Monday 9 November 2015

Things that inspire and moments that take my breath away

Have you ever thought about the two phrases? Inspire means to breathe in. Something that takes my breath away is breathing out. Breathing is what keeps us alive and so being inspired and witnessing breathtaking moments is what keeps us spiritually alive.
So what inspires me and takes my breath away? Here are a few examples:
  • Sunrise
  • Sunset
  • Bonfire
  • Wood burning in a fireplace
  • Walk along a sandy beach
  • Planting seeds in a garden
  • Listening to a live concert 
  •  
So, what inspires you?

Inspiration

A lot of my inspiration comes from my photography or from scenes that I would have liked to photograph if I had a camera handy at the time.
I don't always write about what is in the photograph, but when I look at a beautiful scene, my mind stops yammering and something happens which goes beyond thinking. I access my creative self and then just start typing away.

Writing life - procrastination

As I wait for my new laptop to arrive today, I wonder how soon I will start writing again. For real that is. To send away and hopefully be published. I haven't written anything for at least the past 18 months. My mind just hasn't been up to it.

I left my old laptop on my boat in Greece thinking I would be right back. But this didn't happen and it is now ruined having spent two winters on a damp boat. 
Meanwhile, I have been borrowing my son's IPad and my daughter-in-law's desk top Mac as well as using paper note books to jot things down, and the odd library computer to update my sailing blog. 
But as soon as the new laptop arrives, I will have no more excuses to procrastinate, which means actually finishing something and sending it away to get published.

This past summer, I found a great way of getting boat maintenance done. When I arrived back in Greece, my sailboat Eidos had been neglected for a year and a half while I was ill, and I had a long "to do" list. At first it all seemed to be overwhelming, especially since I was still recovering from recent treatment, but if I ever wanted to get out of the boat yard, I needed to get going. I hired a young woman for two days to help me with the worst of the cleaning and then started keeping a log of all the jobs that I actually completed. this Turned out to be the key to staying motivated.
Every morning, I decided on one job that needed doing, even if it was only unpacking my summer clothes and putting away the winter ones. Then I wrote it down in the log. Very soon, I noticed that I was actually looking forward to checking off the items on my "to do list" and adding them to the log and I often completed several jobs before breakfast. My only rule was to finish at least one job and I could choose which one depending on my mood. 
And so now as I am preparing to return to my writing life after having spent five years publishing a magazine (notice the gap in the dates on this blog), I think I will use the same method to get me going each day.