{"id":11475,"date":"2022-03-28T13:01:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T20:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=11475"},"modified":"2022-03-28T13:01:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T20:01:14","slug":"inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspiration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brenda Bellinger

<\/strong>Toward the end of his life, my father, who used to enjoy painting, would often say he couldn\u2019t \u201cget in the mood\u201d or \u201cjust lost interest.\u201d His easel stood waiting, a blank canvas in place and a table of brushes and paints nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, writing can feel that way, as though you\u2019re engaged in a stare down with a blank screen. Which of you is going to win? You can wait to be inspired (it might be a while), you can use a writing prompt or you can just let your thoughts spill onto the page in a stream-of-consciousness fashion and see what shape they take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing about inspiration is that it\u2019s bound to strike at an inopportune moment like when you\u2019re in the shower or you\u2019re driving or you\u2019re in that liminal space between barely awake and soundly asleep. Just in case the stars align, and it happens to strike when I\u2019m ready and waiting for it, I always carry a small notebook and pen with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recently joined our son and his family for a day at Angel Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The weather was perfect and the ride over on the ferry smooth. They had reserved a campground for the evening and loaded some of their camping gear on a two-seater bicycle. Our almost six-year-old granddaughter alternated between riding on the bike and walking alongside. We were walking together enjoying our view of the bay when she said something about a blade of grass \u201cswishing\u201d in the breeze. She froze in her tracks, bicycle helmet still on her head and said \u201cNana, I need to stop right here and write a poem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved how we all moved over to the side of the path and allowed this to happen. She found a place in the grass and sat down next to her mom. I handed her my notebook and pen and for just a moment, the entire world seemed to pause as a small poem about a butterfly emerged from the pure chrysalis of a child\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenda Bellinger\u2019s<\/strong> work has appeared in Small Farmer\u2019s Journal<\/em>, Mom Egg Review, Persimmon Tree<\/em>, THEMA,<\/em> the California Writers Club Literary Review<\/em> and in various anthologies, including The Write Spot: Reflections<\/em>, and The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year<\/em> (available at your local bookseller and at Amazon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first novel, Taking Root<\/em>, a young adult story of betrayal and courage, is available through most local bookstores and on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note from Marlene:\u00a0Brenda\u2019s Blog<\/a>\u00a0is a collection of thoughtful and entertaining reflections on what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInspiration,\u201d was originally posted as \u201cCarpe Momentum<\/a>\u201d on Brenda\u2019s Blog, February 22, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page. Inspiration By Brenda Bellinger Toward the end of his life, my father, who used to enjoy painting, would often say he couldn\u2019t \u201cget in the mood\u201d or \u201cjust lost interest.\u201d His easel stood waiting, a blank canvas in place and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1474],"tags":[1367,1409,1190],"class_list":["post-11475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sparks","tag-brenda-bellinger","tag-taking-root","tag-writing-freely-just-write-writing-prompts-the-write-spot-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2Z5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11478,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475\/revisions\/11478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}