There is something strangely comforting about an empty road. The space is completely open. This space, which is normally associated with words such as busy, crowded, or even annoying. Roads can be stressful. Roads are often dangerous. Yet at night, no one is there. There are no cars driving along at breakneck speeds. There is just a slab of asphalt, some paint, and perhaps a solitary light shining over the whole thing.

Remove one element, a car, and an entire scene is changed. Remove one key player, and the entire stage seems bare. One absence can change everything. It may be a good change, and it may be bad. This is good. This is relaxing. Watching the world at rest is an experience not like anything else.

The view from a hotel room window is simple. Empty cars, parked and locked up for the night. A patch of road, with one streetlight. Dark shop windows, hiding the view of the wares to be sold tomorrow. Everything is quiet, everything is still.

Inspiration is such a hard thing to find. It comes from the strangest places. Despite many attempts, my inspiration stayed at bay for more than a month. It didn’t want to stick around. I don’t know quite where it went but for some reason a few feet of asphalt brought it back. My cursor has been staring back at me, defiantly blinking in and out, on and off, never stopping. Nothing has come from it, just more blank space on the page. And now that page is filled just because of a road.

I recently said that inspiration comes from sadness. In this case, however, inspiration came from tranquility. It came from the sheer fact that no one else was around. It came out of relaxation. A sleepy, empty world created a flow of words.

I’m quite sure this won’t mean anything to anyone. I’m certain no one will really care about this strange ramble of words. It may not even ever get finalized and completed. It most likely will not. It’s me. My life in words. I am the pixels on the screen.

I was losing confidence in my writing, and I was ready to give up. These poorly written, badly organized paragraphs have changed my mind. That’s part of the beauty of the empty road. Every now and then, a surprise car may come along and fill the missing space. Everything else seems quiet, but someone is coming from somewhere and they may just so happen to pass through the sleepy little town with a hotel, a few shops, and a streetlight.