Finding inspiration in adversity

I recently spent the better part of a week in the Intensive Care Waiting Room of a Little Rock hospital.

My dad was having lung surgery and the rest of the family and I quickly got to know the rituals of the ICU. We learned how they handled visiting hours, we learned the time time each night when the staff handed blankets for family members who didn't want to leave the hospital. We got to know the awful fear you'd see in a family's eyes if a doctor suddenly appeared and wanted to talk to them.

My dad is doing great and is home again.

That's the best news. But I also have some lesser, unexpected good news to report from the experience. I made great progress on my novel. Suddenly surrounded by a new setting, I was inspired to recreate that world on paper. (Or at least on a computer screen.)

I realized that several scenes of my current work could take place in an ICU. And when I placed them there, they came alive!

I don't know where this new direction will take me, exactly. But it was a good reminder that creativity can't blossom if it's not fed by new experiences. We should all write what we know -- that's the cliched instruction. But I think maybe we should really write what we're learning -- and we need to constantly learn new things!