You’re The Inspiration

The sun was high in the sky. The air felt light. A goldilocks day, not too hot and not too cold. The perfect day to toss on a comfortable cotton dress and a pair of flip flops, (my favourite even at my age) and go for a nice long afternoon walk.

As I walked with my governor of practicality through the inner streets of our town he began to chat about my blog. What? That caught me off guard. My old governor has read my blog here and there, but has never really shown much interest and I haven’t really shared much, so his care and questions came as a surprise.

He knows I’ve missed a couple of weeks, because I’ve grumbled my usual grumble of not having the time or not finding the peace to write, so I suppose he was curious. And then his next question surprised me even more. “Where do you find the inspiration?”

My answer came quicker than I expected, “It’s everywhere!” I said. Just as the words left my lips I noticed in my periphery a brightly coloured turquoise house. The kind of house you may find nestled among other brightly coloured houses on a Caribbean island. Here however among the staid safe neutrals of a Canadian neighbourhood, it stood out.

“There,” I said, “there’s inspiration right there. I could write about self-expression, about the courage of the person who painted that siding, about choosing to be yourself, about not caring what others think, about the beautiful and unique choices people make, about the joy people can bring others with a simple choice of colour…and so much more.”

Gosh I could write about so many things. And am inspired by so many people, places, and experiences. Inspiration surrounds us in the stories of who we are, in art that we choose to share, in music that brings colour to our lives, in books that seem to fall into our hands at just the right time, and in nature that uplifts our souls. Inspiration doesn’t come with a billboard, we just have to take notice. It can be as quiet as a turquoise house on a residential street, or as loud as Elon’s rockets carrying satellites into orbit.

You all are also my inspiration. Each of you sharing something unique that enlightens my own creative flow.

Vicki, Wynne, Jo, Jan, Margie, Susan, I am always inspired by your writing, always! You’re the inspiration.

And if I know you Vicki, then the title of this post caused the Chicago song with Peter Cetera’s famous voice to echo in your head. Am I right? 😂

So I played the song as I finished writing this post, because it brought back memories of my governor of practicality and I as teenagers. I could write a whole lot about that too. Instead I played the song out loud and asked him to dance with me. As we twirled around to the music we laughed about how far we’ve come from 1980s school dances where we only moved in circles. And he asked me why I was listening to this song after such a long time. I told him, “You’re the inspiration.”

Now, it’s my turn to wonder, what inspires you?