MarilynYocum.com

WHY IS IT that the best writing ideas always hit when there is no time to pursue them?

and by ‘best’ I don’t mean
that which has potential to go viral,
but the thing about which
you realize
you have something to say
that needs to be said somewhere
and your experience has given you insight
and you have interest in the subject
and you have access to resources
and that you would find it fulfilling (albeit challenging)
to do the work?

WHY do ideas come when there’s no time to strike while the passion is hot?

Is it because the mind more open
when it’s easy to commit with words,
to say “THAT’s what I ought to write about!”
when certainly nobody will be expecting you
to do it, not at this time?

Or does the idea come at that time
because of that old saw
about busy people -
If you want something done, ask a busy person -
suggesting a body in motion
tends to stay in motion
and so it’s the heat of current activity
that’s generating creative sparks,
inviting inspiration,
asking to be used to the fullest?
Is that why the ideas popcorn out?

And one teeters dangerously close
to falling into “if only” mode?
IF ONLY I wasn’t  . . .
I could do it.
Thereby we are rendered deaf
quite often.

* * *

A YEAR I’VE BEEN LOOKING for light
a lamp actually,
a lamp
just so high
just so wide
casting light in just such a way
giving me a certain feeling
when I see it,
a feeling I can’t describe
but I’ll know it when it hits.

I searched
then gave up,
called away by the need to tend to people.
Important, that.

And then just last week
in the middle of tending to tasks people,
running errands to fill needs,
I exit a shop,
laden down, hands full, arms full.

A lamp
across the street
in the window of a consignment shop
catches my eye,
calls to me.

Now?
But I’m not thinking about that now.
I’m not worrying about a lamp for that window now.
I have people needing this and that
and appointments to be here and there
and only a sliver of time today
and my arms are full.

Doesn’t God know
that finding a lamp
is not on my day’s agenda?

But, ah, I am not Zechariah,
failing to recognize an answer coming,
the very thing.

Why is it the best things come
not when we are free
but when we are deeply engaged
and the mere suggestion
that we consider it
makes us roll our eyes?

Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning
- Luke 12:35

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