We each have our own sources of inspiration — thank goodness! We don’t need to rely on any one person, place, or thing to be inspired.

Each of us is responsible for being aware of our “AHA” moments, and sometimes backtracking to discover their origins.

Sometimes the genesis is clear. We’ve seen an incredibly beautiful sunset or vista and want to capture the way it touched our heart.

Sometimes the source is obscure. Inspiration is a flash of insight, out of the blue.

We can stoke our inspiration by following our heartfelt curiosity.

Being curious is different from being “nosy” or “niele” (Hawaiian word for “nosy”). When curiosity tickles us, it sends us on a journey of discovery.

I’ve been on such a journey the past few months — one I wasn’t fully aware of until inspiration for my newest painting struck.

Finally! Yippee! It’s felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R since I’ve felt this level of inspiration. I’ve missed the feeling of eager anticipation that sometimes precludes the start of a new painting.

Yes, every new painting starts with an idea or inspiration.

Sometimes my inspiration is a piece of coral, or a stone, or a flower — something that catches my eye. These can be great fun to sketch, draw, or paint.

The level of inspiration I received last week is connected to the books I’ve been reading and the questions I’ve been asking in my journal.

This kind of inspiration is a product of my heart working with my brain to give me a visual representation of what I’m learning.

This intensity of inspiration doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. I’m hoping that now that I'm more aware of the process, I’ll be able to entice deep inspiration to happen more often.

STEPS TO ENCOURAGE A TRULY INSPIRED, CREATIVE LIFE

1. Make more drawings of the things catching your attention. This can mean making more starts and fewer finished pieces. It can mean making many smaller drawings or paintings.

2. Focus more on what is wanted rather than on the lack of what is wanted. Be more aware of the things that inspire us and nurture the pursuit of them — and be less aware of missing the inspired feeling. (We find what we seek!)

3. Continue to read books that inspire. Recent reads include a novel, “The Luster of Lost Things” by Sophie Chen Keller and “Into the Magic Shop” by James R. Doty, MD.

4. Listen to podcasts that inspire: “On Being”, “New Dimensions”, “Hidden Brain”, “Ted Talks”, “Abraham-Hicks”.

5. Pay attention to the questions we’re asking and look for the sparks that often launch inspirational “AHA Moments”.

6. Keep our hearts and minds open to the possibilities swirling around us —

Trust in Your Possibilities.

By taking inspired action, I began the creation of this painting — which is almost (but not quite) complete.

If this feels like a formula you’d like to follow, please do! I can’t promise it’ll work for you, but it might. I definitely feel more inspired when I remember to follow these steps!

If you have another way to encourage inspiration into you're your life, please share it with me.

I am forever grateful to my best friend in college. Carol taught me to keep a journal. I’d never done it before and it seemed like a really cool thing to do.

Keeping a journal started out unevenly. I’d keep it for a few days a week and then drop it for a few days or weeks.

Eventually, I realized that when I kept it up, I felt better. Keeping a journal has helped me maintain a more balanced outlook on life and has kept me focused on my goals.

I’ve used several different kinds of journals over the years. The most important criteria for me is that they be blank. No lines please! This allows me to have space to sketch in them as well as write.

Ten years ago, I learned a valuable add-on tool to keeping a journal from coach Christine Kane — that of doing a Weekly Summit.

In addition to writing in my journal six to seven days a week (three pages minimum per Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way”), I take 15-20 minutes once a week to annotate the previous week.

I record my “Ta-Dah’s” (accomplishments), my “Not-Done’s”, my “AHA’s”, and my “To-Do’s” for the week ahead.

Jotting down my “AHA’s” is by far my favorite part.

You’d think that the fact that I’ve had “AHA’s” every week would be excitement enough that I’d remember them. Alas, no, they’re easily lost in the week’s haste to move on.

Lately, I’ve started to note the date of my “AHA” in case I want to revisit that date in my journal. Maybe there’s more there to be mined.

