I love comfort. Give me a blanket and a cup of tea and I’ll delight in daydreams for hours. This love of comfort often finds me hoarding good intentions without giving them wings and releasing them. In other words, I get cases of chronic laziness.

Because of this I dislike irritation. Irritation… well… irritation irritates! It’s like the person I cross the road to avoid. In recent months, however, I’ve started to view it as a friend.

Irritation is what spurs me from passivity to productivity, from inspiration to action. Irritation is what happens when the violin piece I hear in me head differs drastically from what I hear with my ears.

Irritation prompts me to bow a single bar on repeat.

I play it over and over and over and over allowing my rusty fingers to come loose and trace paths of notes until they hack back enough of the forest to find their way through easily.

Irritation is what prompts me to draw diagrams showing beginners how to connect wires and turn knobs in order to capture elusive sounds and funnel them through speakers.

Irritation is what rolls this slow-morning soul out of bed and into early-morning meetings.

Irritation is what glues my fingers to the keyboard to chase words and meaning.

Irritation is what stirs me to prayer when a fellow human is hurting.

Irritation motivates and mobilises.

Irritation refuses to let me lie in mediocrity.

Irritation is my newest friend. It’s an awkward friendship but I’m growing to appreciate it.

What’s irritating you at the moment?