This is something that I wrote a while back, but it never got published so here it is:
Point of the Arches, Olympic National Park (Kevin McNeal / Nat Geo) |
Inspiration strikes in a moment of absolute purity. A flawless harmony or the brilliant light from a full moon might be all that it took for creation to take wing.
Sometime in the distant past, one of our ancestors looked outside of the familiar and saw something that sparked a thought. Who knows what that spark of inspiration was, but that’s not the point that I’m trying to make. The spark wasn’t the driving force behind that first creation. Yes, the spark may have been the source, but it wasn’t the fire that stoked the dream. That fire was inside all along, burning in the depths of a soul that was waiting to unleash it. Finally, that something was seen in a new light, and that light was the guide on a wondrous journey of creation. That simple creation then altered the perception of another, and so it continued throughout our timeline. One fire that raced through time, looking for new dreams to ignite.
We in the here and now are the lucky benefactors of that first dream, and the dreams of countless many that followed after. Who stoked this fire for a dream that would only grow through time? Again, it doesn’t matter who the first source was. What does matter is that the first person allowed us all to embrace our ability to dream of things unknown yet waiting to be discovered. Nothing was impossible once we saw what we could create when we let go of limitations. All we have to do is look all around us to see these creations staring at us from every corner of this planet.
Each successive dream grew from its predecessor simply because someone decided to care less and less about the limitations that others tried to impose. Think back on your childhood. Think back to your first coloring book or piece of paper. The guidelines were provided, but the child does not see them as guidelines. If one child chose to color or write inside the lines, then another child would look at that action and do the opposite. Both did something creative, and it just depends on your perspective. One child became a spark, and the other child became the fire. It’s a cycle that will continue infinitely, because there’s a flip side to everything in nature. Human nature, mother nature, every nature embraces duality. It makes for order, even in seeming chaos.
Walking through our own lives, we come upon points which require us to choose a path. No path is the right path, because each path takes us somewhere new. Things will look different because we will be different while traipsing through the unknown. But there’s little to fear, because we have a constant companion. That fire inside each and every one of us that is waiting to ignite another dream so that the cycle of creation can continue. Our dreams can be as big as we wish them to be. If they’re too big for one person alone, then simply invite another to help. Two heads simply offer more paths for the dream to walk on. Add even more people, and the dream becomes reality. And with that many heads put together, we can come up with solutions to almost anything, if we try. That’s the power that is within us all. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
