Creation as Meditation

I have finished Bird by Bird by Anne Lemont, I also read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, and I am now reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.  

She says, "Inspiration means 'breathing in'."  

I love the imagery of this statement.  

When I think about breathing in my lungs are filled up and the air wants to be released out.  

Creativity is so much like this for me.  I get obsessive about things I am interested in doing and learning about and I totally immerse myself in it.  I breathe in the inspiration and when I have learned or gathered what I need to I stop inhaling, I then begin exhaling and begin creating.  

The inspiration; the breathing in, becomes the creation; the breathing out.  We can follow that just as in meditation.

That breath I draw in releases into something new, something potent in my life,  some birth.  It might be a new way of thinking or a new quilt or a new skill it doesn't matter.  It always starts with the breath in.  The inspiration.

Creation is meditation.  It is following the breath.  

How lovely.