Zaadz Friday Five: Inspiration

:: Friday Five :: Week 8 :: Inspiration ::

How to participate: 1) Join holy memes and kosmic blog starters and check it out every Friday for a different set of five questions. 2) Copy and paste those questions (and this message!) into your blog. 3) Tag your entry with the words “Friday Five” and post it. 4) Come back to the pod and tell us about your post. 5) Message suzanne with ideas for next week. Let's get started!

1) Who/what/where inspires you?

Kira inspires me, Jay inspires me, Erica inspires me, Mary inspires me, and lots of people doing very ordinary things inspire me.

Love inspires me, compassion inspires me, kindness inspires me, fierceness inspires me, passion inspires me, tenderness inspires me.

Seattle (WA) inspires me, Greyback Mountain (OR) inspires me, Brookings (OR) inspires me, Boulder (CO) inspires me, Alaska inspires me – any place with mountains, rivers, ocean, trees inspires me.

2) Why are there moments we feel completely inspired and moments where that inspiration is gone?

Inspiration is FLOW. It's always there, the question is whether or not we are aligned with it. The world and all it contains is the source of most inspiration, and it's always there – so are we open to being inspired? Are we open to the world? Is my heart open and receptive? If so, inspiration is easy, like breathing. If not, then inspiration may seem impossible.

3) How do you seek inspiration? How do you (and should you) cope on days where inspiration is lackluster?

I don't seek inspiration. It seeks me. Am I open to being found by inspiration? Are you? Even on days when we feel like inspiration is just a fantasy, we can sit down, breathe a little, open our hearts and feel all the life in us, in those around us, in our friends and family, in our pets, in our plants, in the life outside our homes, in the moutains and rivers and trees and wildlife, in the cities and people and all the other homes and families, in the whole nation and all the nations around us, in the diversity of people, places, animals, plants, insects, fish, and birds, in the clouds and the sky, in all the life on this small planet in a tiny solar system on one arm of a minor galaxy in the vast expanse that is the KOSMOS. We can feel all of the that and breathe that mystery and breathe that magic and breathe that magnificence and DAMN! What a miracle to be alive!

4) Go to your profile and look at the list of your heroes, teachers, books, movies and music. (if you haven't created your list, do it now!) Pick out a few that you wish everyone could know about. Why does these inspire you? What makes them so great?

There is nothing in my list that I think everyone should know about. Each person is different and will be inspired by different things, people, places. The things in my list inspire me because they open me up in some way (body, heart, mind, soul) and make me more receptive to SPIRIT.
5) Go to Zaadz quotes and find at least five quotes that inspire you, and post them here.

Our task must be to free ourselves … by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. ~ Albert Einstein

Like a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, so the wise are not moved by praise or blame. ~ Buddha

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it. ~ Lisa Alther

It's said that when we die, the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - dissolve one by one, each into the other, and finally just dissolve into space. But while we're living, we share the energy that makes everything, from a blade of grass to an elephant, grow and live and then inevitably wear out and die. This energy, this life force, creates the whole world. ~ Pema Chodron

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. ~ Steven Wright

Technorati Tags: Zaadz, Friday Five, Inspiration, Spirit, Kosmos