Advertisement
Published: December 29th 2006
Edit Blog Post
It’s as though someone is chiseling at your chest. After the work, the strain, the arduous momentum to bring yourself to the present moment of your journey—of all things!—now this:
You’re strapped down, inclined by force, and your eyelids are wrenched open in an undefined spaciousness. Someone, something, is chiseling at you. It’s strikes your rib cage, prying towards your heart. It’s searching for something more, and as it pounds, the sensation is everything but painful. In fact, what holds you down and stretches the eyelids is your own volition. That someone, that thing, digging into you at the cavity of your torso is of your own manifestation. You allow it. You create it. You smile with inexplicable delight.
Come the Hammer & Pick Inspiration: we flourish with it. It is an imaginary force of mental stimulation, but it’s as real as your own skin, and as impermanent as your own bitten nails. It is the drive toward maximum creativity into that which you live for and that which you thrive upon. It is your fuel as much as it’s your neighbor’s, as much as it’s mine.
Whether in ordinary structured life, beginning a new transition
in work or relationship, or whether on the road, traveling farther down an evolving path, inspiration is a must. It’s a quality of re-energization in which everyone seeks and brings upon him or herself. Everyone and every conscious creature require this. We enjoy its intensity as the hammer strikes the pick.
Rising from our strapped beds, we blink and glide upon our weighted feet, unleashing the strength to pursue further, harder, deeper and with more conviction into the possibilities. But then, suddenly as though the turbo switch flicked off, it’s gone. Drained, we find ourselves rummaging our own streets, looking for where we accidentally threw this force out the window.
When we don’t have something in our present possession, when that something slips from our palms like lustrous pearls off our lover’s neck, we realize how important it was, how necessary it was to carry and sustain us among our life’s journey. However, contrarily, if we grasp it too hard, if we claim it as ours and only ours, a firm slap in the face will commence as that possession of pearls inevitably slides back into the hands of its creator. It’s a fine balance, tightrope walking
a relationship in order to fulfill everyone’s needs; and soon, we find we’re ready for more fuel. We’re ready for the hammer and pick to chisel at our hidden treasures.
This necessity is a process called
inspiration. It cannot be picked from the drawer or discovered in the debris of our pockets. Inspiration is almost like a whim in the breeze, like Rodin’s random flake off the stone. So, how do you discover the tools for an excavation of such proportion, digging into the ancient goods of the soul? And first off, how do we create this search party and decide which tools to bring? Further, which map do we use; the stained and tattered one with the large red X glinting our imagination, or the one folded crisply in Curly’s hat, preserved with venerated maintenance?
I’m Breathing & It’s What? I’m traveling. I’m in the middle of nowhere, say the Indian countryside in the heat of the monsoon. I’m soaked, damp, wet, sticking with my own fluids and gritty under a haze-laden sun. Or say I’m in Nepal, trekking alone within the Himalayas. A snowstorm descends upon me and I’m instantly lost, wandering from the
trail by blinding white winds.
This is the present moment. This is the only situation that exists. You’re in it, alone or accompanied, and it’s that which you’re experiencing. Whatever the circumstances might be, you have access to inspiration, you have the key to its discovery.
What do you need? You need nothing. You are it: you are the experience and the experiencer. But as the energy is zapped by the taser of your will, life teeters on its ledge with one side leaning to more life and the other down into an unfathomable abyss. You’re not ready for the latter, so you breathe. This is your inspiration.
The root of the word
inspiration originates from Latin:
inspiration(n-). The noun forms from its verb
inspirare, which has a duel meaning. Firstly, it is that imaginary force of mental stimulation luring toward the potentials of illimitable creativity. Secondly, inspiration is simply the drawing in of the breath. In other words: to inhale and fill the lungs with air.
Stemming from this, the breath is the key to life. With each observed inhale, our awareness is renewed and deepened. We honor the present moment and
whatever situations we find ourselves in. Equipped with breath and awareness, the fundamentals of our search party are created and the tools for continued life and inspiration are in our hands.
Combining the Goods Breath, awareness and the present moment, no matter how tortuous it may feel as it hangs onto the ledges of life; we now have our accomplices and the tools for inspiration. Winding about the terrain of the planet, or pacing the halls of our home and racking our brain for answers—for progression and movement—we find we’re still full of questions as the answers never seem to appear from around the next sofa. We come to believe we’re lost, stuck in the swamp of mind’s banality. Suddenly, we realized we stopped breathing.
There comes a soft ticking to our ears. It’s gentle, peaceable amidst the fray, and not only is it heard within the sense of sound, but it subtly resounds within our body. The blood feels it. Our heart is vibrated by it as the arteries contract and dilate. Within our observance, the awareness returns to the source of this heart’s beat and we’re breathing. Our breath, the awareness. Hello present moment.
No map is good or bad. There isn’t one out there without the capability of leading us to the treasures of inspiration. If you’re reading this now, you have breath—I assure you. Likewise, if you’ve gotten this far through the article, I congratulate you—you have awareness (that’s big in today’s world). Combining these two creates the omnipotence of the present moment, and then combining the three:
Voila! Here is the map: you at the center of your being; breathing, living, recognizing the moment in your life that is directly before you. You’re inspired.
It’s a piece of art. It’s nature and the rolling mountains of your backyard. It’s the smile on your child’s face and the beauty within the pages of your fireside book. Whatever it is, wherever you are, your present moment
is the inspiration, and as you check into the breath and become aware of its life-giving force, the pumping of the heart stimulates the mind. The mind is the pick, the heart is the hammer, and they chisel as one, directing your will into the vastness of creativity that lies within your soul.
Uncovering With Your Chiseling By letting go of
everything else but the present moment, creativity is at your fingertips. You construct a new business idea or lead yourself into a new relationship. The hammer and the pick—they’re yours. And that damp, dank corner of India’s backwaters or the rigidity of survival within the mountains of the Himalayas, are just two of the experiences that force you to stop and touch your inspiration: inhale and live. You’re inspired.
This article was originally written for and posted on Brave New Traveler
Advertisement
Tot: 0.679s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 32; qc: 162; dbt: 0.3292s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb
acharee
non-member comment
great photos
They are one of the most beautiful photos I've ever seen!