Often what I think I’m going to focus on in my writing or teaching, isn’t what I end up writing about at all. These are the times when a signpost shows up to point me in another direction, when I’m inspired by the force of some other wind.
This week, the signpost came in a message sent from a new subscriber (thank you, you know who you are :) ). I didn’t know this was a feature of the Substack mailers and couldn’t figure out how to respond, but I was touched deeply—so much so that I spent the next days considering the weight of the message and how I had arrived at such a moment as to be offered these words of gratitude from another.
The message was short but so rich—a message of encouragement with the reader telling me they look forward to this mailer and that my work inspires them to live every second of their life fully. Short, but not simple at all.
Why am I sharing this? Not because I want to proclaim anything about myself personally, but because it made me really think about three things I think are especially important: first, just how often we touch one another and the impact of our words and actions daily. Second, how essential inspiration is and the longing we all have to be inspired in some way. Third, and maybe most of all, what else is there but to live life to the fullest each and every day? As I write that last one, I think that yes, of course this is so simple to know, yet so hard to actually live. Particularly when life is filled with such an intensity of noise—both actual and metaphorical.
I read recently that the most prevalent emotion remaining since the pandemic is anger and that Americans are 40% angrier than they were 10 years ago. I didn’t dig too far into this for substantial back up proof, but this feels like it could be true, what with some experiences I’ve observed on the road, in stores and restaurants, and on social media. I work and live with teenagers and I find myself so often contemplating what the world they’re growing up in must be inspiring in them. I don’t have an answer to this—just a question that I ask of myself and of the world at large.
And then I return to the only way I personally know how to answer this—humans are made for awe and wonder, so when I feel myself in a state of dis-ease with the world, I seek out inspiration that might put a little wind in my heart’s sails.
Gretchen Rubin writes, “Awe is an intensely gratifying emotion, and also research shows that people who experience awe more frequently show more humility and more creativity, have a greater sense of well-being and desire to connect with others, and even have better immune health. Awe decreases anxiety and stress.”
This is the key, as I see it. When I am inspired, I am inspired to really live—to pay closer attention, to breathe more deeply, to listen more fully, to stay curious rather than assumptive, to engage with less anger, less anxiety; I feel more well in body and spirit, more connected mentally, and absolutely more creative. I experience awe—for the wonder and beauty of nature, the wisdom and creativity of other people, and the complicated state of my body and all the ways it persists as I continue to both appreciate and annihilate it.
And this is a state I don’t mind passing on to the teens in my world—even if they do think I’m pretty dorky with my teary excitement and voice-cracking emotional stories. I can’t make all of the world’s anger or anxiety disappear for them, but I can be aware of how I show up and watch for what my presence might be inspiring in them.
Inspiration is something I long for—it’s why I have a constant stack of books and podcasts on the ready; why I go outside to sit and observe and to take long walks. It’s why I long to be near water regularly. It’s why I said yes to offering a yoga training this year, not so I could offer yoga poses as much as I could offer yoga community, for almost nothing inspires as deeply as connecting with other humans who are invested in knowing their own hearts and the hearts of another. Inspiration is why I show up at church, why I read fellow Substack authors like Suleika Jaouad, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Padraig O’Tuama, and why I have friends who make me laugh and encourage me to think equally, and why I bring flowers and plants into my home.
Yet nothing is more essential than that final thought which forms the question of my heart, and maybe yours too. How do I live each day in a way that matters, in a way that I can feel that I’ve succeeded not at being an inspiration or being inspired even so much as succeeded in being a good human, living life to its fullest not only for me but for the larger world, too? Recently someone I love discovered her father has terminal cancer. Faced with his finitude, she said, This is hard but it’s also a gift. I get to prepare my heart and make the most of everyday with him. After all, we’re all going to die.
Indeed we are. Faced with that, the question then presses inward on my heart, a prayer really—May I live this day to the fullest. What does that mean today? Not yesterday or tomorrow, just this one particular day.
