Oct 8 2014

Paul Williams

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Accomplishment, Book Tour

HERE COMES INSPIRATION

HERE COMES INSPIRATION

 

Many years ago I wrote and recorded a song about inspiration.  It’s celebrates a woman who is the source of the singers’ strength, passion, and ideas.

“Here comes inspiration … walking through the door.. Bringing back a thousand dreams I thought I’d lost for sure …  Monday Momma sure looks good to me.”

It’s portrays the muse as a person.  A healing companion that’s the energy behind his ability to create.

I think there was a lot of “what I was looking for” as opposed to “look what I found” in that approach.   Mr. Co-dependent anthem being consistent.

That suddenly seems too simple to me.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know we’re definitely inspired by people we know and love and admire.  Some from afar and some up close.  My wife Mariana is a wonderful writer.  Plus, I’ve just spent two years at the T.J. Maximum Wizardry School of Scribe.  I’ve seen the best at work days on end.  Inspiring for sure. Sometimes intimidating. The Jackson magic.

But, lately I’m seeing that inspiration has so many forms.  Creativity’s headwaters are ethereal.  A rare mix of opportunity, pure desire and sometimes disappointment. It can be the child of a life lesson.   Other times a whisp of unearned wisdom. Knowledge that flares up from some unnamed source or subconscious remembering.  Past life?  Maybe.

Our book, Gratitude and Trust, has opened doors to new experiences, new worlds for me. It has launched Tracey and I on a remarkable journey that’s currently in the most enjoyable chapter of the birthing process.  The writing is behind us and now we give ourselves to the task of introducing the work and the principles it promotes to future readers.

And as we move from city to city, group to group, I feel the ebb and flow of an energy that, at it’s best, feels like pure, sweet, electric, hang on to your hat cause it’s got a life of it’s own …   inspiration.

And somehow it feels like my relationship to the work is changing, I know Tee felt it too. I can’t speak for her but, there have been some wonderful surprises in the process.

Last week in Oxford Mississippi Tracey and I read for about 10 minutes to an audience of 250 on Thacker Mountain Radio.  It was a live broadcast and our usual selected readings run about 30 minutes.  What we’d been sharing was clearly too long for the allotted time.

We spent two hours choosing new sections to read from. We sat on front porch swings at a little B and B and chose carefully.  And it felt like we’d found the heart of the book.  It was remarkable.  Something we’d never considered reading before was chosen and when we shared it with the audience something clicked at a higher level

The words lifted us and it felt like we were being read to.  As if we were being lead through the language to the heart of what we’re trying to do.  It felt completely clear and focused and we were coming along for the ride. I felt like a passenger and a co-pilot at the same time.

I tweeted that we were Elmer Gantry and Aimee Semple McPherson, the legendary preachers, one fictional, one real, with a side of grits … but we weren’t preaching.  We were celebrating the truth of what we’d been given to write.  What we chased and pounded into the 320 pages that became Gratitude and Trust.  Tracey as the alpha author on fire, day after day, chasing this thing we’d made

And suddenly it was something more.  And it felt like inspiration. It felt like the heart of that gift.  It felt like something evolving and new.  It was a moment I will always treasure.

I’m not sure there’s a point to this blog.   I wanted to share my amazement for the process, the journey, the lessons and the fun.  I don’t think we could have planned the route we’ve taken to get here.  Any of us.  But the Gratitude meter is going off the charts right now and as I look back on the experience to date it’s clear that Trusting is an asset that pays and pays in sweet unexpected ways.

We’re really just getting started but I needed to stop and say to all of you who’ve shared the ride that you are a larger part of the inspiration soup than you can imagine. We’re so glad you’re here.

I wonder where we’re going. How far. My prayer remains “Surprise me God!”  And, “Lead me where you need me, Big Amigo.”   Works for me.  I’m going along for the ride, grateful and trusting, and my world’s expanding, not contracting.   I’m a newbie and a novice but I’m smart enough to know that I’m right where I belong when I lay claim to the treasure found in Gratitude and Trust.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams is a singer, songwriter, actor, recovery advocate and has been a fixture on the American cultural scene since the seventies. His book Gratitude and Trust is now available.