Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Challenge : I is for Inspiration


I is for Inspiration.

Of course it is; what else could it be? Yes, I had a few others, like Insightful, Imagination, Integration, Integral, Integer. Oh no, they just keep coming. So many I words that call out to me. That call out to, me, or I in other contexts. Perhaps I should write about the I is for I.

No.

Inspiration. That's the one which carries the strength for me as I type this. Because Inspiration can be so many things, depending on the viewer, the reader, the listener; on the intent of why a person might be seeking inspiration and what they are going to do with it.

Inspiration is not just one thing. It is many things and could be anything.

For example, watching dance is very - no, let me correct myself : can be very - inspirational for me. I am not a dancer. I've always liked to dance, I was on a dance team in junior high school, I went to school dances, I went to dances in bars when I was old enough (and a little before; I looked "older than my age" until I didn't any more, which was in my early 30s). So I never had any formal dance training - only the generic dance classes at school, or a square dance lesson or two, or dance instructions in aerobic classes (can that even qualify as "dance"?).

But there is something in watching skilled dancers which speaks to me in a language that is beyond words. And when the dancers interact and their bodies communicate - with each other, with the audience, with the space in which they are performing - I feel it. I know I've said this previously but perhaps you didn't see it: don't ask me to explain what a dance was "about" or "why" it was good or inspirational. I can't tell you. I know what speaks to me when it's there and I feel it in my body. I don't know if it's "good" or if they are technically very skilled. I only know that it works and it communicates and I'm there with them. And I leave changed in some way and my inspiration is sparked.

Sometimes it's a sound.
A name.
A smell can evoke a memory, a sense of something exciting or scary or sad or just is.
A series of musical notes.
A voice.
A flash of color out of the corner of my eye.
A tingle triggered by unknown factors.

Inspiration also works for people in business, scientists, doctors I suppose, inventors, dancers, visual artists, sculptors.

Inspiration is Invaluable.

Inspiration makes life Interesting.

I is for Inspiration.
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