Inspire 52 - Week 7. The Art Of Waiting

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination.  Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. Napoleon Hill (1)

I've been waiting for inspiration to arrive all week and all of a sudden it has manifested itself in the act of 'waiting', so this is what has inspired me to create this week's 52.

This week being Valentines week, I thought perhaps I would do a piece on love, but it just hasn't inspired me, too 'expected' and 'obvious' maybe, and I'm just not that kinda girl! So you're not getting a piece about love this week, but you are going to get something that is equally intangible.

Waiting ... a space for imagination, dreams, desires, aspirations, inspirations ... The space that occurs before the jump, the voyage or the seeds to grow.

The Art Of Waiting

Hazel Evans

Whilst exploring my 'waiting', I started looking for a few quotes that inspired me and it seemed that there were two types of waiting that people wrote about:

1. waiting = time wasting 
2. waiting = patience

... oooh this has just got complicated, I guess the key is not to wait for too long! But how long is too long?

Time waits for no man

So you may ask, 'Hazel what are you waiting for?' Well, mes chers amis, I have been cultivating, planting seeds and now I am waiting for them to grow. Surely this is not time wasting, but indeed, patience?

Oh busy busy bees,

Keep flying for me

Into the pages I write.

I've written the words

Set them free like birds

Now can I sleep tonight?

Oh busy busy bees

Keep making honey for me

Nectar for my seeds to grow.

I'm ready on the block

Singing with the clock

I'm ready for the voyage you know!

Hazel Evans

I guess another consideration is the kind of waiting one does, what one waits for, and what one chooses to do with ones waiting time!

This week's top 3 waiting activities:

1. Listening to music
2. Sketching
3. Dreaming

All of the above activities are highly recommended and conducive to enlivening creativity whist in a waiting scenario, however, be careful of No.3 as too much of this could induce time wasting!

This week I knew I wanted to create an illustrative piece again, after all the Odeful words of last week, my pen was hungry for some linear scribbling. Where to begin? ... I saw a picture posted on Facebook of a woman dancing in the street and it looked like it had been drawn over a photograph, this lit up a lightbulb for me. I took one of my portrait shots for The Monochronium by Danika Westwood and used this as the departure for the new illustration.

It was a strange experience as I sat there poised with my pen looking at myself there sitting poised with a pen! It was like we were going to draw each other ... I took a deep breath ... stop thinking and just be with the pen ... Just follow the lines ... let the lines guide you into the blank paper.

And so the drawing began...

... The waves rumbled from my hair and created a sea on which my strong sailed ship voyaged upon the oceans wide. My shoulders bubbled me into a mixture of lines, dots and crosshatchings as I held on tightly to my pen I was determind to not let these waves disolve me into a blurred scribbling mess. 'Just keep following the lines', I kept repeating to myself. I knew that if I just kept following the lines everything would become clearer soon.

As I followed the lines I thought about home, 'Where was my home?' I was unsure at this point, but although this uncertainty questioned my mind, I realised that behind the front door, was a whole world of places and opportunities for a home to be, so I walked up the steps and took hold of the door handle. I felt safe opening the door as a warm breeze whispered in my ear, 'Home is where the heart is my friend'. I walked into the hall way and up the spiral staircase. There was a rounded window, but I couldn't quite see out of it, so I pushed up an old chest of draws, climbed on top, and from there I was able to see out.

Wow, what a view! From here I could see all kinds of flowers and trees that filled the garden below. There were glimpses of bright fresh budding stems and branches. Everything looked beautifully still and silent, but I knew inside it was growing, ready for the spring blossom. I looked out beyond the garden, acres upon acres of fields surrounding my entire house. There was a figure in the distance ploughing the fields, I called out, 'Hello!... Hello!' and waved. They waved back at me, and I smiled as I realised they were planting new seeds that would grow and make the garden bigger.

... 'Ouch!', I felt a prick on my leg and then a bee flew out of the window. 'That bee just stung me!' I exclaimed to myself. 'Bee, oh busy bee, do come back!', I jumped off the chest of draws and ran down the stairs, burst open the door and stopped. It was dark! What happened, where did the light go? I stood there stunned. 'I hope I haven't missed anything', I thought to myself. It was so silent and dark, I was afraid as I stood there alone. As the dark got darker, the light of the moon grew stronger and I began to hear a voice singing. I looked up into the sky and saw the crescent moon, she was singing to me. 'Oh busy busy bee, listen to me, keep your eyes shining bright, you've followed the lines and waited for times, and now you can sleep tonight.'

I smiled back at the moon, went inside my home and up to bed. I had a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. There was a ship waiting to take me on my voyage and I had to make sure I was up bright and early to get my ticket.


(1) www.brainyquote.com