{"id":1624,"date":"2020-08-02T11:05:46","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2020-08-02T11:06:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:06:38","slug":"chasing-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/02\/chasing-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman was walking through a forest when she saw a man sitting in a small clearing, playing the flute. A group of people sat in a semi-circle around him and when he was finished, they all clapped and cheered, begging for more. He smiled and kept playing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYour music is mesmerizing,\u201d the woman said during a break. \u201cWhere do you get your inspiration?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI play for the people sitting here,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they like what they hear, I feel happy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut who taught you to play?\u201d she asked. \u201cSurely someone introduced you to the magic that you\u2019re creating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He led her along a riverbank, climbed a steep hill and walked along a muddy trail until they heard a haunting sound. A lone figure was sitting on a grassy knoll in front of a lake, legs crossed, playing a flute. They watched from afar and when he was through, he sat in silence, his eyes closed, a peaceful smile on his face. The woman had tears in her eyes. \u201cYour music is beautiful,\u201d she said, \u201cbut his is the voice of the angels. How does he do it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI look to other people for approval,\u201d said her guide. \u201cMy teacher doesn\u2019t care what anyone else thinks. He plays only for himself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During the past five months, we\u2019ve had extra time on our hands, but we\u2019re not necessarily doing what we want to do. Maybe you don’t have the energy to embark on your dream, maybe you feel sluggish and uninspired. But if you\u2019re waiting for approval and inspiration, that doesn’t make you an artist. It makes you a waiter. Thomas Edison said, \u201cNone of my inventions came by accident. They took trial after trial. It all boils down to 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re trying to paint a picture, solve a puzzle, write a story, do a dance or remodel your closet, it\u2019s a good idea to stop looking for praise. You may fail and fail again but please keep on trying until you find your unique expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

You will. Van Gogh never sold a painting, but he kept on painting because it was his passion. Kathryn Stockard\u2019s blockbuster best seller, \u201cThe Help,\u201d was rejected 60 times. She kept revising and rewriting, against the advice of the people who loved her, and her 61st<\/sup> submission was the charm. Stephen King threw his manuscript, Carrie, his breakthrough horror story that made his career, into the trash. What if his wife hadn’t fished it out? We would never even know his name. Just imagine how many great books, paintings, operas, plays and films languish in the back of a closet, never seeing the light of day because someone didn’t feel inspired and was afraid of being mediocre and being judged.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re up against the wall, feeling isolated, unsupported, confused, and uncertain where you\u2019re going, instead of waiting for a sign, don\u2019t get discouraged. Start where you are, stop chasing inspiration and let it find you. If you threw a party and the birthday girl didn\u2019t show up, what would you do? You\u2019d enjoy the party anyway, get to know the people around you, have a bite to eat and a glass of wine, and when you look up, there\u2019s the muse in all her glory, ready to guide you along a breathtaking pathway to your soul\u2019s expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s how inspiration rolls.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A woman was walking through a forest when she saw a man sitting in a small clearing, playing the flute. A group of people sat in a semi-circle around him and when he was finished, they all clapped and cheered, begging for more. He smiled and kept playing. \u201cYour music is mesmerizing,\u201d the woman said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}