What Does It Mean When My Inspiration Comes from Girl Scout Cookies?

Am I looking for muses in all the wrong places?

Girl Scout cookies - Lemon-Ups. I’m torn between eating them and framing them.

I got my taxes done yesterday. I usually do them myself online, with Ed doing back-up on paper, but I wasn’t sure how this widow thing works when it comes to the IRS (and I didn’t think I wanted to do them without Ed), so I went to a woman recommended by at least three family members.

The yard sign outside said, “Cookies are here!” and I knew I must be in the right place. Taxes and cookies! Brilliant!

Her office is in her Knotty pine breezeway, decorated with school photos of her kids, and right away I felt at ease. In fact, it was kind of fun. I’m getting back more than I thought I would and get this: I paid the State of Michigan $15 and they’re sending me $24 back!

But about those cookies: Her Girl Scout daughter isn’t fooling around. There must have been a dozen cartons of cookies stacked right inside the door (so you can’t miss them going in or out) and I’m a sucker for Samoas, so I got that one and was looking for something else when my new tax friend suggested the Lemon-Ups.

She didn’t tell me they could change my life.

As a writer I look for signs everywhere. I need constant validation, and I’m not alone in that. It comes with the territory. It’s what happens when our only real tools are our fingers and our brains. We can’t blame mistakes on the equipment, can we? The equipment—pens, pencils, pads, typewriters, computers—are all peripheral to the real workhorse: the mighty brain. None of it could happen without it.

If I think about that for too long I can scare the bejeesus out of me, and then I have to go looking for inspiration. It could come from Brainy Quotes or books or magazines or blogs (umm…) or podcasts or memes or signs on desks. It could even come from breathtaking vistas and clouds in the sky. Who knew it could come from cookies, too?

Inspiration is all around us, if only we open our eyes. We wander around in a fog sometimes and…

No, scratch that. I have no business giving you advice. I’m taking inspiration from a cookie.

(Confession: I ate them. Had them with my coffee. We’ll see what happens.)

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Update: Those cookies worked! I was over at Constant Commoner looking at drafts I could turn into posts and I found one with just notes, so I finished it right after I left here, and now it’s published!

I was inspired! Check it out!

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