Sandra Heska King

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12 Ideas to Find Ideas

August 18, 2010 By Sandra Heska King

“I wish you had a GMC,” Gracee sighed. “So you could have a TV in here.”

If you’re going to be a writer, Gracee, you’ve got to look around. You miss too much treasure with your eyes on a screen–TV, Barbie computer, Nintendo.

Like there. That place almost looks like it used to be a little motel, but there are always cars there. Look outside that door. There’s a little tricycle. I think people live in those rooms. Who do you think lives there? Why do they live there?

Look at those beautiful tall flowers. I wish I had a garden like that. Who do you think planted it? Who takes care of it? What are they like?

Why are those fire hydrants all painted yellow and blue? (She later decided that whoever painted them must be University of Michigan fans. I would have painted them green and white.)

Why do you suppose that house is for sale? It doesn’t look like anybody’s lived there in months.

Did you see that bird?

Just look at the colors of that tree. The leaves are changing already.

I prattled on and on.

Then she asked, “Is that fire hydrant real silver?”

I don’t know. Let’s stop and check it out.

I whipped the car around and into the parking lot of the fire station. We got out of the car.

Nice hydrant. Real? Replica? I don’t know. There’s a water cover. Maybe real. But what if there is something hidden under there? Some kind of treasure? What if there is a secret behind this hydrant? What might be inside it if not water?

We could have gone in and asked questions and found out for sure. But we really didn’t want to.

We got back in the car.

“That was fun!” Gracee declared.

That’s the idea about ideas. Finding them should be fun. And sometimes they find us. We need to loosen up.

Here are some things that work for me. At least I’m working on them.

1. Get enough rest. Great ideas do not come to the weary.

2. Nourish your body. Eat healthy. Drink water. Don’t overdose on M&M’s. And, oh yes, exercise.

3. Nourish your spirit. Spend time in the Word daily.

4. Clear the clutter. In your surroundings. In your head. Learn to say no and let go.

5. Cultivate silence. Turn off the noise.

6. Cultivate stillness. Just. Sit. Still.

7. Read. Widely.

8. Engage in wordless recreation. Take a walk. Go for a bike ride. Bake something. Make something.

9. Develop eyes of wonder and awe. Rediscover your inner child. Play with blocks. Color. Swing. Get down on the ground. Look up. Notice details.

10. Take a journey to your past. Remember.

11. Be present on the page. Lock your editor up. Just write. What’s around you? What’s in your head? Free flow.

12. If all else fails, take a shower. Much more than water flows in water.

This post is part of the Christian Writers blog chain on Where We Get Our Ideas For Our Stories. See what others are saying. The schedule (still in process) is on my Links page above.

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Filed Under: stories and reflections, writing

Comments

  1. Michelle DeRusha says

    August 18, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    Your ideas are spot-on, Sandra. I just went for a run and was writing in my head the whole time. I’d neglected exercise for the entire summer because it seemed like I didn’t have time. Now I realize the movement of my body would have been mentally productive as well. Oh well, lesson learned.

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:16 pm

      I know. I always wonder why I put it off. It seems to save time in the long run. (Hee hee. I made a pun.)

  2. Susan J. Reinhardt says

    August 18, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Hi Sandy –

    Wonderful list! Isn’t this what kids do before they get wrapped up in computer games? What’s this? What’s that? Why are frogs green?

    I’m learning to stop, look, and listen when something catches my attention.

    Blessings,
    Susan 🙂

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:19 pm

      And sometimes we need to stop, look, and listen for something to catch our attention. 🙂

  3. E G Lewis says

    August 18, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    Great post…a recipe for living as well as writing.
    I’ll confess that I first read #6 as cultivate silliness and thought, “Now there’s someone after my own heart.” Maybe that could become number 13. A person who can’t laugh at the world won’t see the contradictions and irony built into every situation.
    Peace and Blessings

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:20 pm

      Cultivate silliness. Love it! That, too. 🙂

  4. Lynn Mosher says

    August 18, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Oh, Sandy! I love this! Great ideas! I would love to be a stow-away on one of your jaunts with sweet Gracee. Too fun! Blessings to you both!

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:20 pm

      Oh, we would love that, too! What fun we’d have.

