I am faced with a weeny bit crazy and yet exciting challenge most days.
Ideas, inspiration and creativity fleeting in and out of my mind.
Teasing me with their goodness.
Leaving me wanting more.
Rapid sparks of brilliance.
Musings that wander into my mind.
Glorious pearls of wisdom raining over me.
Then all too quickly the sparks die, the lingering thoughts stop and the pearls roll away.
I panic, it feels as if I am trying to catch the sun before it goes behind a cloud.
The Sun by Karen Main
You see the sparks come when I have nothing to catch them with.
My ideas come when I am least prepared to use them.
They don’t always come when I sit down pen poised, a crisp fresh page of my notebook waiting.
They don’t always come when I have the house to myself, the laptop open and a fresh pot of tea brewed.
My creative juice does not flow so freely on demand.
This is a problem for the organiser, the scheduler within me.
These are just some of the challenging places I get hit with mind blowing, exhilarating, fist pumping creativity, inspiration and ideas.
In my gym class
In the middle of the night
While cooking dinner
While driving
In the shower
At a concert
How do I capture the sparks before they fades, before I forget, before they are lost forever.
Notepads and pencils everywhere, kitchen bench, bathroom drawer, in the car, in the handbag.
Crayons to write on the glass shower screen (you will need windex to get it off later)
I call in the troops, “QUICK KIDS WRITE THIS DOWN FOR MUMMY!!”
I channel my inner Yogi and repeat the ideas over and over like a chant until I can write them down
I make lots and lots of voice memos on my phone
I type in the Notes App in my phone
Wow, Is this what is really going on?
Then the greatest realisation yet, the more ideas I have, the more inspired I become.
My creativity is not going to run out.
Image Karen Main
So now I catch the sparks I can, bask in the sun while it is out and trust that there is so much more brightness to come.
I will never run out of ideas.
When do your ideas come and how do you catch them?
I keep track of mine in Idea Matrix on my phone and iPad! I have less anxiety if I can get the idea “out” and know I have access to it later. Also my list of fleeting ideas is a great source of inspiration. 🙂
Tressie Idea Matrix I am looking into this. It is my anxiety that has me crazy worried I will miss an idea too and yet I will never run out.
It’s like you’re inside my head!!! I have these exact same feelings & that quote from Maya Angelou is one of my favourites.
My notes app on my phone is probably my most used!
It’s the visual ideas I have that don’t translate well into words I have a problem capturing.
Belle your comments made my heart sing, thank you for letting me know my words rang so true for you
Hahaha! This happens to me all the time! Yesterday I was in the car when an idea popped into my head. I repeated it out loud, like a mantra, until I got to my destination and could write it down. I’m sure other drivers just thought I was singing along with the radio!