June 8-15, inspiration

What in life, is beautiful to you? Where do you pull inspiration from?

Ah, my list is almost endless. I find beauty in the dawn, the twilight, the clouds, waterfalls, the oceans, the sky with its perpetually shifting clouds, even storms are beautiful to me. The forests, the mountains, a pretty girl's smile, a baby's gentle face: virtually the whole world is beautiful to my eyes.

I agree with Pilot, so many things! My husband (really!), my cats, all animals for that matter. The sky, the trees, the water...the people in my writing group, the people I've met on AW, (really!) and of course, babies....I'm in "I want a baby mode" so that's top on my list! hee hee

Wickham wrote:I agree with Pilot, so many things! My husband (really!), my cats, all animals for that matter. The sky, the trees, the water...the people in my writing group, the people I've met on AW, (really!) and of course, babies....I'm in "I want a baby mode" so that's top on my list! hee hee

May I suggest talking to your husband? I understand those critters have something to do with the process.

I'm also going to say that beauty is everywhere, in the visually stunning things around us and in the people we met and interact with. When I worked with kids at the outdoor centre I never failed to be amazed by how wonderful people can be and how much their inner beauty can shine through and change our world and and view of things.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm taking this here boat and sailing it down a tangent for a while.

One of my favourite memories from my first year at the centre is from an archery session I was leading with a group of 8 and 9 year olds. I had smiley face stickers and gold start stickers to give as prizes for hitting the middle of the target (a smiley if the did it once, a star if the did it 3 times). I did my usual of getting the kids to try and help each other and of course offering help and advice myself but despite all our efforts, this one child, Matthew*, had failed to hit anywhere near the middle of the target. By the end of the session all the kids had at least one sticker except Matthew, he had tried his hardest but just hadn't managed.
As we prepared to walk back for lunch I was ready to tell him that he had tried his hardest and I knew that and not to feel bad about not having a sticker when one of the other kids pointed out that Matthew was the only one without. I froze for a second, wondering if they were going to start teasing when instead I heard another voice, one of the other boys offering Matthew one of his own stickers. The girl standing beside me suggested that Matthew deserved a sticker anyway and the rest of the group agreed. In their eyes he had tried just as much, if not harder than any of them so definitely deserved a sticker. I smiled and handed over the sheets and walked on, letting the kids decide which type of sticker to give him.
The gave him one gold star and one smiley.
The grin on the sticker was nothing compared to the grin on his face as he walked into the dinning hall. Of all the kids that won stickers that week, not one was more proud of theirs than Matthew.

Never before or since have I came across a group of any age that so much enjoyed lifting someone else up like those kids did that day. Even at the end of the week when they were heading home some where declaring it as their favourite part of the week, 'giving Matthew his stickers'. Matthew could quite easily have given up and gone into a strop because he wasn't doing as well as the others but he kept trying and though his achievement did not match the others, he was still rewarded for his efforts. Not by some random activity instructor, not by a teacher, not by a parent or any kind of grown up, but by his friends and class-mates who, let's face it, matter more and have more influence at that age.


*Name has been changed.

That's an awesome story AN, I liked it a lot. Truly a beautiful moment in life.

For me:
Beautiful:
Almost everything, especially my son. And all babies for that matter, because like Sandra I'm back in "I want a baby" mode...and I want one "NOAW!" But that takes time and I'm impatient.
Inspiration:
Well let's put it this way, I can look at the moon on my monitor where it shows me it is in it's cycle and write a poem. Inspiration can come from music, things I see, hear, feal...not so certain about smell.
As for inspiration I wish I had the ability to write all the story ideas, and finish them, as it is I had another inspiration for a story yesterday.
And of course I have inspiration for other things in life as well, like:
Living, art, my son, my marriage and even my beliefs...which are quite odd/different and are usually debated...