THE ESSENCE OF INSPIRATION
3/29/07
Inspiration is illusive and invisible, yet all embracing. It is alien and foreign and different from anything I understand. It creates and destroys,speaks riddles and clear statements. It instructs and confuses. It kisses with tenderness, and punishes with torments. It confounds the senses and brings death and misery to whoever fails to recognize its warnings.
I have seen its face both beautiful and frightening. I have heard its voice instruct and guide me. I have heard it say; “Continue”, “Begin”, “End”. It can appear before me at anytime time. In my dreams it pieces and builds its messages. In waking hours it molds my destiny. It speaks to me through others. It confronts me when it angers. It ignores me when I ignore it. It is the creator of space and time. It is the destroyer of faith, and the builder of new beliefs.
Inspiration is creation. It is the spirit of fire and water , earth and sky. It is male and female, sacred and profane. It has perfect symmetry and total chaos. It is melody and harmony, atonality and silence. It brings destruction to civilizations, and sea change to history. I wish it would last and last forever, but it refuses to be held. It refuses to be imprisoned. I see and feel and know the universe. It is not from this universe. It tells me, it is from beyond the universe , beyond all mortal comprehension. It continues to create without end. It continues to confound the human mind. It speaks through many messengers who inform the blind how to see. It startles poets, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians. It emboldens great leaders, prophets and saints.
It is myth,legend,false and true, a mountain, an ocean and sky, a song of love or sorrow, and genius disguised. It is a child who hungers and a mother who cries. It is murder,mayhem, war and peace, conspiracy,honesty, and without body or size.
It can be had by all, but held by none. It is weak,strong, fast and slow, light and heavy. Each second of its visit is more precious, than the rarest jewel. It is visiting me now,teasing me with this riddle. It will leave soon, but promises to return. I leave my doors and windows open on clear, blue, days, and let it shine through all rooms. At night it often visits my dreams and warms me, and sheds its light in the darkness, and wakes me in the morning.
Inspiration has many names and is more wonderful than one word can express. It is God, but this word means different things to those who do not understand. I regret I can not explain to them what the essence of inspiration is to me.
L.A. Steel
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