The Aha Moment

In the Author’s Notes of my novel, CeeGee’s Gift, I share the experience I had when I sat down to write the first telling of the story, as a one act play. It came to me as a flash, even the names of the characters, and I wrote the play quickly and with few changes. It was an Aha Moment.

Research on creativity is beginning to suggest a different pattern. What seems to be a sudden understanding is not a moment, but the end of a journey. It is like a host of unrelated dots are swirling around in the mind until, one day, they connect. The Aha Moment is the punctuation mark at the end of the story those dots tell. Looking back to find the dots that led to your own Aha Moment can be illuminating, like Hansel and Gretel following the trail of bread crumbs that led to the beautiful cottage in the woods.

In my case the journey began with contracting long-term illness, leaving my career, and feeling useless. I was dejected that I could no longer contribute, or give my gifts, by helping my clients manage their finances. The Aha Moment came into view when I considered I might have other gifts to give. There might be a meaningful purpose in this life I now lived. Then it struck me that finding and giving my gifts was my job to do. Being sick did not exempt me from that purpose. The reason we are here on earth is to discover and give our gifts. Everyone has gifts to share. Wham!

As I recovered from that time of illness, the power of this statement has continued to reverberate. What if everyone, collectively, focused not on their own special gifts, or their own needs, but on those gifts they have to share with others and how they can best give them. What kind of a world would we live in? My, my, that would be an Aha Planet!