flecks of gold
the art of noticing what wants to be made
Inspiration rarely arrives as a grand announcement. More often, it appears as a fleck of gold, a sudden shimmer at the edges of your awareness. Sometimes it’s the way morning light drapes itself across your cheek like a warm kiss, inviting you to linger in bed just a little longer. Sometimes it’s a line from a song that burrows into your chest and refuses to leave. It can be the quiet pull to finally speak a truth to someone you love, not because it’s easy, but because honesty is what will deepen your connection, bridge repair, and make space for something more honest and real between you.
Flecks of gold show up in the boardroom too, in the spark of an idea for how to inspire your team and weave more meaning into the culture of your organization so people feel lit up to be part of it. They live in the moments when you nurture your children with intention, determined to hand them tools you never had, breaking cycles of pain and planting seeds of possibility. They live in the urge to put your hands to the art moving through you, to shape it into something meaningful and tangible before it slips away.
These glints are easy to miss. Life moves fast, and urgency has a way of dulling the shimmer. However, when we pause and turn toward them, we begin to see their weight. Inside each one is information, a thread waiting to be followed, a clue toward what wants to be made. The creative process begins here, not with the finished piece, but with the noticing. Choosing to sit with the fleck long enough to feel it in your palm, turning it over until you understand what it’s asking of you.
This isn’t about being “an artist” in the traditional sense. Creativity belongs to anyone who is willing to be in relationship with the world, to be in co-creation with it. It is in the way we lead, love, parent, and play. When we approach life this way, our work becomes more fulfilling, our relationships grow deeper, and our days feel more aligned with what we value.
The invitation is simple. Make space for the glint. Let the lyric linger. Follow the thread of the difficult but necessary conversation. Stay with the idea that stirs something in you. The more we practice, the more gold we find, not because there is suddenly more of it, but because our attention is attuned to see it.
Questions to Carry
What flecks of gold are glinting at the edges of your awareness today? Will you follow them, sit with them, and let them shape what you create, how you connect, and how you live?
© Alana Foy 2025
