I write and write and the words just flow. Beautiful words! Words that bring out emotion, words that capture the imagination! Ideas are forthcoming and they reside on the closest tip of my mind. Mere minutes go by and the pages fill up. It is exhilarating and I have to pull myself away from the keyboard to serve my basic needs.
Then, there are the days that the word tap is closed. All I can muster are words like “nice” and phrases like “I love it” and all these overused clichés of which social media has an oversupply. My ideas are stale and unoriginal and creative thoughts are muddled in the farthest most inaccessible reaches of my mind. Hours can pass without me even approaching the keyboard, let alone typing a line.

This, especially the latter, left me in a state of ponder. Why is it that on occasions my creative juices are productive and on others they are stagnant? I realize that it starts with inspiration but that is rather obvious and still does not explain the underlying cause. So where then does inspiration, or the lack thereof, come from? In my attempt to answer this I have tried to take notice of my state of mind and the external factors whenever I have one of these inspired blogging sessions.

My best ideas always reveal themselves in the early mornings and that coincides with my daily cognitive high. Unfortunately life’s demands also require this peak in my mind’s faculty. Thus, I usually find myself blogging during the trough of my brain’s cycle. It is at this time that frustration builds and I start to seek external inspiration. And what is the best source of external inspiration? Alcohol! UB40’s 1983 hit; “Red Red Wine” paid tribute to this precious fluid that; except for providing comfort, also enkindles creativity. My now lifted spirit craves more than just the thrill of flowing words and so I add some rhythmic music to the mix. The combination of good music and red wine is truly enlivening. However, the lull in my mind’s ability hasn’t really been uplifted, I am just inspired. Interesting words still elude me and both spelling and grammatical errors abound. The point is that alcohol and music are just not great sources of inspiration.

The question still remains then; why the blogger’s block? I have concluded that inspiration needs to come from something deeper than wine and music or even the time of day. The more fickle the source of inspiration, the more fleeting it is. These sources should rather be the things that God has given us; free of charge. Things like; the cool of the air at sunrise, the sweet cacophony of a flock of birds, an iridescent African sunset, the peace of a morning jog, the intensity of love, a delectable meal or the harmonious flow of water. The trick is to extract inspiration from these elementary yet glorious gifts.

It is about tasting the morning air, humming to the tune of the birds, painting the African sunset, watching the sun rise over the grasslands during a morning run, allowing your heart to soar, putting every physical sense into a meal or discovering tranquillity in a flowing river. Because once you take the time and make the effort to experience these, even in the hustle of daily life, inspiration will find you and a deluge of words will open up.