So, I've had it in the back of my head for months now to start a blog, but I don't want to start one unless I have something to say. After all, what is a writer without a message? I can string words together all day long, but I'd sure like them to amount to something at the end of the day.
The past several months I've been feeling aimless. I'm keeping myself fairly busy with freelance editing work, but the second I have free time I don't have the first clue what to do with myself. And then I wonder if editing is really what I want to be doing with my time. When I'm home by myself, working or not, it is all too easy for me to sulk in a feeling of loneliness. (Two purchases should help to relieve that problem a bit--a second car, which we bought today, and a beagle, which we will be bringing home in the very near future.) At any rate, the same question has been lingering with me for months. God, how do you want me to serve you with my time? I can't shake the feeling that there has got to be something else.
Part of my aimlessness lately has involved wandering around other people's blogs--whether I know the people behind them or not. During today's wanderings I stumbled onto this post, and it motivated me. I took home two key points: 1) It takes as much energy to dream big as it does to dream small. 2) People who write down their dreams are much more likely to actually work toward them and accomplish them. I've always admired the ability of my friends to dream big. Leah's probably one of the biggest dreamers (and achievers) I know, and she writes down her goals.
I'm not a fan of lists, as Justin will certainly tell you, but I started to think this particular blogger was onto something. The aimlessness I've been feeling lately has nothing to do with a lack of options and everything to do with a lack of direction, for which I have no excuse. I've used marriage and change as my excuse to shut off and let someone else take the reigns whenever possible. And I feel a heck of a lot more boring when I let that happen. It's time for me to stop waiting for direction to fall from the sky (or from other people who indulge me in that respect) and start forming opinions and decisions for myself.
This is where everyone reading this blog comes in. Please, leave comments about your inspirations or about anything you would like to discuss that inspires you or others. You could very likely see a post about it in the near future.
So, how about it? What inspires you?
6 comments:
I'm inspired by little things. I'll watch a movie about a struggling friendship or read a book about a particularly strong female who goes after her dreams or just look at a couple holding hands while they walk down the street and I get an overwhelming feeling to write or create or just DO something. Those small moments make me feel alive and a real part of the world... I don't think it's the big things that make you who you are. It's the tiny day-to-day actions, whether relating to spirituality or not, that measure your worth. Find inspiration in others and who knows, you may find you inspire them as well :)
[just a short snippet of thought from my overflowing mind]
Welcome to the exercise in narcissism that is blogging!
I'm inspired by people who do great things fearlessly. Or just great things. Or just do things fearlessly.
Comments! So awesome. Thanks gals. Shannon, I would say, for me, all the things you mentioned encourage me, but very rarely do they inspire me to act. I wish I shared that trait with you. And that's part of my goal with this blog--to take something inspirational beyond just appreciating it and actually write it down, think it through, invite other people to do the same, and then do something with it. Are there books or movies you gravitate toward because they make you feel creative? Katherine, Justin says your comment about an "exercise in narcissism" is very well said. I would agree that people who do great things fearlessly are inspirational. However, people who do things fearlessly conjures the image of a video I saw in which a teenage jumped on a cactus while wearing only his underwear. That just inspires me to laugh.
Lisa,
Wonderful to see you in the blogging world! And I like that your blog has another purpose, not just including keeping family and friends informed of day to day life.
I've been thinking of your post since last night trying to think of what inspires me, and as of yet, I don't have a good answer to that. Maybe the easiest is that I am not inspired easily, but that I am very much motivated easily. The difference? I'm not sure.
I don't really find inspiration the "normal" things that other people have mentioned.. not in books, movies, or people who have achieved greatness. I've never read or seen anything that makes me want to change my life.. I see their stories and think, "That's nice.... for them."
I will have to keep thinking on this subject, and maybe I'll have a better answer for you later. :)
Yessss to Lisa Blogging! I am trying to create a purpose in my Blog, which is also my current inspiration. I am inspired by the Lord working in all these little ways around me. Inspired to grow up and take on the world as a strong Christian woman, inspired to be a servant, inspired to love everyone God has placed in my life for as long as he allows them there. I've have noticed that indecison and spell check drain inspiration, and no I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. Post pics of the beagle!
Jill and BA,
Thanks so much for leaving your comments! Jill, I'm going to have to think some more about your point too. It's making me rethink my definitions of inspiration vs. motivation. BA, your purpose definitely comes through in your blog, and I really admire that. I read every word of the audreycaroline blog you gave the link to. Talk about an inspiring (although heartbreaking) story! And your post about the B-52 crash made me go and hug Justin and tell him I was happy to be spending the day with him. To which he replied, "But I'm going to work." He didn't quite get it. :-)
Post a Comment