  5. TraciB says

    August 18, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    Wonderful story, Sandy, and some great ideas for stimulating ideas. 🙂

    I’d like to add “hula hoop” to #9 (and maybe #2 as well, since it’s my primary form of exercise these days). It’s way beyond the toy store hoops and waist hooping we did as kids, and learning new moves and tricks is a challenge to both body and brain, which helps keep you young and young at heart. (Okay, done with the hooping plug. Back to our regularly scheduled comments…)

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:22 pm

      I’m not very good with the hoop. Maybe I need to try again. Cheap exercise.

  6. MisterChris says

    August 18, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    Well-written and thought provoking. I’m trying to inspire the Creative Writers in my family too.

    I used writing as an excuse not to exercise. Thanks for the reminder that staying healthy and exercising helps me to think clearly and imaginate. 🙂

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:24 pm

      We usually don’t give up food or sleep. (Though I admit I have sometimes when I get engrossed.) Why do we think we can give up movement, which is just as important?

  7. Sheila Hollinghead says

    August 18, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    What a great mom! Teaching your child to cultivate creativeness. The water one is so true (maybe because of the negative ions?). Good post!

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:24 pm

      Negative ions? That’s an interesting thought. Thanks.

  8. Sheila Hollinghead says

    August 18, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    How do you get our posts to show up with our comments? Cool feature!

    • Sandra says

      August 18, 2010 at 7:33 pm

      CommentLuv. It’s a WordPress plugin. I think it just became available for Blogger.

  9. Karen Swim says

    August 18, 2010 at 9:54 pm

    Sandra, such great advice. I believe that the gift of the creative, whether writer, artist, photographer or whatever is the ability to see inspiration everywhere. The world is an idea when you look rather than just see. It is a beautiful thing to see stories, patterns and ideas hiding everywhere, and to allow yourself time to simply allow them to flow. So much of my writing happens long before I pick up a pen or sit down at a computer.

    • Sandra says

      August 19, 2010 at 5:18 pm

      “The world is an idea when you look rather than just see.”

      Oh, I love that!

  10. Kenda says

    August 19, 2010 at 11:56 am

    Loved your story 🙂 Loved your list! I might add a #13, don’t forget to step out of the writer’s tower and connect with people. And I enjoy your writing overall. New follower here. Came over from Terri Tiffany’s site

    • Sandra says

      August 19, 2010 at 5:20 pm

      Welcome, Kenda. And thank you! You are right. We need to maintain those human connections. Now I’m heading over to your house to return your visit. I’m in the mood for tea. 🙂

  11. Terri Tffany says

    August 19, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    I love #10:) And maybe I said this before but I like your Voice. Your daughter has a way cool mom who makes her think and look!

    • Sandra says

      August 19, 2010 at 5:21 pm

      Warm fuzzies! Thanks. Oh, and for my new readers, Gracee is my granddaughter. I guess she has a cool grandma 😀

  12. Melissa | Madabella: made beautiful says

    August 19, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    what an awesome exchange with you and your daughter. Reminds me of my Bella…and LOVE these ideas…I totally agree with the shower…all my ideas come from there and the kitchen sink while washing dishes. Since my first creative outlet is art, I tend to explore textures and colors and patterns to get the juices flowing again. And worship – whether I’m writing or doing art, worship lyrics always send my mind in far off places…

    • Sandra says

      August 19, 2010 at 5:23 pm

      Worship music, yes! I love to turn it up, close my eyes, and just feel it. Thanks for mentioning it!

  13. deidra says

    August 19, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    I love this list. And I gotta go with adding the cultivation of silliness. I need to print this and post it all over my world!

    Now, on a different note (potential pun there):
    “On the banks of the Red Cedar,
    is a school that’s known to all.
    Its specialty is winning,
    and those Spartans play great ball!”

    I’d have painted them green and white, too! ; )

    • Sandra says

      August 23, 2010 at 12:16 pm

      Go Green!

      Except my husband graduated green (bachelor’s) AND blue (master’s) . . .

      Go Green!

  14. Tracy Krauss says

    August 20, 2010 at 12:17 am

    What a fabulous list! I especially loved the last one – how true! I have actually had lots of inspiration while in the tub or shower!

    • Sandra says

      August 23, 2010 at 12:18 pm

      There’s just something about water. 😉

  15. KatC says

    August 20, 2010 at 11:36 pm

    Sorry so late in commenting on this wonderful post! It’s obvious that you love life!

    #4 hit me. I tend to enjoy all the different things that life can offer a little too much, and get overwhelmed with the too many “yeses” I’ve uttered without careful thought. Time to declutter!

