I love to listen to songs with inspiring lyrics, gaze at the scenery, read a good book, lose myself in a movie or be challenged by a thought-provoking sermon.  Each of these chunks of “data” has the potential to deposit a passage in my brain that my mind won’t let go of.  Passages give way to thoughts as I attempt to process them.

When this happens, I find myself scrambling for a scrap of paper on which to capture my thoughts before they evaporate.  I don’t know about you but my thoughts can evaporate quicker than acetone (that’s really quick).  This can be a challenging prospect if the incident occurs while I am engaged in some mindless activity such as mowing the lawn, taking a shower, or riding a bike.  Hmm.

What can I say?  Processing scraps of paper, each one capable of holding an array of thoughts, has become part of my writing process.  I ponder these thoughts as I force them into sentences, paragraphs and pages.  My words seem to age or ripen after each rewrite.  In the end, I am sometimes left with a kernel of wisdom or some new insight.