Supply of Inspiration

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Summer is only half over for most students, and yet the school supply season is upon us.  It is only the second week in July, but all the stores are getting their shelves stocked with those school necessities. 

As I walked into the Dollar Store, their display aisles were stocked with pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, and erasers.  Wal*Mart had their seasonal shelves full of school supply bargains. 

As a child and even now into adulthood, buying fresh notebooks, pens, or the giant eraser “for BIG mistakes” I found today are little things that make me smile.  A fresh notebook to me is like a blank canvas to a painter, a spot to allow the imagination to run free as it forms the perfect idea to fill the blankness. 

Some would ask why I don’t skip buying notebooks all together.  “Use that little laptop of yours, save trees.” 

Well, I do for the most part, but there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing in my own handwriting the lines that form in my mind.  Those lines may be the start of a short story, a tidbit for a piece I want to write, information on a character, or just some words that inspire me and keep me writing. 

A line in one of my favorite movies, You’ve Got Mail, talks about school supplies.  Joe, played by Tom Hanks, tells Kathleen, played by Meg Ryan, that he would send her a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils. 

Every time I hear that line, the smell of a fresh, sharpened pencil comes to mind in such reality that I can nearly enjoy the aroma myself.  It’s inspiring to me, giving me the desire to pull out a pencil and loop it across lines on a new page, filling it with words that may one day mean something to someone other than myself. 

What is it that inspires you?  What makes you want to do something that brings you joy, and quite possibly joy to others? 

Some may have to think on those questions a while, as they remember the things they once loved, while others may not have to think long at all.  Yet, whatever it may be, dwell on it and let it feed your desire to do the very things you love to do.