I stood at the counter at Office Max, waiting to get some printing done. I was in the midst of a very pregnant feeling, a quickening that occasionally whispers in my belly, "I am here, waiting to be birthed, feel the life within."
I was taking my little seedling and bringing it into written form, I wanted something documentary like… almost like the vivid "plus" or "two blue lines" of a home pregnancy test.
There was a man at the counter with signs from Auto Zone, an auto parts store. "My son loves Auto Parts stores," I shared. "We drive past one and he recites all the names of the other auto parts stores and asks me which one is my favorite."
"That's cool," said the auto parts man. "How old is your son?" Maybe he had a job opening he was trying to fill.
"Six," I answered.
"Six? Wow," he responded. No employee for now, anyway.
"Yeah, but his real love is water meters and anything related to measuring water flow. He loves man holes, gutters, anything that can get stuck underground and mess around in the sewers. He finds it fascinating. He can spot Water Meters on the exteriors of buildings that you never noticed before…" (I was just warming up) "and then the other day, I saw one on the side of the hospital, and I was so excited by how big it was, I did a U-Turn so he could get a closer look! Yes, my son just gets so excited about lots of things."
Auto Zone man looked at me and said, completely dead-pan, "I see where he gets it."
I responded with my trade-mark upbeat nature, "Life is so much more interesting when you are fascinated with things. It's a lot better than being perpetually bored."
I spared him the details of my household ban on the words "bored" "boring" or "boredom".
I felt the stirring in my belly again as I passed my flash drive to the clerk I work with most often at Office Max. He knows I, like Sam, am fascinated by much of life.
We exchanged knowing smiles and the Auto Zone man went to go shop some more.
What fascinates you?
Do the people in your life know it fascinates you?
We aren't always encouraged to be fascinated or to share our fascinations. Passion is something for the few, we may be told.
Julia Cameron reminds us, "If I allow myself to be bullied and cowed by other people's urges for me to be more normal or more nice, I sell myself short."
It makes me cringe when I hear Emma say, "I just want to be normal." or my children to say, universally, "It would be nice to be normal but its tough when we have Mom for a mother."
I laugh and pretend it doesn't hurt and that whole cultural norm thing kicks in hard no matter how many years are between me and junior high.
Scan your memory for recollections of fascination: when something held your interest beyond the norm.
Right now one of my friends is fascinated by Vikings. He is a font of Viking information. When I first got back from Massachusetts, I felt like all I could talk about was Concord, Massachusetts and the Transcendentalists. I was literally hungry for more information, more knowing, a greater intimacy with everything transcendental. My current fascination is Women Writers in Literary History. I am now writing my 28th profile on that very topic!
What subject makes you hungry for more facts, more knowing, more intimacy?
Is there anything underneath that more obvious surface, like underneath my love of the transcendentalists is a desire to connect with friends intellectually. I want to have a circle of friends that can discuss and write poetry together.
Have you found some instances of fascination from your past and from your present?
Allow yourself to steep in a moment of "feeling" this fascination.
What lies underneath your fascination?
Allow these memories, these feelings, this energy be what you stir up in your writing time.
Prepare to write:
Follow your fascinations into your writing.
_______________ fascinates me because….
When I write about ____________________ I am inspired to…..
This is my first post of the BlogMeMayBe Blog Fest. I am shocked to report I had completely forgotten about this project. Thankfully I am back on track as of now. Monday is May I tell you something about writing? Day! I hope you enjoyed these words.
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again May 24, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
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