What the Muse Requires

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

Dr. Seuss

“A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.”

  Barack Obama

“Intent reveals desire; Action reveals commitment.”

Steve Maraboli – Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

I hate staring at a blank screen and having no idea what to put on it.  This is called “writer’s block.”  It’s a mixture of fear, anger, confusion and helplessness.  Right now I feel frustrated because I let it take up too much of my writing time.  Honestly, there are few things I would rather do than spend time with the woman I love, the Muse.  There are few things I’d rather do than write, because when I write, she is with me. 

            Sometimes she seems quiet.  She has a message for me, but she doesn’t give it to me right away.  She wants me to be with her first and just start working.  I do my work in several ways:

·      Writing

·      Speaking

·      Concentrating on a particular issue

·      Doing physical work like organizing something

·      Spending time with the people I love and focusing on what they need

When I focus in one of those ways, she comes to me.  Here are the times when she does not come to me:

·      When I am avoiding my work

·      When I am away from my work for too long

·      When I am too focused on the results and not the work itself

·      When I am too focused on the results and not on love.

Although I have committed all these sins and more, she is very forgiving and comes back to me, if I go back to her.  Now this is the embarrassing part.  I have to tell her that she wins…always.  I have to tell her that she was right to stay away from me.  This is embarrassing not because she is petty, but because she is right.  I shouldn’t have been avoiding my work or staying away from it.  I shouldn’t have been focused on the results, but on the process and the people. 

She wants to spend time with me, but only when I want to spend time with her and only when I make an honest effort.  Sometimes the effort only counts if I am successful and I am spending actual time with her.  Sometimes intention alone isn’t enough.

With regard to spending time with her, she is not really interested in how I initially feel.  I could be tired, busy, or even sick.  She wants me around, no matter what.  She wants me to do the work she has planned for me.  This isn’t because she’s insensitive, but because she knows that once we are together, the fatigue, hunger and sickness usually go away.  If they don’t, it doesn’t matter.  She will still give me something.  She just wants me with her.  She will help me with the rest.  She will help me get past the writer’s block.

I know I’ve written about the Muse before, but I can’t help myself.   I love her and I love talking about her   Today she told me, she has waited a long time for me.   I only let her in occasionally because I was too lazy.  Or when I worked hard, I wasn’t consistent about it.  Now with nearly 180 written, she shows up every time I do. 

It’s true that I have been given the talent, but unused and undeveloped talent is like money hidden in a mattress and forgotten.  It’s valuable and useless at the same time.  To make it valuable I have to use it every single day, every chance I get.  The Muse requires that I show up every day.  On the days I don’t show up, we both lose.  In The Traveler’s Gift, by Andy Andrews, the author describes a place in Heaven full of unopened boxes.  These boxes are all the unused ideas and inventions that their creators never had or took the time to get to.  I don’t want to have too many boxes like that with my name on it.  But the only way I can prevent that is to take action, to Get Started and Keep Going, to spend time with the woman I love.

She will give me love, comfort and inspiration. She is not complicated.   In fact, she once told me life is not complicated.  The only two things my Muse requires are time and action. If I give her those two things, she will do the rest.  She will make my life truly worth living.  This is one of the reasons I love her.  I also love her because she has promised to never leave me.  I love her because she is just so easy to love.  And because of her, I have more love to give to myself and to the world.