What inspires you?

Since this blog is relatively new, I am biting my lips and hem-hawing on what I really want to do with it. I follow a lot of book blogs, but I am a writer, so while I love reviewing books, and my beloved indie movies, my main focus is going to be on writing, dreams, inspiration, etc...

I know we all get our inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. I do. I've heard a lot of people get inspired in the shower. I totally do that. I think it's because we actually have a moment where we're forced to be stationary, and our brains begin to wander.

The novel I'm working on for NaNo is the antithesis of my last book. Where my last story was mostly action and took place over the course of two days, this next project is a love story brought about by tragedy and spans the course of over a year. It's a much softer, quieter story, and requires me to be in a different state of mind.

To get me into this state of mind, every time I sit down to write, I read an excerpt from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening.

This book is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. It's not a novel. It's a collection of insightful passages on just about everything. I truly can't even fathom how this man came up with this many. Each and every passage is deep and wonderful. Most of them bring me to tears. They manage to pluck those heartstrings way in the back that no one else can reach.

I found this book when my husband and I were on vacation, perusing the nearest Barnes and Noble. I picked it up, started reading, and the room faded away. I was alone, and his words spun around me, clutching, prodding, piercing. When I came back to myself, I looked at my husband, wide-eyed, and said, "I'm getting this."

Excerpt: 

Before we blink, we know each other.

We speak before we speak, with eyes and lips, in how we tip our heads, in how we lean like trees tired of waiting for the sun... We pretend we are strangers and deny what we learn before words.

We are all made up of yearning and light... This is enough to begin... That we want to be held and left alone, again and again; held and left alone until the dance of it is how we survive and grow, like spring into winter into spring again.

At the end of each passage is a small list of things to think on or mental exercises to get us to that peaceful place. I find I don't usually need the list. The words are enough to get me there.

Do you have a book or passage that helps put you where you need to be before you write? 
Share with me!