being inspired

as is the way of things in cyberspace i chanced upon this post by Owen Shifflett, which led me to Chase Jarvis’s site, and to this response by David du Chemin which i particularly enjoyed.

as a person with an ordinary disposition, things are much simpler really.  i don’t quite understand what the correlation between creativity and inspiration is but what i do know is this: there is this lady in the church choir, she has an unremarkable appearance, she sings the psalms once in awhile, and when she does, it feels like being in the presence of an angel.  every bit in my being stirs to life and focuses on that one thing only – the gift of her voice.  everything else is banished to a place that doesn’t exist in that moment. thereafter i am driven by a need to do something with my self –  to write, to make a book, to take a photograph, to play my instrument, to sing … that is what being inspired does to me.

inspiration galvanises the creative impulse which resides in me into action.  basically it gives desire that kick in the shin to get off its butt.

beauty inspires life;  life inspires us to create beautiful things.  and so it continues this way, for as long as we have been cognisant of the passing of time.

the distinction between imitation and inspiration, to my mind, is that with imitation, the noise of the world still persists,  but when one is inspired, it is quiet place inside of you that wakes up.  it is a thing that needs no props, no conditions, no milestones, no plan.  it is its own beginning and its own end.

what it needs is no more than silence and the space to be free.