Given this contemplation, I thought I’d include a recipe of sorts, with ingredients that regularly offer me inspiration:
Books: I am a reader and I have a bit of a book addiction that gets me in some trouble…the stack of books I stockpile is often far greater than I can actually surmount. So I’ll include just a short list, ones that I return to over and again, with a quote from each:
~Life in Five Senses, by Gretchen Rubin: “When I started this project, I’d yearned to outgrow the accidental limitations of my nature, to experience more deeply this life, my only life. My visits were my attempt to reach the places in me that I hadn’t yet discovered. Through my senses, I’d found my visible storage, my masterpieces set in illuminated cases, my neglected stairwells, my fountains, my postcards, my stone vases filled with flowers. I am the laboratory, I am the notebook, I am the museum.”
~The Lives We Actually Have, blessings by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie: (from for learning to delight again) “Blessed are you who discover that even in the smallness, your attention might be compressed even more. You who pull out a magnifying glass to discover, to notice, to taste, to smell the small joys and simple pleasure that make a life worth living…”
~The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay: (from delight #60) “…Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things—the trees and the mushrooms have shown me this—joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union of things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone and thing we love going away. If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”
~Forgive Everyone Everything, by Gregory Boyle: “My friend Mirabai Star, a mystic who writes about mystics, says ‘Once you know the God of Love, you fire all the other gods.’ It is always hard for us to believe in the nonjudgmental, loving, and merciful God, and yet, that is the God we actually have…This God will not be outdone in extravagant tenderness. Leaving hints as ‘deep as the nether world or high as the sky.’”
Podcasts: These are the people who come to me via a voice in my phone app, but who have come to feel like trusted friends with wisdom, humor, and companionship for the road of life. Again just a few of a fairly exhaustive list…
~“Everything Happens” with Kate Bowler offers interviews that are so relevant and delightful. Kate doesn’t sugar coat life and yet somehow her work is so sweet.
~“Tara Brach” podcast is where I turn for wisdom about the mind / body connection, about meditation, and for conversations about connection, anxiety, deep contemplation around mental health and stories that provoke thought.
~“Out of the Ordinary: Grow a Daily Life That Matters” with Lisa-Jo Baker and Christie Purifoy offers me the wisdom of mamas living in a similar season, women who value friendship and connection and simple solutions to living with great love.
~“The Evolving Faith Podcast” with Sarah Bessey again includes interviews and talks from deeply contemplative theologians and writers. The most recent is from one of my favorite writers, a woman who has given me (and the world) so much wisdom, Barbara Brown Taylor.
What else? The work of Summer Gross, my morning seated practice, walks and paddles along the river, long conversations with friends, practices of presence and of sensory awareness, the show Ted Lasso, conversations with and between the teens in youth group, pictures drawn by tiny humans at church, tasting summer fruits, gazing at flowers and the sunrise…there is so much to inspire me to live each day fully. How could I not want to open my arms wide, and, just like breathing, take life in then release it back into the wide expanse beyond me?
Oh right and TRAVEL…how I love to explore the world. I especially love to explore while creating containers in which community can flourish, while I get to offer meaningful practices, listen to others’ life stories, eat delicious food, and taste local wine. Next year, I’ll be doing this in Umbria Italy with one of my most inspiring friends, Jen Rolston, and a group of fellow explorers including my husband, Greg.
We’re offering our 3rd International Yoga Retreat with True Nature Travels and I couldn’t be more excited. If you’ve been considering a retreat, now is the time to sign up. Not only is the early bird price active, there a special extra summer discount from today-July 15th.
It’s easy to sign up and receive your discounts. Simply follow these steps:
1. Go to the registration page of the trip.
2. Fill in the form. Select the ‘Registration Option’ and Deposit Payment under the ‘Payment Option’ section.
4. Enter the code SUMMERBLISS200 in the Voucher/Coupon Code field near the bottom of the registration form (just above “Billing Information”). *note the code is valid from July 1 - 15, 2023.