When I was a child we had boxes of books from Regina for our library

Who says an old idea cannot live again and that children, despite the most adverse situations will read if they can? I am sure that Joan Oleck will not mind my passing on this message from the British Columbia School Librarians to the Blue Stockings. For me this is inspiration and for those who write children’s stories hope for the future. Fran

Plane Drops 7,000 Books for Canada’s Indigenous Kids

Joan Oleck — School Library Journal, 3/5/2007

Most kids head to the library or bookstore when they need a book, but the aboriginal Cree children in Canada’s Far North can boast about a more adventurous experience. They received 7,000 novels and picture books after a military plane dropped them on to the frozen ice of a river emptying into Hudson Bay.

The February 26 drop was designated for K–10 students of the aboriginal reserve called Fort Severn First Nation. The tribe, like all of Ontario’s 26 northern first nations, suffers from geographical isolation, poverty, low literacy, and, until recently, a near-total lack of books in its school libraries. In all, two air drops delivered 900,000 new and gently used books for children in the subarctic native communities, which are unreachable by land during the winter.

The project is the brainchild of Ontario Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman, who is a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation. When Bartleman started the drive for the first nation school libraries in 2004, he collected 1.2 million books.

Bartleman’s chief-of-staff, Nanda Casucci-Byrne, says the thrill of watching the first drop outweighed the minus-10-degree temperatures and biting wind she had to brave. “It was a very large plane, the largest the community had ever seen,” she says. “It circled the community three times, and on the third time, on this predesignated spot on this frozen lake, you saw this large door at the back of the plane open. Then parachutes started to open. It was like gifts from the heavens.”

Once the massive crates hit the ice, nearly everyone in the community of 250 people hopped on their Skidoos and dogsleds and raced to reach the containers. Bartleman helped nearly 50 children tear open boxes and choose books. Some of the kids even plopped down on the snow and began to read, says Casucci-Byrne.

“When we put out this appeal, we thought, ‘If we get 150,000 books, it’ll be tremendous,’” she says. “Nine hundred thousand books later, and seeing this airplane coming to the most northerly, remote area of Ontario, and seeing these books fall from the sky… it was a beautiful picture.”

Dream seeds

I have a theory that inspiration floats around like winged seeds, the air is full of ideas and they alight on anyone, regardless of whether you are a painter, a writer or an inventor. They just float about and pop into peoples’ heads, and sometimes they take root and produce a flower, other times they can’t grow beyond that first flash of inspiration and move on. Have you ever noticed that if you don’t use a flash of inspiration, someone else will? A story or picture you vaguely had in mind turns up as someone else’s work. I don’t mind when that happens, it just shows the seed found more fertile ground.
Jo Rowling said that Harry Potter just `popped into her head” fully clothed and ready to go – of course he did. The seed that was destined to flower into the seven Harry Potter novels knew this was the mind that would nurture it best.
I know sometimes and idea pops into my head fully formed and all I have to do is write it up or gather my art materials – if the idea lies fallow and doesn’t come to anything, no matter how often I look at it, I know it’s not really meant for me. I just caught one that was floating about, and I’ll happily let it go to find another mind. There are plenty more floating about up there, and while some are not for me, I’ll catch one that is.

Creatively inspired

Creative inspiration?

It must be divine
because
I cannot explain
where it comes
from…

Inspiration,
the view
outside my window

I observe color harmonies,
textures, silhouettes,
and patterns of clouds.

Almost every evening
a new gallery opening appears
in the sky.

In these moments
I marvel at
this beautiful planet
and think how lucky I am
to see as I do.

Sometimes I take pictures
but mostly I try
to absorb the feeling
and memorize details.

I wonder how much
enters into my work,
but mostly
it is not planned.

Art supplies
and tools
inspire me.

I wander the art supply store
noticing everything.

I linger over industrial tools
to see what possible marks
they can make.

In solitude
I lose myself
in my task
to find
joy

~Lunagirl

Creative Inspiration

Oh, a rather complex question for me, Lori.  Is my source external or internal?  It’s like asking me if I’m introverted or extraverted. I read a lot of books (which is supposed to mean I am introverted) but if you stop to look at the kind of books I read–at least 80% of my reading is about people (novels, psychology, the arts) not things.  So I’m an extroverted introvert?  I seem to be both!  Some people score 80/20 or 70/30 on the introvert/extrovert dimension.  I’m like 45/55!  External input prompts my writing and so does internal energy.  It’s very mixed up for me and I think, at this point, not very relevant.  I write because I want to write and I’ll use whatever kind of inspiration (external or internal) comes to me.  But, I can think of situations where this might be a good question.  Such as, am I writing to get approval?  To get published?  To become famous?  Because one of my parents was a famous writer??  Are these questions examples of external motivation or internal motivation?  Could be both. 
Oh, lord, I think I’ll go on to the easier question.  Is the source of my inspiration divine?    I would not say so, but I can understand why artists/writers/musicians have said this.  There have been rare occasions (usually when writing poems) when I feel that I (my ego, conscious self) has not written something.  Another part of me (beyond my ego) has written it.  Because it comes out about 98% finished!  Maybe I have to give it a title, but the rest of the work was done before I picked up the pen to write!  Plop!  There is it!  A complete little story in the form of a poem.  I wish I could figure how I did it and do it more often!  (The conscious self/ego wants that control!)  Most of my writing though (fiction or non-fiction) comes in pieces.  A little bit here, a little bit there.  It needs time to grow.  Sometimes I get endings before beginnings, or middles before beginnings & endings.  Sometimes it’s like putting a puzzle together or quilting.  This dialogue goes here, etc.  Or, to use another metaphor, (used first by someone else but I can’t remember whom) and this I could believe, there’s always a river or stream of creativity going thru us–24 hrs a day, 365 days a year, (and dreams are part of this river too), but we (our conscious self) can only go swimming in this river part of the time.  Do not mourn the time we are not swimming though, for we are human and therefore need to eat/sleep, care for children, pay the mortgage, etc.  Indeed, if we didn’t do those things we wouldn’t be able to “go swimming” at all.  So celebrate–and come on in, the water’s just fine.

Cheshire

P.S.  Honest truth.  I wrote this before I saw the photo Literary Bohemian posted with her writing.  Go check it out–it’s a beautiful nature scene.

Blue Stocking Discussion: Creative Inspiration

Some famous creatives have made these observations about their sources of inspiration:

• Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite: ‘Fool!’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’  Philip Sidney

• When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let go . . . The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!  Judy Collins
• There is a deity within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated. Publius Ovidius Naso

What are your source of inspiration?  Is it from within?  Or without?  Is it divine or not so?

Comment below or post to category BS 02.03.07 Creative Inspiration.