I am normally pretty driven. Even when I feel sick or depressed, I get up, put one foot in front of the other, or boogie half awake in the shower, muttering the ‘song’ Dory sings in Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming…just keep swimming.” There is a part of me that feels ultra responsible for my family, my art, my community, my work, my granddogs, everything around me. Not that I am important to it all, but just that it is important for me to keep doing as much as I can.
Sometimes, however, it’s like the time I was speeding way too fast down a hill on my bike and hit gravel. My front wheel did a 180, and I went flying over the handlebars and slowly slid to a stop on the blacktop, cleverly using my arms, stomach, face, and legs as landing gear. Sometimes, I awake spent. The alarm goes off and the days leading up to this moment have sped me up, faster and faster, and now I have hit the gravel, and am shot over the handle bars, and I hope that the day offers grass to land on instead of gravelly road. It’s like being in a Flash-fiction uber-drama, where the sturm und drang needs to happen and be dealt with in under 250 words.
Y’know?
Then it’s time to embrace downtime.
Sometimes, I should have been embracing downtime SOONER, slowed the metaphorical bicycle down a bit, and allowed myself to stop safely.
So I am taking this blog to remind us (me) that Inspiration actually means breathing in.
The crazy thing is, when I plan a class, I try to have it flow in and out, like the tide, and when I need us to speed up or slow down, I try to have the workshop flow like increasing or slowing breath. Somehow, though, in my life I can forget that part, and it takes that feeling of “oh crap, here comes the pavement” to remind me.
Regardless, here it is, with supporting definitions below.
To be inspired, sometimes we need to perspire, by which we respire on our long journey before we expire.
For myself, that means taking time to NOT work. Going for a walk. Reading a book for fun. Going outside at night and staring quietly at the stars. Having an extra pot of tea…maybe with cookies.
My wish for you is a secret stolen moment or twenty, for respiration or perspiration or inspiration.
Respire
breathe : he lay back, respiring deeply
• (of a plant) carry out respiration, esp. at night when photosynthesis has ceased.
• poetic/literary: recover hope, courage, or strength after a time of difficulty
Inspire
• create (a feeling, esp. a positive one) in a person
• ( inspire someone with) animate someone with (such a feeling)
• give rise to
Perspire
• give out sweat through the pores of the skin as the result of heat, physical exertion, or stress
