Some days, weeks, even months can feel monotonous and uninspired. Sometimes it is as if we are walking around in a daze–or, maybe it’s the feeling of having stepped into a deep, dark hole. If our creative senses are tired, often, all we need is something to give us focus, to inspire us, to invoke ideas—and, to help us find inspiration.
I love taking the scenic route to and from work. The beginning and end of the route is the same as other days, but instead of traveling the main highway I turn and traverse several roads that ramble through neighborhoods.
On my drive to and from work, I enjoy taking pictures of interesting buildings, signs, colors, bumper stickers, or anything that catches my attention. This helps me be in the moment and notice things I might otherwise miss. In a previous blog, To and From Work: Part 1, I shared pictures from my drive to work. This blog shares pictures on my way home.
Driving to and from work four days a week is monotonous. I often remind myself to be in the moment and enjoy the ride. Here are ways that help me avoid boredom in the routine.
When I was growing up, we had a decorative brass scale sitting on an end table next to the couch in the living room. The antique scale fascinated me with its intricate details etched into the brass. There were rubber grapes in the round trays on each side. No matter how much I wanted them to, the trays rarely hung evenly. I was always looking for balance. But, of course, unless you put the exact same weight on both sides there was really no way for the trays to balance—especially since these items were not chosen specifically for their weight.
I grew up with the idea that I should always be doing something or accomplishing a task. Life was filled with projects, to do lists, or always working toward a larger goal striving for something better. Recently I have come to decide that merely enjoying the passage of time may be what life is really about. Perhaps all I need to do today is breathe.
I feel driven to create every day. However, I do not always have the ideas, energy, or momentum to follow through with a creative project on a daily basis. I often tell myself I don’t have time or that other things are more important. My inner voice tells me that if I don’t have hours to devote to creativity then I may as well not be creative at all.
Often I get too caught up in work I have to do, work I want to do, and thinking about work I should be doing. Sometimes, to relax and get away from the grind, I simply turn on the TV and enjoy turning off the part of my brain that tells me to work.
I want to be creative, feel confident in who I am, and have inner calm. I want to accept failures, learn from them, and then move ahead. Finding the path to do this and finding inner peace began, for me, with saying, “I am letting go.”
The idea behind the phrase is to take small steps with an eye toward a bigger goal. I like the phrase because simply taking one small step seems easy. The problem usually occurs in actually continuing to take baby steps. I tend to want everything now.
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