While working in my office one morning, I glanced out the window at the solar water fountain in the birdbath and realized I was just like that fountain.
Have ever watched one? When the sun is out, it shoots water out into the air a foot high. The water sparkles and shines in the sun and makes a beautiful tingling sound as in falls again back into the birdbath.
But in the morning, or evening, or when a cloud passes overhead, it makes a different sound. It blurps. The water barely makes it out of the fountainhead before falling back in. It struggles. Sometimes a ray of light strikes it and it blurps out higher.
The fountain wants to send water into the air. That’s what it’s designed for. But often, at least half the day, it struggles to do what it is designed to do.
I laughed when I saw the fountain blurping that day. That’s exactly how I was feeling. I couldn’t find my sparkle.
Most days, like the fountain, there are times of the day when I sparkle. Morning is my writing and creative time. It’s when words flash out, rising into the air, making beautiful sentences as they descend onto the page.
As the day moves on, my creative fountain starts blurping. I move to more administrative tasks in the afternoon. By evening I can barely do data entry type tasks. I’m not sure I am even making a blurping sound by then.
Most of the time, this is okay. But sometimes I feel so stuck nothing comes out no matter what time of day it is. That’s what happened that day.
I asked myself why I was working so hard? Who cares? “Why not just quit?” that voice in my head asked me. “Do something else that’s easier. Or just stop altogether.”
I’m know I am not alone in this cycle of sparkling, blurping, and nothing at all. But we are designed—like the fountain—to share.
So I don’t quit. And neither should you. When you sparkle, you inspire someone else.
When you find yourself only blurping and there is no sparkle, trust that the light, inspiration, will rise again. But if nothing happens, get help to get unstuck.
The fountain was made to do what it does, and we are “here” to do what we do.
What kind of water we spray out into the world is different for each of us, but we need each person to do what they were designed to do for the world to be whole.
So go ahead, blurp away when necessary. Trust that the time always comes when the blurping turns into the sparkling music of your life expressed.
That’s what I told myself that day when I couldn’t figure out what I was doing everything for, anyway. And then later that day, someone said something that inspired me again. They shone a light, and I sparkled in return.
Not all of us spray water like the Great Fountain Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Or are like the Fontaine Saint-Michel fountain in Paris. But every fountain counts.
Find your rhythm and your why, and just keep on keeping on. What’s a few little blurps among friends, anyway?
PS
Imagine my surprise to discover that blurp is not a word. Of course it must be. We’ve all heard that sound! Hear it for yourself in this sparkling and then blurping video…
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
