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Inspiration

Xanth looked back across the table at Trynn. They were both sitting crosslegged on the floor, a small round table, set with cups and steaming coffee between them. The room, Trynn's room, was darker than the rest of the house, lit by candles here and there, and the smokey glow of burning incense. The small window that looked out and over the tree tops below was covered in a thick black cloth. It was both comfortable and oppressive.
For a while, neither spoke. Trynn sipped his coffee patiently, his counterpart obviously struggling with his thoughts. Xanth raised his hand, opening his mouth, paused and reached again for his coffee. Even then, raised to his lips to sip from the mug, he pause and looked again as if he would speak, but didn't. This had been going on for almost an hour.
Trynn sighed and stood up. "Is this going to take all day?" The older one stood and stretched his body, yawning slightly. "There are other things I could be doing."
"I..." Xanth started, "...I feel...." Trynn's head drooped slightly.
"Like you are on the verge of something?"
"Yes," Xanth said simply and sipped his coffee, smiling.
"Hold out your hand," Trynn said, his voice somehow understanding. Xanth cocked an eyebrow but did this. His palm was turned up. Trynn placed a stone in his hand, near his finger tips. "Most days, when inspiration comes, it works as something almost tangible, like the stone. You can grasp it and move it, manipulate it however you need it." To illustrate, Trynn closed Xanth's fingers around the stone and moved him to make a mark in the table with it.
"Now hold out your other hand. Cup it. Hold your fingers together." Trynn went across the room and retrieved a small, open bottle of wine and poured a small amount into the younger man's palm. "Can you feel that?"
"Yes," said Xanth, looking puzzled at the puddle of warm, red liquid in his hand.
"Think of this as another kind of inspiration, or energy. This is what you have today. And when you try to direct it..." Trynn closed Xanth's fingers over the wine, causing it to spill out through his fingers onto the table.
"It is unuseable then to make a lasting mark," Xanth offered, wiping his hand absently on his pants.
"On the contrary, this energy is like fuel. Use it not to create something, but as motivation to study the works of others. You can ingest the wine, where you can't the stone."

I'm on the brink of being inspired, of having the ability to create or do something worth while, but I'm just drinking coffee. It's like holding water. I can feel it there, in my hand, but when I try to grasp it, or direct it, I lose it. So, thanks to my more logical side, today will be a day of study. I will dip my hands in the wines of inspiration and possibly learn something new.

Cheers.

posted by September @ 7:15 AM