Here's a thought

Have you ever noticed yourself talking in your head, having a thoughtful conversation with yourself about an incident you’ve just witnessed or an experience you’ve had at that very moment? Once you turn your head the other way, these thoughts would slip away unless you grab a pen and write them down at that very instance.

Those of us who don’t grab them as they come and store them somewhere, in a journal, a book or even a letter, lose out! This is how the most beautiful poetic verses are born. Unlike everybody else, poets, writers, musicians record every single thought that passes through.

This reminded me of a stimulating TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert about the genius out there that sends thoughts our way from the horizon.

In her talk, she told an inspiring story about where the Poet Ruth Stone gets her inspiration. The Poet told her “when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she’d be out working in the field and would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. It was like a thunderous train of air and it would come barreling down at her over the landscape. When she felt it coming she knew she had to run like hell to the house and she’d be chased by this poem. She had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her she could collect it and grab it on the page. And other times she wouldn’t be fast enough, so she could be running and running and wouldn’t get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and it would continue on across the landscape looking for another poet.

But then she said there were moments when she’d almost miss it so she would be running into the house looking for a paper and the poem passes through her and she grabs a pencil just as it’s going through her and she would reach out with her other hand and catch the poem by its tail and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards from the last word to the first.”

This was one of the most amazing descriptions I have ever heard! As Gilbert says, ideas could come through you from sources you cannot identify. And I bet this happens to each and every one of you.

I’m not saying we can all be poets or creative writers, but we can at least listen and try to grab these thoughts sent to us by our genius once in a while.

That’s what this blog is about. It will be my own attempt to grab these thoughts as they come before they go chasing after somebody else!