Seeds of Inspiration

There are times, a moment, when something so enormous cannot be ignored and yet times, a season, which run their course and very little seems out of the ordinary. While some events are akin to a massive highway-pileup on a foggy day others become nothing more than the distant sound of a firecracker, engine backfire or gunshot… who knows what that was? When you’re young, events and relationships play a significant role in determining the course of your life. I’ve witnessed how the loss of a parent placed a seemingly, happy family on the road to despair and how the personal attention of a thoughtful and caring teacher raised the timid to soaring altitudes.

Inspiration is something most people would agree helps move the sedentary, challenge the status quo, and create the next new thing. However, inspiration is something very few of us truly understand. If we did, we wouldn’t wait for it to happen upon us, rather we’d go looking for it as though it were hidden treasure or more specifically, we’d be asking for it as though it were candy.

Inspiration comes from the Latin inspirare, meaning “to breathe into” and derives from the greek origins of art, literature and science, which were carefully curated by the 9 muses of mythology and who had the ability to inspire greatness upon mere mortals. This act, in the greek was not just how things happened; “inspiration” but what happened; “enthusiasm!” The word in greek literally means being, in – god’s – essence. So, when the bible instructs us to, “Trust in the Lord with all of our heart and not to lean on our own understanding but in every way, acknowledge Him and he will direct our paths.” (Proverbs 3:5) we should then enthusiastically, embrace each moment big or small, significant or otherwise as though it can change everything.

This past week, I did something I have only done one other time in my life… I stood on the sidewalk, in normal street cloths and cheered on the competitors of a triathlon (Vineman 70.3). After all my years of racing, I’d hear from spectators how “inspiring” it is to watch a triathlon… Well, I looked for it. I even asked for it. Needless-to-say, it didn’t come to me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed being out there among friends, cheering on their accomplishments but it did very little to inspire or enthuse. Therefore, due to this, I knew one thing for sure. I wasn’t going to attend the awards ceremony. Having seen the winning times in my age group, I most likely would have won. So, seeing others get the prize (a wooden winebox with a bottle of La Crema, Russian River Pinot Noir or Chardonnay) would simply be too difficult to watch. So, Joy and I left the venue to do what we always do on Sunday afternoon post race… we headed into Healdsburg to visit the La Crema Winery tasting room and talk about the race and sip on their fantastic wines.