Inspiring Spires

Inspiring Spires

A spire can be defined as the pinnacle (of something), the slender tapering of a blade or stalk, or the upper tapering part of something. In my writer world, I think of inspiration in terms of spires. Not only do random things trigger and inspire me to create, delve deeper into thought, or to examine my world and work in a new way, but they’re also ALL AROUND. When I take the time to really be in the moment, to think about this wonderful thing called life, I find that inspiration can strike at any given moment.

For years, I took photographs doors and doorways, almost to the point of exclusivity, without really understanding exactly what it is about them that draws me so.

Looking back in my Google Photos, it’s clear that my interest in doors might border on obsession. I mean, I have months of photos where scant images of people exist … but doors? Doorways are always there. It wasn’t so much the architectural feat that drew me to these structures (though it is pretty amazing to consider that openings are built into buildings) but that these pivotal pieces in our world are often overlooked.

Doors give us the chance to begin again. To exit one stage and walk onto another. They give the opportunity for change, for distance.

In a sense, a doorway is to architecture what revision is to the written word.

Adages about doorways abound in literature –

Huxley said, “The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.”

Emerson called on us to be an opener of doors, and Dickens taught us that “A very little key will open a very heavy door.”

So I guess it comes as no surprise that in doorways, I find little nuggets of stories, ideas compressed and compartmentalized so beautifully that it’s easy to forget what true purpose doors serve.

My obsession with photographing doorways has been culled as of late since there are myriad things in this world that help me feel (and find) the muse.

What helps you feel inspired? Join the conversation here, over on Facebook, or on Twitter.