Sitting in a cafe or in a public place and watching people or listening to them talk. There is so much super information and interesting stories to expound upon. I often find it harder to write about myself than to write about others.

Birds capture my attention, especially when they gather to 50 strong or more and swoop and swirl to a muted symphony.  Silently they fly, wingtip to wingtip, and yet never collide with each other.  So many, in some cases, that they look like a black cloud that undulates across the sky.  Absolutely magnificent.   

I must agree with you that dance electrifies my...dancing is freedom for me and when I am stuck a quick dance just for the sake of dancing, ignites the flow...

My children inspire me.  From my seven-year-old's intense curiosity about the world to my eleven-month-old's discoveries.  Nothing moves me more than watching them believe in the imaginary or their confident fearlessness.  I remember loving those moment in my own childhood and try to scatter pieces of that in my writing.  And, of course, comfort food!  I always have something to write about with Oreos and milk or a hot bowl of split pea soup!  Yum!

I relish the occasional note or photo from a long-time friend or relative that pulls me out of my lethargy and electrifies me to persue some of the ambitions I dreamed of as a young adult. I think I was a more courageous soul then. Certainly as I follow the life adventures ofmy brother's children and their babies do I find a personal encouragement that stirs me to mask my old reserve and assume my real disguise.

I think what inspires me to write is my surroundings.

Any time when someone speaks the truth, the raw, pulsing truth. When people stop pretending and making themselves small (in a book, in a reading, on the stage, or across the table from me in the coffee shop), when they say what they really feel and know, that electrifies me. Taking risks, daring to be imperfect, standing in their place, being undefended—those acts thrill me and make me feel alive.

As a poet, what electrifies me and make me race to the page is when words find me. Words poke, whisper, dance, tease, squeeze and are very much at ease.  It does not matter if I am asleep, driving, walking, minding my own business or listening to country music.  An avalanche of words kiss, lick and swallow the page with purpose and gusto. Words bring me freedom, peace and safe passage to all of my tomorrows.

Reading a writer I have just discovered I have never read before and really like, looking at how he or she has so magically arranged the words on the page, thinking "maybe someday I will be able to do this" and someday someone will be sitting reading my words which are having the same effect on them.

Visual and verbal art electrify me--the awakening of a vision on a canvas or on the white (snowy) page of a poem or of a piece of prose--the getting-it-down, so a moment or morsel of truth is witnessed, archived before it disintegrates. I, too, love Josephine Baker and remember seeing Alexander Calder's (1898-1976) exhibition at The Whitney Museum a few years ago, in which he had created wired marionette-like sculptures of Baker--spinning articulations of her sensual, wiry spontaneity. Moreover, his wire-mobiles cast haunting shadows on the lit wall behind--so she was captured in two media at the same time, and there is something light and shadow-infused about her dance movements and film career. More on Calder--I loved finding out at this same exhibit, how he spent so much time with his mini-circus that he created--all the three-dimensional puppet-like figurines: the clowns, dancing girls, the assistants to the knife-throwers--each figure was so alive for him and he was so loyal to them. He would pack them up in a big trunk and take them wherever he went: tricycles, jugglers, the girl on horseback etc... That heart-breaking dedication to creating a world that you feel is true to something you have seen or felt is electrifying for me.

My six-year-old daughter electrifies me, running into my bedroom at six a.m. shouting, "The world is buried in snow.   Everywhere and everything except the tops of trees!  And it's still snowing."   Her unintentional poetry electrifies me as well as the truth -- it is still snowing on Long Island on this Saturday morning.  The snow is deep and wet and covering us all as we hide under blankets, or in her case, looks longingly at it, wondering when, when, when will she be allowed to run out in her snow suit, climb up the snow mountains, touch the tops of the trees, or even, today, the sky.  "When, mommy, when?  Before it melts? Before I grow old?"   A six year olds impatience with the world electrifies me because I remember that same impatience, with the sense the world is slipping away without me, that there is an urgency to nature that corresponds to the nature within us.  

"Hurry," I finally say.  "Snowsuits on. We're going into the snow."

And I'm off --

Truly yours, from author of LIE.  

While at work at the other day we had a healthy competition going on on who could sell the most mints. It was so much fun and I found I was buzzing and flying high at the end of the day. Oh yea, I won!! lol.

My husband, a marathon poetry reading where I can scribble in a notebook, new notebooks with crisp pages, snuggling under blankets on snowy days, large paintings on concrete gallery walls, a walk through New York City in Autumn, a walk through my suburban neighborhood in August heat, the beach in winter...the excitment of electricity is everywhere.

