finding the muse

sunrise: 6:38

Linekin Bay Resort has many points of beauty, no question.  It would be a wonderful place for a summer camp, that a young person would remember and cherish forever.

For me, though, it is lacking in something.  I couldn't really put my finger on it.  Then I came upon another sunrise walker this morning, another writer up and contemplating the pre-dawn sky.

She was at the last conference I attended in Deer Isle, at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.  I asked what she thought of the comparison between the two places.  She is a gentle person, and answered quietly but without hesitation that she preferred Haystack.

"Something about it made it easier to find the muse," she said, with a smile.

Finding the muse is such an elusive concept.  We don't always have the luxury of putting ourselves in the perfect place to discover her (I think of my muse as a female).  Sometimes, if you want to become a serious and more consistent writer, you need to develop a new relationship with the muse. 

You cannot always go where she is, so you have to learn to store her gifts in the cupboards of your heart, the attic of your mind, and the wardrobe of your soul.

Then you can carefully draw her forth, with some effort, when you need her inspiration. 

Sometimes, though, it is difficult to pry those muse doors open.  If you can find some of the places where the muse resides, be there with her more directly, creation comes more easily.  Her gifts surround your outside and spill out of storage on the inside.  You are sated, replete with a mused atmosphere.

But she is elusive and unpredictable, that muse.

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I have gathered a great deal to think about over the last week.  It will be nice to get home today, see my husband and my doggies, fold myself back into this new iteration of home family, rise in the morning with the prospect of my own back yard to explore again.  Lots of things to think about.