Moment of Inspiration

That moment of inspiration. How long do we have to wait for it? I guess everyone wants to experience that lightning bolt whether they're looking for love, happiness or, in my case, writing a book. Excuses, excuses. As a friend once told me: 'just put your butt in a chair and write.' I guess that's all it takes, but those moments of inspiration sure help. One of them happened when I was sitting at my parents' house one day minding my own business. A friend was over, a physician, so my dad, also a doctor, thought it would be fun to show her an old medical journal from the turn of the century that had belonged to my great-grandfather, John Henry Jordan, the first African-American doctor in a town in Georgia near Atlanta. My friend looked through the book. So did my dad. But it wasn't until I opened its pages to peruse it that I hit pay dirt: an old prescription my great-grandfather had written dated 1903 fell out practically into my lap. It was in pristine condition as if waiting between those two pages just for me to find it a century later. If I had been looking for a sign as to whether or not to write a book about my great-grandfather, that was surely it. Then, there was the time I was talking on the phone with an elderly cousin when she casually mentioned something about a 'cousin Arnold.' I'm like: who? Cousin Arnold turned out to be the only living child of my great-grandfather's older brother (my great-grandfather died in 1912, mind you)! My father didn't even know Cousin Arnold existed! I guess the only thing left was for a lightning bolt to hit me in the head. I don't think I need any more proof. Now off to plant my butt in a chair and write...