A Moment of Creative Brilliance

My favourite catchphrase for a log time now has been “lightning in a bottle.” Everyone’s just about heard it before, but very little can be found about the origin of the phrase. It could’ve possibly been inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s famous experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm in order to charge a leyden jar.

So, what is “lightning in a bottle”? It’s elusive, hard to master and perhaps, harder to replicate. It’s finding the essence. It’s cracking the code.

I’ve always been fascinated by lightning; this unpredictable and spontaneous force of nature, delivering pure energy. A split second proof of nature’s awesomeness. When it rains in New York, it’s not known to drizzle, like it does in Vancouver, but rather, come pouring down in buckets. And whereas, Vancouver will rarely have thunder and lightning, New York can get its fair share. Many a night I’ve spent watching from my window, with the knowledge that I’m safe and warm inside my 29th floor apartment, watching with awe, at the lightning piercing the night sky.

“Like trying to catch lightning in a bottle” conveys the feeling of trying to harness or capture some awesome force. It is also a phrase that describes something that’s extremely difficult or bordering on the impossible. According to urbandictionary.com, they define “lightning in a bottle” as “capturing something powerful and elusive and then being able to hold it and show it to the world”. They also define it as “a moment of creative brilliance.”

A moment of creative brilliance.

Everyone has had one of those moments of success when, out of nowhere, like a bolt from the blue, they realize that “eureka!” moment, which is absolutely exuberant and flawless. Every time I’ve experience that, it’s better than I could’ve imagined.

How special it feels to awaken to new possibilities; where your mind finds focus. Whenever I hear the words, lightning bolt, I always think of wonder, inspiration and sudden insights. That is how I would love to l live my every days. To restore the heightened appreciation for the world around us. To be in constant wonder, like a child. (why is it only children have wonder in abundance?)

Here’s hoping my sense of wonder never diminishes. I want to be ever present in the “strike zone” and remain open to moments of creative brilliance. I want to find myself saying out loud and often, “sometimes, you can catch lightning in a bottle!”