Inspiration leads us to our happiness. When a great idea pops up out of the blue, we know something has just happened to us. It’s exciting! I went to my first ballet in many years a few weeks ago, and something magical happened. A light bulb went on. All of the sudden, I knew the characters of the third book in a future series. I’d been asking myself about that last book for over two years at that point. Then, bam. Inspiration.
It can happen anywhere. The key is being present. Expanding our senses. Looking around. If my nose had been stuck in the playbill, or I’d let myself get carried away with stress about parking or traffic or whatever, I might not have felt that spark.
My characters always have a flash of inspiration. Sometimes it’s not a two-by-four-to-the-head moment, but it’s the ability to recognize a great idea when it appears. Take my heroine in Nora Roberts Land, Meredith Hale. Her life has gone down the toilet since her divorce. She’s still stuck in the past. Not happy.
Then one day she decides she’s through with being miserable. She wants to start anew. Read her favorite author Nora Roberts again and give her ex the bird for suggesting Nora’s books were to blame for their divorce. So she decides to buy a new Nora book. She takes the first step and, wham, she has a moment of sweet inspiration. She’s going to prove her ex wrong by returning to her hometown and proving it’s possible to find a real happily ever after—or Nora Roberts Land.
We all have moments of sweet inspiration. The major stumbling block a lot of us have is that we tend to immediately judge or second-guess ourselves. One of my favorite movie scenes is in Jerry Maguire, when the central character writes his manifesto about getting back to being a sports agent out of love for sports and players and not the money. When he slips it under the doors of everyone in his office, he’s following through. Of course, the next day he wakes up thinking, WTF. I’ve felt that way. My character, Meredith Hale, has felt that way. I expect we all have.
But sweet inspiration leads us to our happiness. It shows us what we’re missing, what we truly value deep down, what we’ve lost, and what we might once again experience. It puts us on a new journey.
When sweet inspiration comes your way, say thank you. It has probably just changed your life.