There is often a time in the creative journey when the well seems dried up. I am in that period right now. I feel uninspired and sluggish. My senses are dull. The luster gone. This is okay and normal. I can still write. Here we are.
Growing up, I wasn’t interested in reality. I lived in my own little world filled with magic, wonder, and funny, friendly monsters. I loved stories. I loved books. I loved finding out what makes the doll speak when I squeeze her belly. In theory, I should like history. Stories from the past. Stories about real monsters. But I didn’t. History was filled with too much brutality, wars, violence, death, greed and invasions. I couldn’t let history into my consciousness. The reality is, I am a part of history. So are you. Like it or not. We are parts of the Story. History can be informative. I am learning because I don’t know much.
I recently discovered a NPR podcast called throughline. I listened to the episode about how Korean culture went global. I find it fascinating. Korean history does include war and violence, it also includes unyielding will of the Korean people, their ingenuity and creativity. It encourages me to see the power of people united.
I am also watching nature documentaries. I am in awe of what animals do to survive and how everything in nature has its rhythm and order. I enjoyed one documentary that tells the story of a mother snow leopard and her two pups. The mother needs to feed herself and her two pups. She also needs to defend her own territory and avoid male snow leopards during mating season. The male leopards will kill her pups and force her to mate.
Snow leopards live alone and do not share their territory. Once the pups learn the trick of surviving on their own, the mother will kick them out of her territory! In the documentary, the mother lost her two pups during a hunt. One of them left the safe hiding place and went exploring. The other followed. The mother snow leopard looked for her pups for three days. Just when she was about to give up, she heard a weak voice calling her. She followed the voice and found one of the pups. I thought she’d go on looking for the other one. But she didn’t. She knows better. After learning this lesson, the remaining pup stopped leaving the designated safe place. We live we learn.
What I noticed is that I enjoy stories about animals more than stories about humans. I don’t know what that says about me. What type of stories fascinate you? What do you turn to when you feel uninspired?
