Hello, Inspiration Archives

Hello, Inspiration – Living the Life You’re Meant to, Part 2

June 26, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

I read Eat, Pray, Love when I was pregnant with Connor and wasn’t a huge fan. I liked the book well enough – interesting story – but I thought Liz Gilbert was a narcissistic drama queen who just needed to get it together already.

That descent into judgmental karma-land certainly came back to bite me, didn’t it?

I didn’t get it then. I didn’t understand what depression was like, what it does to people. I didn’t cut her any slack for feeling as though she was screaming on the inside and no one could hear. I didn’t get it when she admitted to feeling like she was living the wrong life.

A while back my husband casually mentioned that the movie was available through our on-demand service but, since I didn’t particularly like the book – and really didn’t want to see Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts, er, Liz Gilbert – I didn’t watch it. Then Connor got sick and I spent a lot of time on the couch. When I got sick of Big Bang Theory re-runs, I decided to give the movie a shot.

The movie as a whole was better than I expected, but it wasn’t until the end – the very, very end when Gilbert describes her philosophy about truth seeking – that I got it.

“If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you. Or so I’ve come to believe.”

I had read these words when I read the book, but in that moment I heard them for the first time.

My philosophy – though never this eloquently stated – is the same. I’ve never been good at trusting my instincts for the small stuff. But the big stuff, no sweat.

Truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue? Absolutely. Except I call them signs. And they’ve been coming at me for a while, some of which I wrote about in an earlier inspiration post.

I haven’t watch Oprah for years, but I did watch her final show and there it was again.

“We all are called. Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it.”

I have a career that I love and that I feel is important. But I’ve realized it’s not the same thing as my calling.

“That is what a calling is: it lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

That’s what sharing my story has done for me. And what hearing others’ stories has done. Something that I refused to acknowledge for a long time has become what lights me up.

“Every day in every way you are showing people exactly who you are. You’re letting your life speak for you.”

That’s what this blog has become for me. From the first day, I’ve written what I’m feeling, no matter how raw or honest or scary. This is who I am.

“Wherever you are, that is your platform. And that is where your power lies… Connect, embrace, liberate, love somebody. