Catch
an Idea
“Ideas
are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty
soon, you have a dozen more.”
John
Steinbeck
I love the
way Elizabeth Gilbert describes ideas in Big Magic. She calls them “disembodied
energetic entities” that swirl around the globe looking for willing human
partners. She says, “Ideas of every kind are constantly galloping towards
us, constantly passing through us, constantly trying to get our attention. Let
them know you’re available.” Our job is to catch hold of one and trust that
is has come to us for a reason.
When an
idea comes to you, and you tell it, “Oh, I can’t do that,” it feels
disappointed; it may hang around and niggle the back of your mind for a
couple of days. But if you don’t at least show it some interest and respect, it
will go and find someone else who takes it seriously. If it’s really important
that you be the vehicle to carry the idea forward, it will not let you go so
easily—in fact, ideas have been known to disturb thoughts, interrupt sleep, and,
in general, pester the living daylights out of humans until they succumb to the
pressure.
When those
of us who are creative minded find ourselves without an idea, we feel
abandoned, irritable, wretched. Even great writers and artists feel shipwrecked when they keep showing up, but the idea doesn’t. Writer’s block is a good
example of this. But that doesn’t mean we can just give up. As Liz Gilbert
says, “Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever
it may be.”
What I
have found to be true more often, however, is what Steinbeck says in the quote
above. There is no lack of inspiration. If you catch an idea, take it
seriously, devote your head and hands to the task, then that one idea will bring
along a dozen of its friends. When the human partner stops trying to control the process and instead, allows the idea to show him/her what to do,
magical things happen. Ideas can only be manifested through five-sensory beings—someone
with eyes and ears and hands with opposable thumbs. And that’s you! So, just show
up and say, “I am here. Lead the way!”
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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