August 4, 2015badfish

INSPIRATION: MY SWEET ASP

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Quote that inspires me:   “The bones of yesterday decay in my mind and create the aroma of everything sacred.”—Anonymous

For many years, I waited for inspiration to come to me, so that I could sit and write. What I’ve discovered is that inspiration will not come to you until you sit and write.

Someone asks what inspires me. At first, I think not much inspires me. But then after thinking about it awhile, I realize a number of things inspire me. It’s just that my super-power of procrastination overpowers inspiration, so that little actually gets created.

A truly well-written sentence inspires me, especially one with a semicolon; I might write it down and draft a sentence like it in my notebook.

A unique poem that I might not

quite understand inspires me.

I might try to imitate it,

using its style or format

with my thoughts and words.

A beautiful scene or object inspires me. I might pull out my camera and shoot the scene from three different angles or times of day.

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But nothing has inspired me to sit and write as much as blogging. For some reason, putting a blog into cyberspace, and writing posts has inspired me to sit and write, to continue to sit and write, and to share my writing more than anything else. I can’t explain that. So I won’t try.

But I believe it’s because of you, reading and commenting. So now that I realize that much, I thank you.

Okay, here’s the rub. I just finished the WordPress Blogging 201 course. Actually, I haven’t finished it yet. One of the last things I must do to finish is to create a poll or survey. So I’ll do that in this post.

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Here’s the deal. I’m sitting in Bali in the quiet burg of Ubud. I’ve rented this house, but I must leave soon because it is reserved for another lucky creep. However, my flight home does not leave for another week after I leave this house. I’m bad at decisions. Your task, should you choose to accept this mission is to help a Badfish out of water get to whatever pond is next.

I have two main options, as I now see it. Stay in Ubud and chill in another house with a pool closer to the Yellow Flower Restaurant. Or get on my motorbike and travel around the island of Bali. I would like you to vote on this. But I would like you not to think about the vote. Maybe close your eyes, and put your finger on the screen, and whichever choice is closest, click that button. Or count to ten or repeat your mantra and then whichever choice enters your head first, click that button on the poll. Or write the choices on a piece of paper and arbitrarily point to one with closed eyes.

Don’t make your choice be what you would do, or what you think I should do. Let the energy in the cosmos make the decision. You could do what I have done many times when trying to make a decision: flip a coin.

There’s also an Option 3 available on the poll…if the cosmic energy pops something else into your head, there is a space to write that in. You know, like a rent a house next to the deep tissue massage spa and get three a day. Or rent a place near the yoga shala and finally get your fine ass to the mat.

CAVEAT: the poll won’t show up in the READER, if you’re reading this there (a WP issue they are working on). You have to be ON my site. Sorry. And just so you know…it wasn’t MY idea to do a dang poll. However, it has been quite fun.

More photos of INSPIRATION here: Inspiration

Find more photos on Lucile’s Photo Rehab here: Photo Rehab

130 comments

  2. I voted for travel around Bali. It’s what I think *you* should do, not necessarily what I would do. OTOH I do see the sweet merit of staying in Ubud, staying slow, staying in your routine. Oh I don’t know. Ask the gods and demons for clarity 🙂
    No matter what I voted I think you should stay in Bali – travelling around the island seems like a lot of work to me at the moment, but then it could be easy, and sweet if you let it be. I’m no help at all am I?
    Alison

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  5. Travel.

    I would look forward to the blog posts it might evoke.

    Insights come from both staying still and moving. But inspiration often comes most from putting oneself in another’s perspective. Thank you for soliciting our input!

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  10. Words inspire me… The quote at the beginning was so inspiration… While I was reading your post, travel around Bali hit me. So at the end of the post I voted for this… But wherever you go, your energy, your soul will be a guide to you always… Good Luck. Thank you, love, nia

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  15. BADFISH! only YOU could come up with a great marketing tool like “vote for where i go and what i should do next” without even knowing it was a marketing tool. just doing it from sheer…. well… lets not say ‘desperation’, lets say your Superpower Procrastination!
    You’ve out-badfished yourself!!!!

    Congrats!

    Now… to try and find that voting thing and yes I did listen, actually I’ve been tuning into the Universe and Cosmic Badfish Quantum since i first read your post some hours back……

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    • I know!! But I have to confess, it was nothing I would have done if I didn’t have to do it for the 201 course. In the course, they suggested you poll readers on something about your blog, like it’s theme or font. I thought…that’s lame.
      Are you saying you don’t have the poll thingy on your computer??? It’s supposed to be at the bottom of the post! Let me know.

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  16. UGH! I cant find the poll either! The power of the cosmos is throwing it back in your face!!

