Feeling Inspired

The Grass and the Stars.

Are you making work because you’re inspired, or are you making work to become inspired?

I usually don’t start these writings off with a question, though, since I have been making a lot of pots these last few weeks, I was thinking about what might inspire us to action or waiting. I have found that waiting can take quite a long time and in that time I could have been doing something. We do not get time back once it is spent, and the best time to do anything was yesterday, and the next best time is right now.

You do not need to be inspired to start creating. I do not need to be inspired to go to work at the big paper factory and make paper towels. I drive there almost automatically when I am scheduled and be sure to show up on time. If we can do those daily life activities without feeling inspired by others, then we should show up for ourselves all the more. No one cares about you more than you and maybe a few others. So you owe it to yourself. This does not mean that you should not take breaks and burn yourself out, though, for all that is holy, do not wait to be inspired to start.

Making work to be inspired means you are already doing something because you showed up. Writers do not simply show up with a full novel already written with no edits, so it is important to simply start something when you schedule yourself to do so and simply start. As you work and solve problems, you might find a few things that are interesting and then move on to try new things and to learn more about yourself and the world around you through the materials and expression. The help comes the very moment we take part in the very first action of creating.

So I came here and was not inspired at all to do so, though I did learn something doing a little research for this writing. In short, there will be growing pains as we show up and practice, as the universe may reach out to whip us into shape as we practice and get better at what we might do to bring about the change we seek to make. As we start each day, we should ask: Who is the work for? And what change do I seek to make?

Rabbi Simon said: There is not a single blade of grass that does not have a constellation in the firmament that strikes it and says to it: ‘Grow.’ -Bereshit Rabbah 10.6

If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have started throwing before the coffee even kicked in, before my brain had time to come up with reasons not to. The inspiration came later, like it always does, once my hands were already in the clay.

Things I am grateful for: The factory shifts that taught me to show up without inspiration. The Rabbi Simon quote that reminds me every blade of grass has something telling it to grow.

Days remaining if I live to 86: 12,760

What are you waiting to feel inspired about that you could just start doing right now?

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