Inspiration is like a feral cat.
It stalks around in the shadows.
You never know when it will grace you with its presence.
When you’re trying to catch it,
inspiration slithers away.
But when you give up the chase,
inspiration comes and finds you
when you least expect it to.
It’s a waiting game.
An idea starts to form in the mind,
often faint and undefined,
but then grows in clarity.
What serves as the muse remains a mystery.
Tiny paws land lightly on the mind’s fence.
There is a tabby cat that graces our garden. I know she’s a she because my granddaughter heard her kittens and rushed into the house shouting, “Grandma, there’s kittens in your garden!”
“What?” I answered back quite perplexed.
“Come and see,” she coaxed.
We went outside and she pointed to something moving behind the roses. Yep, there were three kittens trotting along playfully without a care in the world.
The tabby cat had only annoyed me until the kitten discovery. She’d repeatedly triggered our ring camera at around 2:00 am every morning while walking across the patio. I saw little purpose for her unexplained visits except, perhaps, to ward off unwanted rodents.
But three little kittens that delighted my granddaughter…well, she’d just earned her right to be there, in my mind.
Inspiration is like this tabby cat. It doesn’t live in our homes or gardens. We have no rights to its unexplained visits. It is a gift from our Creator, plainly and simply.
If we chase inspiration to market her wares, we’d might as well chase tabby cats in the night. Both are illusive: too fast, too fleeting, too unpredictable.
It’s a waiting game. You pray for ideas to grace, those unexpected night visits or sleuth garden stalkings during the day, but then you wait.
I’m trying to get this right; to live for the Creator instead of chasing the illusive, feral cat of inspiration. And just when I think the mental fences will drive me to madness, inspiration parades across the top, and I feel creative once again.
JoDee Luna Art 