This Moved Me

  This is my favorite part of the process.   It's the AHA part!  The part where you're standing in the shower... or wandering through your commute... or sitting on the porch with a glass of wine (ok, that one doesn't actually happen all that often, but isn't it a nice image?!)... and then BAM! IT COMES TO YOU!   When I was in grad school, finishing up my Master's degree - with a brand, spanking-new one-month old! - I remember waking up in the middle of the night with the PERFECT ending to my final project! I was so excited! But I was also so tired. So without realizing what was happening, I fell back to sleep (like only a new parent can do) and when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't remember it! It was gone. Like, poof. Gone. Totally blank. All I knew was that something brilliant came to me in the middle of the night.   That's how these things work. (If you want to hear more about this kind of magical idea-floating thing, just read Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Big Magic. I am slightly obsessed with it.)