Lightning, real lightning, has never touched me. I have more fear of thunder, the loud boom that always makes me jump. But the lightning bolt of an idea, that is another story. Mine usually come when I am taking a shower. When I worked as a preschool director, the solution to whatever problem I had been grappling with the day before hit me then. As a writer, new ideas and inspiration pour into my head as soon as the water hits it. As Mark Twain said, “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
As Mark Twain said, “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
RetroFlash — 100 words
Laurie LevyBoomer. Educator. Advocate. Eclectic topics: grandkids, special needs, values, aging, loss, & whatever. Author: Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real.
Characterizations:
, been there, funny, right on!, well written
I seem to get my ideas mainly while doing mundane manual tasks that I have done many times before. The brain is not involved and so has time to wander where it will!
You are so right about just letting our minds wander for inspiration.
Like the way you linked the lightning bolt to that flash or spark of creativity that we need for new ideas. I laughed though because one of my staunch commandments in life ‘never take a shower during a thunder storm’.
That’s probably a good commandment, Patty.
Very nice the way you twisted lightning to mean inspiration, Laurie. I do some of my best thinking in the shower too, so I am in complete agreement with you.
Another thing we have in common, Betsy.
So Laurie, it seems some folks sing in the shower; you apparently think in there!
True! No one wants to hear me sing (LOL).
Great quote—Mark Twain is one of my favorites. I like the way you describe the bolts of inspiration in the shower. That is the happy kind of lightning work.
You bet. Still rely on it to inspire my Retro stories.
You reminded me that I have come up with some great ideas, not just about writing but for other purposes, while swimming laps. Unfortunately, I’ve barely done that at all since the pandemic–only at a heated outdoor pool in Sebastopol, California. So I guess I too find my thinking stimulated by the water-but not the water pouring out of a showerhead.
LOL, Dale. It’s probably healthier to be inspired while swimming.
I like how you put the impact of lightning, vis-a-vis thunder, Laurie. We had both in my growing-up years in Oklahoma, and the streaks of lightning did provide the dramatic counterpoint to thunder’s rumble.
I have always been more startled by loud noises than flashes of lightning, perhaps because I have never personally been in danger due to lightning.