A GHOST, A SIGN, OR JUST A SEED?

 

I found this maple “helicopter” seed right here, under my bedroom window, away from anywhere I might walk. It’s the middle of winter. The windows are shut tight. The leaves have been fully raked. The only time I’ve been in the yard recently is to sled down the hill over Thanksgiving weekend. (Yep. I really did that. The snow called me.)

So, where did the seed pod come from? How’d it get in here? And when? The floor has been newly swept; vacuumed, actually. And I do tend to notice things all the time.

Curious? So am I.

I'm often asked where I get my inspiration.
It comes when I welcome happenstances like this. That's the fuel of ideas, the kindling. And the spark that ignites the flame? Allowing my imagination to run wild with the randomness. Ideas become scenes, scenes become chapters, chapters become books. It all starts with, yes, the seed of curiosity.

Which leads me back to this particular maple seed…
It just so happens that I found it yesterday—yesterday!—when I finally completed a draft of a book in which ghostly events occur. So yes, I cannot help but wonder…

Although the seed’s appearance may have a logical explanation, Jody Feldman has had other experiences which don’t; experiences which sparked the inspiration that stoked the curiosity that led to months of discovery and writing and completion of a story that sometimes gives her shivers.