Often we hear, “I need inspiration,” or, “I’m waiting for the muse.”  It’s as if we wait long enough it will come to us. Creativity is not a passive endeavor.  Just around us, perhaps only a few steps away, there is always something that can inspire us.  If we look, it will be there, waiting for us, like it always has.  We need to take that first step.

I find inspiration in a beautiful photograph or painting, in the lines of a poem, or the words of a great story.  I find it by walking outdoors to capture the sunrise or sunset or a flower in bloom, or to hear the rustling of deer in the forest.  It’s also present in the innocent faces of laughing children, or the wisdom imbedded in the wrinkles of an elder.  It is evident in remarkable deeds of kindness by one human being toward another. If we stop just long enough to see it, inspiration will be there, waiting…patiently…for our embrace.