Listening to my brilliant friends at the writing group last night, like most meetings, they spouted off some great lines and ideas. One example: That’s a dead-end creek. Whether he will remember saying it, I don’t know, but I will probably use it. Same with another phrase I heard in passing: patchwork soul. Has a bit of a country song sound to it, but that never stopped me. My point is that you can have the point-of-view that those are someone else’s ideas and you can’t touch them or you can have the idea that the universe will provide and allow it to provide for you in myriad ways. One of those ways can be out of the mouths of people who aren’t going to write that phrase down. Besides, how do you really know that your lines are completely original — no matter how long you struggle over them? I can’t remember everything I’ve ever read or heard, so it’s possible that some ideas come in at a lower level of consciousness. This input just may be what you call inspiration.