Waiting for Inspiration

I don't know if it's been writer's block or if it is just a symptom of being busy (read distracted), but when I discovered about a month ago that it had been a month since I last posted I started to panic.  And in typical fashion, my anxiety about having no fresh ideas to post made me feel even more blocked.

Funny what a cycle of counterproductivity that is.

Looking for inspiration I thought about reading.  I read a few things and got an idea or two, but then forgot to write them down - and they were gone.  Reading others blogs I felt inspired by their writings, but then felt like a thief writing on the same topics.

Meeting with friends, weeding my long overgrown garden, working my way through long-overdue piles of papers, making lists, and cleaning bathrooms....all had their place on my to-do list, each getting checked off while I waited for inspiration.

And then "Revelation".  I had been having a conversation with one of my now grown children about getting some things done around the house, to which strains of "but I don't feel like it" could be heard in response.  My standard answer to "I don't feel like it" has always been - "well, that's irrelevant.  Don't ask yourself if you want to do it.  Just do."  Starting is, as they say, half the battle.

Last night I took another passing glance at the hall closets and thought, "I'll just see if some of this extra clutter fits in one of the new storage bins I bought..." and it led to a couple of hours of sorting, rearranging, wiping down, dusting off, and then - a closet as a thing of beauty.  The first step, and the rest followed suit.

I'm always glad after the fact that I got the things done that just needed doing.  But before-hand it wasn't really a "can't-wait-to-do-that"kind of excitement brewing.

One of the things we can pass on to our children is that lesson in maturity.  Doing what needs to be done regardless of our feelings about it.  Head over heart.  Or perhaps sometimes auto-pilot over whim?  And before you know it, what needs to be done is done, and our feelings about the event morph into sweet satisfaction.

And don't you know, another blog is written, by just starting :)