Frustration Turns to Inspiration

I saw this birdie on a walk I took with my little family just after school on Friday. I think he was sending me a message, but I didn't get it until the next day. It was something like this:

The motherboard on my laptop is dying. It won't work. It's my only source of Internet access. I wanted to spend my weekend time working on Brave Teachers stuff. I am frustrated--maybe even behaving like a caged animal. I finally say, "I've gotta' get out of here." I go to the universal coffee chain and pull out my magic spiral notebook!

That's when inspiration strikes, and I'm working on the originals journaling pages for my upcoming retreat workshop The Art and Soul of a Brave Teacher. I'm going to town--so creative and inspired. I hadn't even figured out how I wanted to do this, and it's magically happening, because I was frustrated by what I thought I needed to do. It's so simple, and it's spilling right out.

I'm really struck by this--how I plow ahead, feel frustrated and/or angry when I can't plow ahead, how what I think I need to do keeps me from doing what I'm really supposed to do. I think this is truly deep and profound. It's felt that way to me for the last 24 hours. It's like the universe is shouting: Stop forcing your way in the world! And so for this one brief moment I did, and I'm so pleased with the results.