My Inspiration . . . in a bag

Lately, I've taken to keeping my inspiration in bag on my desk. It sits in the corner, right on top of my dictionary, the phone book, and a pile of Writer's Digest. 
 

There's only one catch. . . .

It's empty!

It's no secret that I've been coveting the Tiffany Setting engagement ring ever since I spied in the Bellagio shopping court in Vegas three years back. I think it's perfect in every way: sparkly, chic, elegant. But there's one little catch: the yowsers(!) price tag. Obviously there's a bit of writing success that needs to happen before we can bridge the gap between me and the ring, not to mention a small portion of my lifetime spent saving. 

Sure, it's frivolous and silly to dream of someday owning a 15K ring. And if I did manage to squirrel away those funds, chances are they'd end up being a down payment on a house or something else slightly more . . . substantial.

But a girl can dream.

I remember the story a volunteer at work told me the other day about her mother. Although her mother grew up as one of 11 children on a small town southern MN farm, in her adulthood she traveled to all the major cities as a buyer for a retail store. When she visited New York, she insisted on having the most fashionable hat from Saks 5th Avenue, the one with an entire small bird on it. (You know, the kind that prompted the Everglades to be designated a national park to save the birds from hat-hood.) The volunteer still has that hat of her mother's.

Moral of the story: if you work hard and make deliberate fiscal decisions, nothing is out of reach, as long as you don't want everything.
 
So when a lampshade showed up at work with two harps tucked into a taped up Tiffany's bag at the bottom of the box, I decided to pull off the tape and keep the bag. Because someday, I know I'll fill it.