it's not the story for me, yet.

Today, I'm having trouble with this topic in my writing exercises. I read one blog that spoke of thinking "that could be a great story" during the day while listening to friends, the news, etc. It does seem at times that the brain works better when the hands are busy at mundane tasks. So I think I'll go work on the decorating. If inspiration hits, I'll come back and write some more.