    Otherwise I’ll never get to even #1 or #2. 🙂

    Great post, Sandy – one that I would print and leave pasted above my desk for some gentle reminders.

    Blessings to you!

    P.S. – you don’t LOOK like a grandma!

    • Sandra says

      August 23, 2010 at 12:20 pm

      Thanks, Kat!

      And for your P.S. XOXO! 😀

  16. Adam Collings says

    August 22, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    Wow some really practical ideas here. I’ll have to put some of these into practice. This chain is really pointing out to me that so many people find their ideas in the world around them. I must pay more attention to the world outside rather than just the worlds in my head.

    • Sandra says

      August 23, 2010 at 12:22 pm

      Between the world outside and the world inside, it’s a wonder some of us just don’t blow up.

      I’ve got to figure out how to get into your site. 😛

  17. Nona King says

    August 24, 2010 at 11:40 am

    Fan TAS tic post. 🙂 My husband has said time and again that the shower should be called ‘the idea box’.

Trackbacks

  1. The Source of Ideas | The Collings Zone says:
    August 22, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    […] Sandra King — 18th August […]

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“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to “Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. . . Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment and bow their heads.” ~ Mary Oliver in “Mysteries, Yes”
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No way could anyone ever convince me that this world in all its beauty and creativity and mysteries is here by accident.
Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So yummy! I hope they come back.  But maybe not too often or I’ll have to do double time on the exercise.
“Embrace this day knowing and showing the world “Embrace this day knowing and showing the world that your God is more than enough for you.”
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@tamiheim @tonibirdsong 
In @stickyJesus: How to Live Out Your Faith Online
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the str My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion.” Psalm 73:26 (ESV)
🌿
I’d almost forgotten what quiet mornings on the patio were like. (Quiet except for the birds and the sound of the neighbor’s AC.)
So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the fir So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the first time he wanted to see me in 6 months instead of a year. He said my aortic stenosis had gotten worse. Like on the cusp of moderate to severe. 😬

So the first thing he asks me is, "How's you daughter?" Wait. Isn't this supposed to be about ME?

Then he asks if I've had any symptoms. "Well, I don't know. Maybe. I felt a little dizzy out of the blue a couple times. And felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I wouldn't have paid any attention if I didn't know I was supposed to be watching for symptoms. I DID walk all over Israel and up a bunch of steep hills, even all the way up to the Golan Heights--against the wind--without anything but normal fatigue.

He laughs. "I created a monster." Ummm, yeah.

"Have you been exercising?" 

"Well, yeah. We walk a couple miles a day. I'm back on my Nordictrack Strider." I didn't tell him I'd been lifting some light weights and some very heavy boxes and other items during this renovation, though I was told in December not to.

So he listens to the beating of my heart. Then he says, "Well, I don't think the valve is ripe yet. I don't expect you to have symptoms for three or four years. You don't need to come back for a year."

Wait! So you ask if I have symptoms. But you don't expect symptoms--yet. And when I do have symptoms, someone is gonna do something. And then I'll be older and maybe weaker. Or what if I have some sudden and silent symptom and boom! And now I have to worry about that. 

(In other news, my oldest grand texts me the other day, and our conversation runs like this...
Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And the Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And there were lilacs. They even shook their heads over tornado-induced devastation. Look for the beauty and sweet scents in the midst of the mess. I miss the lilacs.
Yesterday’s morning view. We haven’t seen the Yesterday’s morning view. We haven’t seen the sun all day today.
When the folks in my hometown of Gaylord, Michigan When the folks in my hometown of Gaylord, Michigan ate their breakfast Friday morning, they had no idea what terror and devastation they'd face before dinner. Everyone has a story. You've probably seen pictures.

If not, take a peek at @mlivenews .

My great-nephew, not quite 12, had just gotten home from school when the EF-3 came down the street and left its mark on every home. My niece frantically tried to find her way from work through debris and blocked roads. My sister was 30 miles away visiting my dad in rehab. I don't want to know how fast my brother-in-law drove. 

The house and yard took a hit, worse than some, not as bad as others. A mobile home park was demolished--two deaths there. I heard one person is still missing. So many injured. So much awful. But the town is coming together for each other. Pray for them.

We plan to fly up Thursday--already planned to celebrate my dad's 95th birthday. 

