If you know Washington, DC, then you know Spring always starts with a burst of color. It's as if the great grey realities of this serious city simply can't contain themselves after the dark days of Winter. Every year, this annual declaration of exuberance launches Spring like a fireworks display. Where most of the world may be yawning as it's just now waking up from its wintery sleep, then gradually pulling back the covers on spreading green buds, we have cherry blossoms.
Speaking for a bunch of creative people, I find the ironic blast of life every March an apt analogy for the emergence of good ideas. It happens the same way, I think. Rarely to great ideas take shape in easy, gently rising arcs of development. Ideas that move people usually emerge after long stretches of quiet consideration, sometimes confined by cold, tightly wrapped pressures, only to suddenly explode with light and clarity, often close to fully formed.
Boom!
The trick, of course, is not to take that process for granted. The trick is to help create the right conditions for deep, ruminating thoughts to grow, and then find ways to uncork them. When I see nature's annual expression of passion-- of life bursting out no matter how grey the surrounding city and grinding gridlock--I cannot help but find myself a kindred spirit to the living world.
-MS