Inspiration from TED

As summer begins, I  fill my days with fishing, hiking, dog walking/chasing, summer school, and the never ending search for a job. One would think the above activities would lead to endless, amusing antidotes to be shared on this blog in the form of terrific creative nonfiction. That being said, however, little writing has taken place. I would like to think that my time is being well spent elsewhere, but I know that is merely an excuse for the simple fact that I have been faced with an onset of writer's block. 

I have sat at my computer approximately 50 times since I last posted--responding to emails and checking the latest online social networks--and yet I have not been able to blog. It is not that I have nothing to say, rather that every time I began a post, the words did not flow as smoothly or wittingly as I would have liked. In short, my style, creativity, and grace was lacking. 

Only by confronting this situation did I recall a video I recently watched in a creative nonfiction class. It was a speech given at the TED conference (a series that brings together thinkers on the topics of technology, entertainment, and design). In this particular speech, writer Elizabeth Gilbert shares her own ideas about creativity, where it comes from, and what to do when it seems to dry up: Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk Gilbert reminds writers that sometimes we will feel a story bursting inside us, we will collect it in our muscles and our brain, and we will allow it to break free on the page. Other times, creativity, like a muse, will leave our side, the story trapped inside our stone interiors and unwilling to escape. We will find ouselves alone with much to say and little tools with which t say it; nevertheless, this lonely bridge can be crossed.

I find this "TED talk" to be one of the funniest and truest forms of inspiration I've come across thus far, and my hope is that other artists will do the same. And with this new enlightenment, I have decided to let writer's block come and go. I will carry on by blog with the simple notion that my style and grace will change from day to day, not hindering me, but allowing me to share stories and advice that are uniquely my own.