Also, if anyone feels led to help, the Otsego Community Foundation and Otsego County United Way are accepting donations. Note “Tornado Relief.” Beware of any other fundraising requests.
Cutting tonight’s walk short. Stupid blue jay. N Cutting tonight’s walk short. Stupid blue jay. Not this one. A different one. But still. (My niece believes blue jays are a visitation from Grandma—my mom.) 
My shirt says “Walk in love. But I’m not feeling very loving. And if it WAS my Mom AKA Mother Mary Esther of the Order of Perpetual Birdwatchers, I’ll bet she’s having a good laugh. A passerby said she heard it was good luck and I should buy a lottery ticket tonight. In other news, I also banged my hip bone against our bed’s footboard and gave myself a mighty bruise. Then I burned my arm on the top of the grill. I did manage to wash all the knives without cutting myself and didn’t start any fires. So how was your day?
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When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yad When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yadvashem - the World Holocaust Center in Jerusalem. There wasn't enough time to spend nearly enough time. 

The Valley of the Communities was very moving. It's a labyrinth of stone from which there seems no way out. Our guide said It gives an idea of the endlessness of the horror. His parents emigrated from Vilna (the Jerusalem of Lithuania), before the Holocaust. In 1935, thirteen of his family members still remained there. By 1945 only one--an uncle--had survived. He wrote a book about them from a bundle of old letters. "One story out of millions."

"This memorial commemorates the Jewish communities destroyed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and the few which suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust."
#Israel2022 #HolocaustRemembranceDay
“From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up a “From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, ” Anne Frank wrote in the Diary of a Young Girl. Watching the tree change through the seasons her family spent in hiding in an attic gave her hope. The Holocaust Memorial Center is one of only eleven sites in the United States to receive a sapling from that tree. I stand at “her” window and imagine hanging hope on a tree.

"It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” ~ Primo Levi

From a post I wrote for @tspoetry after a visit to the @holocaustcenter.

https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2016/07/27/regional-tour-holocaust-memorial-center-farmington-hills-michigan/
Stunning tree I parked near at Bible study yesterd Stunning tree I parked near at Bible study yesterday. I was in a rush and failed to snap the whole tree. I need to run back before the flowers fall. I think it’s a jacaranda? I want one.
Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this a Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this afternoon. I thought he was hurt, but I think he was just trying to cool off. (Maybe it's a young one.... unless it's the light?)
Someone should do something about that dog. She’ Someone should do something about that dog. She’s yelping and carrying on like she’s in some awful pain.
“Now in the place where he was crucified there w “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” ~ John 19:41

“But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay…’”~ Matthew 28:5-6

Many wonder if this tomb, which lies just a few yards west of Golgotha could be the place where Jesus lay and rose. I wish we could have lingered longer here in this garden and in the tomb itself. It was easier for me to imagine the events of that weekend happening here than in the heavily incensed, decorated, dark and crowded Church of the Holy Sepulchre… though my hairdresser said her old boyfriend “got chills”’when he entered that tomb. We did not go inside that one because the line was way too long. 

At any rate, the most important thing is that he tomb is EMPTY and HE IS RISEN!

HAPPY EASTER!
#Israel2022 #GardenTomb #Easter
 “Peter said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to g 
“Peter said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.’” ~ Luke 22:33-34

The Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu (rooster crowing) built over what tradition says was the house of Caiaphas where Jesus was brought after he was arrested. Perhaps he was imprisoned in one of the underground crypts while awaiting trial. 

“On top of the church, higher than the cross—I loved this—stands a golden rooster! I’ll never look at a weathervane the same again. How would you like to have a church commemorate your weakest moment?” ~ Wayne Stiles in Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus

#Israel2022 #GoodFriday
The olive trees here are ancient… some carbon da The olive trees here are ancient… some carbon dates to the 12th century, according to my Eyewitness book on Jerusalem. “DNA tests have shown that eight of the trees grew from cuttings from the same mother tree—perhaps taken by Christians who believed the tree to have witnessed Jesus’s agony.” 

Gethsemane means “olive press.” Jesus was pressed to his very depths that night.  He knew what was ahead. He could have run far away. But he went where he knew Judas would look for him. 

“And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” ~ Luke 22:41-44

Garden of Gethsemane and Church of the Nations

#Israel2022
A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as tall as I am. I wonder what he's wondering. Is he finding the answer blowing in the wind?

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in happiness, in kindness." ~ Mary Oliver in "Why I Wake Early"
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