Inspiration

Topics keep popping into my head about the exciting challenges for the upcoming year, while trying simultaneously to keep grounded in the present - the Here and Now. One constant comes to mind...inspiration.

Inspiration is what drives us, what motivates us to get out of bed, go to work, love, play. What inspires you? I would love to know. Is it a person, a force, an idea, a goal, a book, quote or passage? I think it is much easier to pose the questions than to answer them. But keeping with the theme for the new year, I need to do some of my homework.

From a very early age, I have been inspired by the quest for knowledge. I was lucky to grow up in a house that had libraries throughout of books of all types, from which I would randomly pick up and devour. Two of the earliest books I remember reading aside from Tip & Mitten are Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. Each influenced me in different ways. Bach's book spoke to the differentness that I felt, that would manifest as a feeling of isolation and strangeness, not fitting in. I think it made me want to be different, to want more out of life and started a life long quest for meaning. Hesse's book introduced me to other worlds, and spirituality, a quest to this day I pursue. I first learned from this book, as a young child that what we have or who we are does not define us, although to be honest, that path has had many tangents, and I continue to struggle with balancing material desires with spiritual ideology. But inspired I was, to learn.

I have also been inspired by those around me, and continue to be. Random conversations spring forth ideas that make me want to be better. Even starting this blog has been inspired by others who have taken the steps to put their thoughts and ideals out there for others to learn from, accept, or reject and move on. My cousin told me that my blogging reminded him of his long forgotten blog, and in reading some of his amazingly profound, heartfelt excerpts, I was inspired to dig deeper within to communicate what inspires.

It is ideas that inspire me, I think. The idea of being a more perfect being in all aspects, the idea of learning and understanding more, the idea of truth and meaning, the idea of love and being love and seeing it reflected back all around me. Ideas make me tick. Ideas make me get out of bed, and it is an idea that has inspired me to start writing it all down.

The new year is coming, and the idea of picking up where I left off before I got derailed is very inspiring. It is as if I am in a small ship floating along a fog filled coast, hearing the sound of a not-to-distant foghorn from a lighthouse, and barely beginning to see the strong light it emits. A feeling that all will be good and well.



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