“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle,
and the other is as if everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein

Here’s a wonderful story about how the idea for Nike came about: Back in the 1970s, Bill Bowerman, the track coach at the University of Oregon was struggling to come up with a new design for a track shoe that would help his star runners.

One day, while he was sifting through ideas for a high-performance shoe sole, his wife happened to serve him waffles for breakfast. Suddenly, the vision of a slab of rubber pressed into a waffle iron popped into his head. This led to the creation of the waffle-designed sole that became the basis for Nike. Mrs. Bowerman’s rubberized waffle iron now hangs in a place of honor at the Nike Town museum in Chicago.

Just love this story! To me, it makes two key points 1) how important it is to be constantly thinking about challenges that really matter to you, and 2) how important it is, when you are in a questing state, to be totally open to any image or idea that comes to you.

Staying open minded and open hearted when we face a challenge — this can be so challenging in itself! And yet, it seems to be in those rare moments when we are fully aware of the universe that some of our best ideas come to us. How do we cultivate this kind of openness? I’ve found that meditation can be very helpful. But I’ve also found that cultivating an attitude of intense curiosity about the world can be another door-opener. Just being touched by the wonder of it all can free you to recognize something exciting when it floats your way.

You never know when something in one part of your life will spark something in another. As writers, these moments can be pure gold. Let’s look for them this week.