Please try these tools. They aren’t technically magical, and the results can be magical!

Life goes by SO quickly.

Reviewing my weeks helps me to become a slightly better person, artist, human being, one-little-word-at-a-time.

This morning I received an even better idea, one I haven’t quite fleshed out yet. I will keep an “Imagination or Vision Journal”. It will hold all my wishes, hopes, and dreams.

This feels WAY more fun than my regular journal.
And I suspect both are important to keep.

Do you have any rituals to help you “keep yourself on track”? If so, please share them with me!

I believe in life-long learning and in living a good, long life! Together we can keep this party going and headed toward better and better lives for all of u

When I was fresh out of college, a man I worked with scrawled a poem on a cocktail napkin and left it for me to find. It read:

Angels are looking
For new skies to fly in
A virgin space for wingspread
It is your head.
God waits to be born.

I imagined myself in love with this man whose name I can’t quite recall. Fortunately, it was unrequited; he had issues I didn’t know how to handle.

Every once in a while the poem pops into my head and I smile. I still love it and all of the possibilities it represents.

Each day dawns ripe with possibility, which ones will we grasp? Which call will we answer? What new way of living, of seeing the world will we embrace?

Or will we continue down the same habitual path we're currently walking?

It may not always seem as though we have options. We have tried and true ways of doing things — and these ways work.

We can find new ways of looking at the world, new eyes through which to see it — if we try.

Habits streamline life and help us take care of business in a timely manner. Yet taken to the extreme, they can become ruts, making escape difficult.

When redundancy becomes a way of life, we’re in the “dead zone”.

Our souls crave the mystery of the unknown. That’s where our creative spirit thrives.

Challenges and obstacles are opportunities for growth. The balance beam of a life worth living spans the gap between routine and adventure.

Let's take an inventory of our habits. Which habits serve us and which ones are keeping us a bit too safe?

Are your habits moving you closer to the life you want to live or not? You get to decide!

“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.” ~ Dr. Maxwell Maltz

Each week I write a weekly summit. I list my “Ta-Dahs” (accomplishments), my “things not done”, my AHAs, and things to do in the week ahead.

The ribbons denote my special accomplishments

To further keep myself focused, I record my deeds each day — it’s too easy to forget that I’ve done much of anything unless I record it.

Still, something’s missing. I can tell by the empty feeling that remains.

Purpose! The “why I’m doing or not doing something” matters. I long for a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Yes, this truly IS a “first world issue”. My basic needs are met. I have food, water, fresh air, and shelter. I reach for meaning.

I seek happy accidents too.

"Don't Fence Me In" has been languishing in my flat files for a while — I finally finished it.

I chase the magic of wonder and discovery with each brush stroke.

Maybe that’s why I allow my paintings to linger rather than rushing to finish them.

Painting is a process of unfolding to all that the painting has to offer. I don’t want to rush it (and possibly miss it) by moving too quickly.

My brush strokes are applied quickly with a bold assurance that I may or may not feel.
Then I wait.

“Only paint what you know to paint” is one of my regular mantras to myself and to my students.

This means watching your painting and waiting.

Wait to paint until you’re moved to paint the way you’re moved to eat when hungry.

For some, the art of putting paint on paper or canvas is reason enough to paint.

Another painting that might be finished, was waiting for me in my flat files.

I want more. I want to feel enriched, enlivened by what the painting reveals to me through the process.

I look to the world in a similar way.

When I go for a walk, I look for clues that I belong in this world and on this walk.

A heart-shaped rock, a piece of coral, or a swirl in a tree, sends me love from the universe.

The cracks in the sidewalk remind me of a circus act or a tightrope walker and I’m cheered on to entrust my soul to the divine for another day, another painting.

Am I blessed or cursed to have this outlook? That depends on how aware I am each day and how I interpret what I see and feel.

Keeping a sunny outlook depends on me doing my inner work daily.

And knowing that some of my days are diamonds and some are rust. Just like everyone else’s.