Inspiration Boost

Wakodahatchee Sunrise by Carol Anne Ances

Inspiration Boost

When our granddaughter Melody hears the song “Do you want to be a Snowman” from the movie Frozen, she stops in her tracks, snaps to attention and stands still, listening. The glow of magic on her face tells me the wheels of her inspiration are spinning in her head. Whenever I face paint kids at a party, I love to watch their faces light up as they look in the mirror at the comic book heroes and princesses they have suddenly become. It is as though they have just had a boost of inspiration, confidence and belief.   

The Oxford dictionaries define inspiration as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something.”  The Cambridge English Dictionary says that inspiration is “someone or something that gives you ideas for doing something.”

My morning inspiration boost takes place when I visit Wakodahatchee wetlands near my Florida home.  The sunrises burst in the east, setting the skies on fire. Every time I turn a corner, birds start their day roosting or taking off in flocks to find food or nesting materials. As I write poetry, my energy shifts from ‘anxious’, ‘distracted’ and ‘closed off’ to ‘calm’, ‘alert’, ‘open and connected’. This naturally good feeling helps keep me grounded all day.

           

How do you get your inspiration boost? Maybe, it’s playing a round of golf, eating chocolate, renovating a room, photographing wildlife or jogging to get those endorphins to kick in. In The Purple Bowtie, main character Lisa Robertson gets her peak inspiration at 3am when she channels poetry to the music of Bach.

Still searching for your daily inspiration boost?  Here’s one:  Put on music, that makes you want to accomplish amazing things, like the Theme from Chariots of Fire or Rocky. Take note of how the energy feels, sounds and moves in your body.  If it flows and gives you relief and joy, you are on the right track. Know that inspiration boosts can take place any time…any place. The key is to soak up their positive energy and take it with you wherever you go.

Tell me about your inspiration boosts and the energy they give you. Post me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ThePurpleBowtieBook/ or tweet me @purplebowtiebook1

Here is an Amazon universal link to The Purple Bowtie: http://getbook.at/purplebowtie 

           

The Activist in All of Us

The Activist in All of Us

The Purple Bowtie novel is in part a tribute to 1980’s activists, like Dan Bradley, who went into the streets and warned the LGBT community and the world about the threat of AIDS. He helped raise money to fight the disease and protested the political leaders who ignored it. I was one of those people who had the chance to watch Bradley in action in South Florida and joined him at several events that he organized as the AIDS epidemic began.

Dan Bradley served as a legal aide to President Jimmy Carter in the White House and, in 1979, was appointed to be President of the Legal Services Corporation, an independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974 to provide financial support for noncriminal legal aid to low-income Americans. According to the NY Times, Dan is widely credited with thwarting the attempts of the Reagan Administration to end LSC.  He came out publicly in 1982 and served on the Lambda Legal Defense Fund and the Gay Rights National Lobby. 

Nothing phased Dan. He never showed his anger or ego and, in his mild-mannered, easy-going style, simply took charge on his own to warn the community and the media.  Always modest and tenacious, he organized events and raised monies to fight the disease. As the number of AIDS cases grew, he persisted in his protests in Washington, D.C. to get government support until his death in 1988.  To me, these are the qualities of a true leader and activist.

As you read The Purple Bowtie, I hope you will think about the “Dan Bradley activist” within yourself and within others. In 2017, we still face prejudices and an upsurge of hate. The forms of activism are endless: (1) Led by women of color, 40,000 activists peacefully protested white supremacy in Boston (August 19, 2017). (2) Comedian-actress Tina Fey ate sheet cake on “Weekend Update” (Saturday Night Live/NBC August 18, 2017) as she tore into the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (3)  Songwriter Sarah Guthrie told an audience at The Guthrie Center (August 18, 2017) in Great Barrington, MA that “I’m takin’ to activism.” Her grandfather is “This Land is Your Land” songwriter Woodie Guthrie. Her father is Alice’s Restaurant star and songwriter Arlo Guthrie. Sarah tells us she now gathers friends together with their guitars on Monday eves to sing songs about hope and activism, carrying on the family tradition.

Wherever you are,  stand in awe of yourself, speak your truth and start' takin' to activism' in your own special way. There's a Dan Bradley hero in all of us.  

 Post me or tweet me your favorite activists and their leadership qualities. Tell us how you will not let hate win. 

#purplebowtiebook1

https://www.facebook.com/ThePurpleBowtieBook/

Here is an Amazon universal link to The Purple Bowtie: http://getbook.at/purplebowtie

   

   

Use Your Imagination

Use Your Imagination

Before Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps races competitively, he visualizes himself winning the race and adapting to different competitive circumstances during the race. Inventor Thomas Edison, who created the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and many other electrical innovations, used to sit in his chair and daydream for several hours a day.  He used his ability to inquire and to imagine without restrictions.  World renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung pretended to live with centaurs, gods and goddesses and enjoyed dialogueing with them. He wrote over forty books on psychology which are still widely read. These are a few ways in which we can use our imagination to stimulate new ideas, insights and inventions.

            In The Purple Bowtie, when main character Lisa Robertson meditates, she discovers that she can extract words and images from her dreams, such as beautiful nature landscapes, music, song lyrics and poems.  When she suddenly falls down the rabbit hole into an altered state of consciousness, she explores new, vibrant corridors of her imagination.  Suddenly, she is capable of writing in many styles, with words flowing automatically, opening a new age of creativity and inspiration. It is as if her imagination is a radio receiver that picks up different creative signals or channels. Lisa wants to be able to transmit as well.  She works with energy states and the third eye to see if she can communicate the images in her head to animals and dolphins. She begins to see that the study of telepathy could be a catalyst to unite all of us as artists and creatives. As we discover and explore our innate, imaginative and telepathic abilities, we create a new world of imagination through brain-to-brain communication. 

            Give permission to your creativity. Don’t deny it. How do you use your imagination? Do you have a passion, like a sport or an activity that inspires you?  Do you daydream? Do you have fantasies, romantic or otherwise?  Do images or ideas pop into your head as insights? Do you like to act or paint, write songs or song lyrics and poetry? Actively visualize yourself accomplishing great things?

In the weeks and months to come, I would like to open a dialogue about inspiration, creative visualization, insight, invention, daydreaming, fantasy and utopian visions.  Along with celebrating all creative people including artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, sports stars and engineers who use their imagination in extraordinary ways, we’ll be talking about ways to tap into and spark our creativity. What if we all could become creative geniuses? Imagine!

 Let me know how you tap into your imagination. Tweet me at@purplebowtie1 or send me a post a Facebook.