Ideas and inspiration are constant. Those little inklings and thoughts we have, the what if's and the moments of wonder are like milkweed on the wind.
Like enchanted gifts of fairies, if we are wise enough to snatch one up, the idea has a place to blossom. How many times have you said, "Hey that was my idea?"
It could have been. You may have been the place it wanted to live. But it wasn't yours if you didn't pull it down and wrestle it. If it didn't inspire you to action, catalyst a blaze of baby ideas or if you didn't fall in love, it wasn't yours. You merely visited it.
Ideas want to be loved. They refuse to be abandoned. If you do catch one, treat it with all due respect. Nurture it, protect it and see it to maturity. Ideas will not be forgotten or ignored.
Without regret or remorse, they simply fly away to another.
This has happened to me today and so many times before. I kept a beautiful idea in a jar for too long, and when I came back it was not dead…but had escaped to someone else.
I'm happy it is still alive and sorry I am no longer it's keeper. I wonder if it holds as much magic now, and how many times it was rejected before it made a home.
Does an idea lose some of it's glory when it is rejected? Is an innocent idea more powerful than one that has been trapped in heads for years? Probably not, like life, it might become more empowered. Who knows?
Not I. I toy with ideas. I break them, leave them out in the rain…forget them.
The tragedy is I know the magic they hold and though I can catch them and give them a joyful little time, I can't seem to go the distance. I stop at good enough though I can see marvellous beckoning.
I don't mean to entirely romanticize ideas. Wonderful as they are, in order to survive, they are also full of mischief. They have all manner of tricks to keep your attention.
Don't be fooled by charlatans. You may think your idea drifted to another, and maybe it has. But maybe it hasn't left the jar after all….maybe it's trying to lure you back. It could be the smoke and mirrors of an idea temper tantrum if you will, to make you look.
So unless you agree completely with the outcome the other produced, take notice, bring your idea flowers and renew your love affair. Be forewarned, it might become an open relationship and your muse may have eyes for many. Awe-inspiring things like rockets to the moon or the love in a family require an endless amount of good ideas from many people working toward the same vision.
Wisdom builds on wisdom. The first song was not the only song.
I tell you this because I think I will get it right one day.
But you, you might be the child who gets it right the first time and who has all the vision, passion and steadfastness an idea needs to thrive. So grab your idea with both hands and run. It is such a wonder and as often as I fail, I see others succeed, and that inspires me to believe you really can create empires out of thin air.