My Muse

The other day. I went to sign up for a creativity website membership, and there was a question that said, "What is your muse?"

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I had no idea what that word meant. I felt completely silly. I hear people use this expression all the time. "My muse" this and that. When I read words like that, I usually assume the person has some personal guardian-angel walking around with them, leaning in and whispering in their ear, telling them what to do.

So to answer this question on the application, I did what I do best: I researched. In my systematic way, pencil tucked above my ear, I Googled: "What is a muse? How do I find my muse? " (It was a little silly.)

Eventually, after clicking on a lot of websites (none of which answered the question "define muse" in a satisfactory way), I began to infer that one's muse is the thing that lends inspiration for ideas and action. So in my case, I deduced, my muse is mainly fed by interaction with others, the give and take of speaking and listening, reading and reading and reading, and of sharing thoughts and ideas. Without that, my creativity withers and dies. So that is one of the thing that is important for me in order to live creatively and with passion about the things I do.

And why might we we want to know what our muse is?

It seems to me that identifying the things that inspire creativity and integrating them into our daily life is a positive step. We may not be passionate in every moment of each day, but being aware of our "muse" and what it means to us can't hurt, can it? I mean, now that I sort of know the definition of the word muse, maybe it's time for me to start listening to mine.