it looks pretty bleak out there...

I was looking for an image that captured how I'm feeling today.

The one above does it pretty well.

That's my youngest son sketching in the sand at the beach on our rained-out vacation a week ago.  What I like about the shot is the emptiness all around him.  You got what looks like an ocean of sand and the actual ocean surrounding him.  Nothin' but him.

And his ideas.

I didn't ask him to sketch--didn't suggest it.  I was a hundred yards or more away from him when I saw him pick up the stick and start.  Grabbed my telephoto and off we go.

My son in the wilderness with his ideas.

Just like me.

Sometimes I feel like that's really all we have.  Us and our thoughts.  Us and our ideas.  Us and our loneliness.

And to fight the loneliness we come up with ideas and--if we have the tenacity, talent and perseverance--give birth to them so that we might fill the World around us with things that feel familiar.

Familiar because they've come from us.

Or have they?

That's the question, isn't it, when it comes to ideas and creativity?  And the question is relevant to those of you who preach and to those of you who produce and to those of you who 'make' things and to those of you who need to come up with ideas to fill your world.

Where do our ideas come from?

Some would say from our subconscious.  Some would say from our past experiences, education, upbringing, relationships and so on.  Some--who've recently read 'The Secret'--might suggest the ubiquitous 'universe' as the source and others might say God.

I've found that, in my life, the question as to the root of creativity or ideation has led me down the path to being found by and in God.  My hope would be not to try and direct or even influence what you find but rather to encourage you to keep thinking on it and searching and wondering.

Because I believe that those who seek will find.

And that imperative (seek and ye shall find...) is of encouragement to me today as I sit here at my desk working to make headway while feeling like it's almost impossible to do so.  I'm reminded--looking at the photo of my baby son--that though my ideas, thoughts and dreams are mere sand-scratches in the wilderness of eternity, they're 'my' (Our) scratches and I was made to scratch them.

Nobody else is going to do what you do so it's important that you do it.

T