Oh my gosh I haven’t posted in weeks!

Now that that’s out of the way, I can honestly say I haven’t known what to write about.

How about creativity? I’ve been thinking about inspiration a lot. And inspiration fuels creativity.

But I guess I don’t need to explain creativity. Inspiration, though, is a lost thing in a lot of us.

I actually looked it up for another project I was working on. Inspiration used to be, and still is, defined as a Divine influence, upon the soul or spirit. (I’ve shortened it, as you probably can tell.) Imparted by the Holy Spirit, according to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. Also, to inspire means to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence.

In short, when you want or just need to do something, but in a really good way; then you’ve been inspired. It’s the urge to create, or to be better at something.

What I love about a good book or movie is how much it makes me want to live life better. The world doesn’t seem flat, insipid, dark, lonely, or meaningless anymore. This is different from feeling pumped after an action flick, or in awe after an inspirational story. I’ve never found inspirational stories, sold on that premise, to actually inspire me to do anything. It’s the inspirational stories I didn’t expect that do the most. Take my old time favorites The Hiding Place, The Secret Garden, The Enchanted April, Frozen, and here’s a new one, an old-ish movie called The Miracle Worker. This is the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. This movie did not inspire me to overcome obstacles, or to persevere, in fact I’m not sure I took away the “message” at all, but I decided after viewing it to learn to fingerspell. Then I learned sign language, I now speak it fairly well and have tried to teach it to other people with some success. People have told me they think it’s beautiful to watch. If it is, that’s an accident on my part, usually; but I learned something good and I enjoyed it, all because of an inspiring story.

Inspiration is marked by action. Not speech. A speech can be inspired, but that takes refining and effort, not like babbling. No one ever heard inspired babbling.

Honestly, why are people so flippant nowadays? We don’t even try to understand great art, or great literature. We make fun of them instead. I used to be that way. Blame whatever you wish for this attitude we’ve all adopted, but I suggest we seriously ask ourselves what we’re passionate about. PDS is Passion Deficiency Syndrome. It’s kind of a churchy term, I’ll grant you, but I notice it’s not just the church, it’s everyone. Well almost everyone. We’ve all gotten tired of the sameness of places. Like a prison. If I try to be witty, I might say I’m tired of people talking or singing about being individuals, and I wish they’d just be individuals instead. Apparently, being unique is important to the majority of Millenials, (if I can believe the part of the article I read about it,) but I don’t really see it, you know. I don’t mean just looking different. I mean, deep down, being different.

I blame a lack of inspiration for the lack of individuality. I think people are disconnected from God, or from the aspects of Him that nourish our soul. Beauty and Greatness, where will we find them? The answer is quite simple, you have to look. It won’t be obvious, but it won’t hide itself either. Before inspiration comes good influence. And that is up to us, Sometimes we can’t choose our environment, but we can always choose what part of it we focus on and allow to shape us. Someone once said Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. I don’t know if that is accurate, but the principle of it is.

I don’t mean in the least that inspiration can be forced. You will never be able to force yourself to enjoy life or to want it, or to want to be creative or a better person. I have tried, it’s impossible. But things come to us that present these things as offers. We can surrender to it, or resist it. But looking for it is a good step toward attaining it.

By the by, another definition of inspire is to breath into.

I hope this made some sense, because it’s a difficult thing to explain, in fact I really can’t. So I can only hope my words touched on your own experiences. Until next time–Natasha