What does inspiration have to do with a Jedi? Before today I wouldn’t have thought they had anything to do with each other. In druidry inspiration is called “awen” and is an important force (no pun intended). It’s basically channeling creativity, if creativity were an intelligent thing. But I couldn’t think of a Star Wars context for it.
Well, I had a inspiration nearly smack me upside the head today in a project I’d been stuck on for months. I thought “holy crap it’s awen!” But I think it makes sense as the Force too. Thinking about it, Jedi do get light bulbs turned on all the time, they’re just typically not doing creative or writing projects when it happens. Think of all those “use the Force” moments when it’s not a telekinetic or Jedi mind trick sort of situation – like when they actually have to find an answer to a problem. It’s often accompanied by a statement of “search your feelings” or “trust your instinct” or other things you can hear Obi Wan saying in your head. And when the Jedi / Force-sensitive quiets their mind and listens, they get it. The thing they’re supposed to do. The answer to the question. It’s inside of them… and it’s the Force.
I can’t say mine came from a zen-like state. I wasn’t in the depths of meditation when it happened. I sat down at a computer for an assignment that had to be submitted today, a relatively dense writing project that I simply wasn’t wrapping my head around. I had to connect the dots between a number of things and it just wasn’t happening, and had led me to procrastinate for months. So today I sat, caffeinated, stressed, a little (okay a lot) desperate. I had a little inkling to look up a previous dead end, which suddenly bore a tiny bit of fruit. And then it clicked. It clicked hard. I knew the approach, and it was totally sideways from what I’d been thinking/assuming.
It wasn’t like that was it, story over, happily ever after. I still had to do a lot of work to put it all together, do more research, find more sources to back up my perspective, stayed at work a full three and a half hours late on a Friday night, but I did it. I still have to make it through my mentors’ feedback and revisions. But it really feels like I did the impossible.
It was the Force. And it was me. And awen, and luck, and gods, and MBO I did yesterday, and whatever you want to throw in. And I am so thankful.
Jedi Shield 