When you don’t have any inspiration, you don’t have much. 

Inspiration gives you the ingredients to make something. You can’t make anything or make something happen from a vacuum. 

 A vacuum sucks the life out of anything.

I remember back in about 1990, I got a new pair of skates called Vacu Tacks.

These skates were different than most. To get the right fit, you would put them on and the salesman would heat up the skates with a heat gun, like an industrial-powered hairdryer. It got so hot in the skates that you could hardly keep your feet in them. 

Then they zipped a special bag around each skate while the skates were still on your feet. With an air pump hose attached, they sucked all the air out of the bags, forcing the skates to form tightly to your feet.

… A vacuum is good for skates but not for inspiration.

Being in the lockdown here in Ontario is like being in a vacuum. I have no inspiration to write. You need something to give you inspiration, but with this vacuum there’s nothing. 

The last several weeks have proved the most difficult for writing these blogs since I started back in 2012.  

I’ve been writing this blog for nine years now and I have never found it very hard to come up with a topic to write about. There is usually something that happens that I can turn into a post. 

Right now there seems to be nothing happening. 

I have spent more time sitting, staring at an empty screen than I have writing. When I have something to write about, it usually generates more ideas. The main thought gives me inspiration and the words just flow.

The only vacuum that would give me inspiration right now is the food sealer I saw one time at Costco. That gadget was amazing! You could put anything in the bag and the air would be sucked out so that the bag formed tightly around the food. 

I thought we should get one, but Lily believed if you just put a straw in a bag, sucked the air out and quickly sealed it up, that would work just as well. 

Well, now that they are making straws illegal (an environment hazard), how is she going to make that work, I wonder. 

I’ve pulled things out of the freezer before and there were all kinds of ice crystals that clung to the food, like barnacles on the bottom of a ship. … At least there was something there. There had to have been some moisture inside that bag when we put it in the freezer. 

You may not like having to scrape freezer burn off the top layer of your ice cream either, but at least you have something to do. 

In space there is no air, but at least they can float. 

With the gravity here on earth, it’s like we are stuck on the ground but with the life sucked out of us. 

How can I write in those conditions? … I guess I found a way.

Here’s the thing: We need inspiration to write. The Bible was written by the inspiration of God on about 40 different authors from many different walks of life that spanned over 2000 years. You know a book like that had to have divine inspiration to stay consistent to the main theme and point to the one true hope: Jesus Christ. Now that is real inspiration. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s giving you inspiration these days? Leave you comments and questions below.

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