Enthusiasm electrifies ME! That's why I love to attend the San Francisco Writers Conference (I can only afford one a year)...people giving the workshops are so jazzed up. They greet you - the writer wannabe - with so much enthusiasm it's contagious. They cheer you on. When I leave, I'm totally geeked and ready to begin again.

PRIDE electrifies me. I feel electrified with pride and joy when my 18 year old daughter, now a college freshman, speaks her mind about what electrifies her.  Just like her father to this day, her eyes tear up when she talks about something electifyingly meaningful, her face widens with passion. At this moment in time, the ocean electifies her in every tiny piece of new information she learns about even the most miniscule life form.

Nature electrifies me! Specially birds! One day out birdwatching last week i saw 4 species I'd never seen in my life before, including a species I've always wanted to see! That was electrifying!

Making people smile and helping them to find what electrifies them is what awakens my muse. I like to put the puzzle pieces together and make a big, big picture that helps people.

My first thought is "Music"... I was a dancer and dance instructor for fifteen years (on and off now) and can relate to both your passion for dance and your excitement at reliving the experiences  of dancing with Duncan and Baker through letters. Music is always the biggest impetus for my emotions, catharsis, joy, and sadness. I love to sing and dance, and sometimes I play drums or guitar, as well as writing my own songs (usually while driving my car or dreaming!) for myself. 

But I have to admit that most of my writing is electrified by the possibilities of the unknown. Ghosts, spirits, shapeshifters, hidden societies, "monsters", magical mysteries, and life changing events give the most spark to my pages.

Waking up with a can do spirit without the usual foreboding thoughts ofhow my disability might effect the way I manage my morning schedule intime for a days outing. Over the years, I haven't been able to predict time needed for each task before leaving the house, but plan for enough 'fudge time' to correct something that did not happen just right. I delight in seeing my neighbors walking their dogs along the way. Even though I often travel alone, I have many fond memories of family, friends and places I've been. Also look forward to many more  break aways from my comfort zone to explore my evolving personhood for the rest of my life.

I get electrified when I see my granddaughter. To her every time she sees me is the first time, she gets all wiggly, yells out grandma is here and then runs to grab my knees and give me the best kneehugging hug I have ever gotten. At two the world is a fascinating and wonderful place and I am always happy to know she thinks I am part of that special world.

Performing on stage! Have you ever died on stage? Gone completely BLANK ... it feels like an eternity but invariably it's  only a few seconds and the audience don't even know ! i remember once in "Shout across the river" by Steven Poliakof, in a scene where my character Christine was supposed to have returned from a stint of shoplifting with a bag full of goodies including an elector carving knife with which she threatens her agoraphobic mother (I know!!) ... I 'd forgotten to place the knife in the bag and instead, after the death moment, drew out a tiny electric fan ... there was  a surge of adrenalin as the actor playing my mother went with this change in the script ! It changed the whole scene, instead of being menacing it was hilarious, but somehow it worked. I LOVE those moments on stage where things go wrong and you are completely present, that is electrifying and even if the audience don't really know what happened , they feel it. There are also lovely zen moments where you are completely engaged on stage speaking the lines, knowing you have the audience in the plan of your hand, yet watching yourself confidant that you are in control. Improv , musicians jamming ( here a mixture of jealousy / envy mixed in with the goosebumps), comedy , belly laughs and of course falling in love ... ELECTRIFYING! 

Looking at the stars while standing in a valley on a cool, moonless night in the desert.

That sense of timelessness comes with it's own silver cord and a distant socket made of platinum.

I love this question! :)  Thanks, Gayle.  Really good food (simple and well-made) electrifies me.  Ancient ruins and mystery electrifies me.  I love myth and magic, and how ancient folks cared about the same things as we do using different tools.  That is probably just the tip of the iceberg... :)

Dancing, which I do as often as possible, even to the extent that I missed talking to a lot of people at my high school reunion because I couldn't leave the dance floor. Also playing my drums. I'm not any good. It will never make me any money so no matter how hard I try I can't justify the time I spend on them, but I play anyway, because playing them makes me feel alive. (But only when no one's around. Unless I've had a few drinks.)

Travel, writing candidly about travel, talking to people about my travel experiences, listening to a foreign conversation and learning to speak in other languages, eating foreign food in new places and describing a meal, watching whales (far from my home), Latin music, dancing salsa, and kissing Latin men! This all completely electrifies me.

Surviving a second diagnosis of cancer after a 20-year triumph, deeply re-assessing life, and deciding that life is far too short not to do what you love - then jumping into the writing life without a net keeps me awake at night as I cling to "To Thine Ownself be True" in the midst of free falling financially. Living life by my heart's design rather than logic and societal dogma electrifies me in a scary-assed way. 

www.wandasthilaire.com

The Cuban Chronicles, A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance