yes. i totally lifted my title from donna downey. i read a single post on her blog yesterday. it wasn't even her most recent post, but somehow i ended up there, and what she said put into words exactly what i have been thinking about a lot lately.
please go read her post for yourself, but here are a few of my thoughts...
first, donna says that choosing to live inspired is about more than paints and colors... it's about looking at situations more creatively and seeking to find the positive. i love that she says "choosing to live inspired" because i truly believe that it is a choice. it's so easy to stumble through life failing to notice the details that make it worth living. it can be so difficult to find the silver lining of a cloud that threatens to burst open at any moment. i know. i lived that.
i choose to not live that way any more.
this reminds me of something that pastor jason said in his message yesterday. he said that people spend too much time regretting the past or worrying about the future, when they should be living in the present.
being present. that is what it means to live an inspired life. appreciating the moments that make up our days.
i hope donna doesn't mind that i quote her here, but i don't feel like it can be said any better. her words are that perfect::
so perfect... for reasons i won't share right now. but in my heart, i know.
life is a series of tiny moments. a series of colliding, reverberating, extraordinary moments. moments that can slip by in the blink of an eye, if you're not careful. moments that can change your life forever, if you let them.
moments that may not be what you wished them to be, but more perfect than you could have imagined. not because they lived up to your expectations, but because you accepted them as something you couldn't change... because you accepted them as something that could change you.
about a month ago, i found myself overwhelmed by fear. i was afraid of the future. i was afraid of the past. i was afraid of the effect the past would have on my future. quite simply... i was afraid of everything. during my moment of greatest weakness, a friend gave me a gift that i truly believe changed my life forever. such an innocent gesture, but it helped me to recognize the positive in a situation that i couldn't change.
his gift stretched me in ways i never thought possible. six plants and a bag of seeds... momentous change... new growth::
the journaling says::
to you a pepper... to me a promise... to keep learning, to appreciate what i have, to seek happiness every day, to eat fresh whenever possible, to encourage my children to enjoy the wonder of nature.
this is living a life inspired :)