When thinking about starting a blog with my friend Suzy I mused over things that inspire me and make me happy, things which inspire happiness in my day-to-day life from various platforms no matter how insignificant they might seem. I make lists and spider diagrams for my thoughts when I need to make decisions and simplify life which extends from the running of daily errands and academic study, to going on holiday and moving abroad; the list, as they say, is indeed endless.
So in order to arrange my mind to even begin contemplating creative writing on a regular basis, I sourced myself a new notebook and etched “inspirations” inside a cloud outline on the middle of the first page. In no time at all the page began to span a monochromatic map of thoughts springing to the foreground of reflection upon my creative interests; avenues of inspiration which I would choose to share with others arranged together in a way that both makes me happy and also highlights my natural tendency towards organisation. Now I have a whole library of one word inspirations to help my mind single out simple joys to focus on when the chaos of everyday life starts to take residence and distract.
The second spider diagram in my new notebook asked me “why write/ why share?”, and a number of failed attempts have had to pass for me to reach a coherent conclusion: I want to write because I want to give time in my life to something “other”, something separate to my job, my friends, to trials and tribulations of adult life, and I have come to the realisation that writing as a creative expression brings a unique happiness to my life. Collaborating with my oldest friend to create a space where we can focus our attentions to the good, positive, and simple pleasures in the world sounds like a fun hobby, something we can share and do together despite living miles apart. The internet is an open platform, and has such a one-sided impact on our lives that we thought we should try to utilise the expansive space for something of our own.
So here we have it, a shared space for creative expression by taking a moment in the day to focus our attention on things which make us smile. We find inspiration in all aspects of life and see this as an opportunity to herald a great number of interests. To Suzy, I’m excited to start this new adventure together. To the reader, I hope you enjoy the pieces of writing which follow and that you, like us, find something amongst our writing that makes you smile.
in nooks and crannies 