Inspiration

"I'm inspired...and I'm a bean counter."

Shadow is a gifted poet who had an inspiring post on her "1 door away from heaven" blog yesterday. Click here to read her poem, "Time." The second stanza challenged me to not be afraid to take a risk every day. What a scary thought... But it was an "Aha!" moment for me. I decided to go for it and keep a journal about it. Now, down to the business of deciding the first risk I'm willing to take.

Another gifted poet is Fireblossom, of the Word Garden blog. I apprehensively decided to take the risk of sending her an email describing my thoughts about a Shakespearean sonnet. I took a deep breath before I hit "send" because I was afraid she would think I'm a quacker. She wrote back saying it was one of her favorites and shared her thoughts. Well, roll me in chocolate and call me sweetie! You mean there are peeps out there, with whom I can share my feelings about poetry, who won't think I am a pickled beet? What an amazing concept. I wrote Fireblossom back and asked her if she would like to do the same for an allegorical poem, and she said "Yes." There is no way I would have taken risk No. 1, if it had not been for Shadow's inspirational prompt in her poem.

It seems that taking one risk, can lead to another. I excitedly thought about what Risk No. 2 could be. I have been thinking that I would like to try watercolor painting. Why not? I have zillions of photos I've taken this spring - one in particular comes to mind. It is a saguaro and an ocotillo growing side-by-side. When I look at it, I think they look like sisters. The problem is an unsightly background. My idea is to create a watercolor based on the photo, minus all of the unwanted noise. Although I risk failing miserably, I'm going to give it a spirited go.

Meanwhile, Sunny, my middle son, found a camcorder on his college campus that he wanted to keep badly. That's right on par with finding a money clip with cash in it, in my mind's eye. Sunny turned it into the campus police. The cop said, "Nobody would turn this in. This owner is going to think it's gone forever." Sunny's girlfriend, Sarah, said she would have done the same thing. Sunny's friend, Willy, said he would have done the same thing for a different reason. Willy said that every time he used it, he would have felt guilty. Later, Willy teased Sunny and said he should have sold it on E-Bay. Sunny told me he was setting a moral trend for his life - riding the high horse.

Now that's inspiring.