    Okay… channeling Badfish Quantum: …. get sligthly out of Ubud and find a nice place to rent thats not in the thick of things…. the Cosmos says.. head north, young man…… and go ask Gunung Agung!

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    • Hi. Sorry to butt in but to find the poll, you have to actually be on his blog/site. And its at the very bottom like he said. It doesn’t show from the Reader I don’t know why. Maybe Badfish should ask the WordPress gods for some guidance. In the meantime, go and vote! 😉

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    • So…this is what the cosmos sounds like on a Tuesday evening, eh? North. Sounds good. So…is this a vote for STAY in slightly-out-of-Ubud, then?

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  19. Traveling is like writing, ya just gotta do it!

    I love that line about inspiration. A couple of months ago, I changed my writing position to standing and found, much to my dismay, I couldn’t think on my feet. So, a few days ago, I had to bring everything back down to sitting and now I can think again. I was amazed at how much more work got accomplished once I was seated.

    The biggest reason for the change was for health reasons; my derriere and mid section begged for the new stance in order for them to go away and it worked. You can’t believe how many more calories can be burned standing up. However, I made it possible to move the monitor and all else back and forth and am currently standing.

    I can now get started sitting down and once on a roll, move up. So far it’s working.

    I voted.

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    • Jo, HA! That is interesting. I recently bought a stand to put my laptop on. It’s more like for another screen, or you have another keyboard attached to a laptop…to get the screen higher, for your neck to sit properly. But you could use it to stand up with, which is one reason I bought it. I, too, am just tired of sitting. And this Michelin tire hanging on to my mid-section needs to be put in the truck of somebody else’s car.
      Thanks for voting. we’ll see what happens!!

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    • LUCKY? Jeeesh…I can’t even make a decision. But yeah, I get what you mean. A big bathroom, a veranda, gods and demons everywhere. I think it has to do with karma, past lives where everything I did was a chore and a trauma. Otherwise, I’m the poster child for life being unfair.

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  22. I voted.
    I used a Canadian nickel to flip the coin and the *beaver* won … which is *tails* by the way. 😉
    No, I can’t make this stuff up. There is someone with a sense of humour at the Canadian Mint.

    So, travel!! 🙂

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    • OMG….THAT IS SOOOOO FUNNY. I laughed out loud. HARD! The beaver won!! How cool. No one could make that stuff up! Maybe when a country exterminates an animal, they put its picture on money. The US put a buffalo, and the Native Americans, and of course, Lincoln.

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    • Thanks for voting…and keeping it secret.
      CUTE, eh? But you know, I have wanted to write for…well, for for ever. But could never discipline myself to sit and do it. Blogging has given me that courage to sit and get “something” down on the page. But what keeps me doing it again and again is people commenting and making me laugh and feel good about stuff. You…on the other hand…just piss me off with your continual and consistent doing of all kinds of things!!! And doing them so well. Please could you just slow down and be mediocre at something just once?

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  25. Love the poll! Of course I voted “other” ~ “other” is always the answer…well, unless 42 is more fitting. Anyway, there’s a limit to the characters we’re allowed to type in the “other” space, so you’ll just have to finish the thought yourself.
    Cheers and have a fantastic week wherever you go/stay/other

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    • Thanks, Paula. And you are right…42 is usually the correct answer. Thanks for doing the poll. It’s been a kick!! Never thought I’d do a poll!!

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  27. So I closed my eyes, reached out with the Force and my finger touched OTHER – and it clicked in since it’s a touch screen lappy. The only thing I thought of was “Let the Universe take you where it wants to.”

    Now, going back… your first line, the quote, “The bones of yesterday decay in my mind and create the aroma of everything sacred.”—Anonymous

    I got caught in that web, and willingly sacrificed myself to it. It’s rather like a mantra. And beneath the exquisite photo too.

    SO, you have discovered the truth. The pure experience of being here, the co-mingling of the desire to create, with the need to share, and thriving upon the energy of interaction. All of it keeps us here, else why would we keep coming back? Even while we’re away on vacation, with promises to let go and relax, we must feed the addiction.

    A momentary final thought: The photo of the door is simply gorgeous. But I love architecture and doors, and the color in your photos, especially the grass, is sumptuous.

    Waiting to see where the Universe leads you!

    Aloha,

    Fim

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    • GAWD…you’re just so right on with that—“SO, you have discovered the truth. The pure experience of being here, the co-mingling of the desire to create, with the need to share, and thriving upon the energy of interaction.” I’m simply just amazed at the addiction. And amazed at your spooky ability to phrase it like that!!

