A Soulful Journey

Bella Chagall came to her future husband’s home one day when they were just engaged.   Bella brought a bouquet of flowers. “Stay where you are.   Don’t move,” Marc said, as he went to search for a canvas and paint. In a couple of hours he had created his masterpiece, “The Birthday.” Moral?   When inspiration strikes, get everything else out of the way and let it work its joy through you.

When inspiration strikes you must rush to capture it or else it will flee.  Thomas once remarked that the writing of  “the ‘Ballad of the Long Legged Bait’ had been carrying a huge armful of words to a table he thought was upstairs and wondering if he could reach it in time or if it would still be there.”   Sutherland, Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes

Many times we look for inspiration from obvious or unobvious sources.  We seek indications of truth and meaning in our world.  But where do we look?  How do we find it?  It may depend on where the inner voices tells us to look: "...the hunter is always directed outward toward the animal.  His life depends on the relationship to the animals.  His mythology is outward turned.  But the planting mythology, which has to do with the cultivation of the plant, the planting of the seed, the death of the seed...and the coming of the new plant, is more inward turned.  With the hunters, the animals inspired the mythology. When a man wanted to gain power and knowledge, he would go not the forest and fast and pray, and an animal would come and teach him. With the planters, the plant world is the teacher.  The plant world is identical in its life sequences with the life of man....there's an inward relationship there."   J oseph Campbell The Power ...