Oh, inspiration!

How tricky she can be.

A fickle, yet warm and forgiving one. Addictive upon the taste and still almost always fleeting. And unsuspecting, upon acquaintance at the very least. The good kinds. The real deal. The ass kicking sort.

So how does one go about such ordeals? Because the desire to be inspired comes quite naturally. The want to want more. Is there such a way as to formulate what it takes to find it? Can it be predicted? Incited? Or are we simply at the mercy of happenstance? Waiting for a chance for that thing that may never come?

And wouldn’t it be just swell if I could tell you? If by some clandestine clairvoyance, I could hold out the answers for myself and any others willing to take a gander? Or maybe make it into a nice YouTube video channel. The Thirty Day Challenge to Philosophical Enlightenment. Before and after pictures and the whole lot. Inspired testimonials of those who could turn life around. Make the ugly change to shades of lovely.

But as swell as that might seem, it is just not so. This is not a way to get better abs. And it is certainly not something done in a convenient amount of time. I dare say, it may be one of those things that is never fully fulfilled. It may very well be a constant chase, always just out of reach. Perhaps once in a while you can touch the hem, but to ever be able to hold onto it may always be some sort of impossible.

Makes it all seem futile, doesn’t it?

Apologies. That is the opposite of the intended purpose. But that doesn’t mean we cannot turn this around. And you are in luck, as it just so happens that your humble narrator has found himself with a bit of the old unpredictable inspired, as of late.

So, let’s see what can be done to put some hope in the hopeless.

I’ll take a gamble and guess that even if at this very moment you feel nothing but destitute and depressed, you are at least a tad familiar with inspiration. You’ve met, even if you cannot recall the meeting all that well. A morning, or series of mornings, where the day was greeted welcome with excitement. A new day was a new adventure. And what causes such occurrence can often vary. Love, success, friendship and the sort. Maybe you’ve had a bit of them all. Nothing wrong with that.

But I’ll gamble again and say that though wonderful it was, such a feeling was not permanent. Not totally. And though I hope that you haven’t lived in such a way constantly, misery and woe is no stranger to the human soul. And it often cares not for the intentions of us shaved apes. Existence can and will kick you while you’re down. Sometimes brutally.

And there it goes not getting positive again. I swear, we’ll get there. But reality is real enough for it to affect the lives of ourselves and all the other selves around us. So, it may be best to not ignore that facts that the world is not sunshine and roses.

Yet, the sun does shine.

And because of it, roses do grow.

And we humans have a true knack for finding the beauty around us. Hell, we can even make it up. Replace what is around with something more poetic. Get it so even pain can feed the soul. Fictitious truths in all forms of consumption. Even if it goes no further than the inside of one of our skulls. You may not be able to accomplish it, so to speak, but you can work at inspiration. Even if that work is just allowing openness towards possibility.

And I claim no ease in such feats. My own failures at finding emotion inspired are plenty and apparent when I look back to the timeline I have thus left behind. And without guilt or hypocrisy, the only thing I can say for sure is that if you are willing to work, you can make a lot out of little. Entire lives have been lived and lived well with little more than a single moment to motivate grand labors. Some of the greatest things to happen in human history were done in attempting, and failing, to reach some sort of divine moment.

Maybe that is enough. A life well lived is not about accomplishment, but in effort.

For in this moment, I can only say a few things for sure. One of which is this- if you think you’ve got it, chase it. You could be wrong. Hell, you probably are. But a chance is worth a try. I know, I know, it’s terrifying. Putting yourself out there to do anything in this world. But a closed heart and mind won’t make the world any warmer. It won’t make your life any bolder.

But if you go for it, whatever impossible grandness it might be, it’s likely that even your failure shall be spectacular.

So, give it your best. Because we all shit our pants when we die anyway. No point in saving inspiration for then.