      I see that door every day. On that particular day, the light was perfect. That “grass” is rice growing. And it is even more sumptuous in person. It’s one of those things, like the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley or Niagra Falls, where your photographs just can’t capture the reality of the thing. Rice paddies are like that. Plus, there’s an energy here that a photo would never capture. So apparently, I’m addicted to blogging and to Bali. Life could be worse.

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      • When I read your words, and then comment, it is like you are guiding my pen, for it is my reaction and response to what you bring to us.

        Your photos may not convey the reality of standing before that door, but it does evoke a sense of the place that I’d otherwise never have known, if not for this post.

        So, being addicted to blogging, and Bali, I’d say, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be.
        A thought forms. Remembering how you considered relocating, what of Bali, for that purpose? Just a thought.

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  28. I voted for other and said: Go to Komodo. I think you’ve been before, but I feel like you need an adventure before you leave Indonesia.

    I feel the same way about blogging and writing inspiration. We write, ultimately, so that someone will read what we have written and perhaps we can have discussions about things we care about. Blogging gives you that instant feedback that propels us to keep going.

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    • Jeff…you are psychic!!! Just this morning, I thought, hmmmm, maybe I should go to Komodo. And I thought about your going there. And you are half right. Because half of me wants to go for an adventure, and half of me just wants to hang and chill. One reason I decided (but not totally) not to go to Komodo is because my first trip there was sooo cool, and I’m not sure I want my memory of the place to be changed by 20-some years later. But maybe Komodo hasn’t changed all that much?
      And you are spot on again about why we/I blog. These discussions and comments have given me a reason to sit and write. Because just sitting and writing is a lonely job, otherwise.
      Now…I have to post another poll about whether to go to Komodo or not!!!

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        • Boom? Why…people want to go see the dragon? We could buy a fleet of boats to haul them out to Komodo, dive along the way.
          Are you saying you want me to go there and put a deposit on, say, 200 are of land? Because, as you know, I have nothing better planned for today.

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          • I think the word is out how cool the place is, plus there is a new airport in LBJ that makes it less than 2 hours from Bali. yes, get a large parcel by the airport that we can resell to a giant corporation years down the road.

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          • When our plane flew in to LBJ last time I was there, it circled around, so the air inspectors could view a plane that had crashed the day before. Scary. I later hiked in on foot to see it up close. Really scary…falling out of the sky in a tiny plane. Nobody died. The plane got hung up in the trees. I’ll ask my tarot reader about land in LBJ!!

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  34. I should think it would take a week of massage to loosen you up for the trip, home or to more exotic destinations. If you ever get back to Tombstone I would like your story about the Javelina living in that back yard on the east end of town.

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        • That pig is either dead, or very fat and gray! I’m ready to start writing, just haven’t made the committment, don’t know if I’ll go home, or sit in some place like Bali or Amsterdam. I’ve been gathering material for decades now, but I have this love affair with procrastination.

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  35. Hey bf…. I am not sure that I can catch up on all of your posts – but I enjoyed the few I was able to read this morning – and I just had to comment here because this post Reminded me of a Louis L’Amour interview I read in early 90’s.
    I never read his books although I know his cowboy western stories were favs for many folks decades ago – but in the interview he said something like ‘no idea or story ever came to him until his pencil was moving….’
    And what u said about your writing (and blogging and bring inspired) reminded me of that.
    And with that said – I am glad we have crossed paths in blogosphere – my fav thing about blogging is the originality of posters – and I get blown away not just by the diversity, but by the unique voices and vibes imbued in posts –and when I find time to read – well I am the better! Usually – ha! And while I am still getting to know I as a blogger 😎-!your posts are culture rich and jam packed with your humor and life seasoning-
    I am not sure how the vote turned out – but did I read there was supposed to be a pie chart of results?

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    • Wow! Thanks so much. I, too, feel so blessed to be a part of the blogosphere. So many talented and interesting folks doing so many different and interesting things in the world, all over the world. And thanks for trying to catch up!! The pie chart is at this post: https://badfish2.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/one-last-week-in-paradise-footprints-on-the-road/
      I ended up traveling, and posting about it for the next few weeks. Still have a few posts from that trip! Insight—don’t ask your readers to vote if all you want to do is sit and watch rice grow.

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      • Ahhhhh – so I need to keep reading some more…. I will check out the post w the chart. And regarding the blogosphere – I only see this in hind sight after evolving as a blogger and taking two long breaks from it – but I see that unfollowing certain blogs was helpful for me – and pacing things with it also us nice – like other areas of life that need balance and seasons – I think blogging has ebbs and flows….
        And speaking of that – I really need to see the vote results ♥️ so time click the link —-

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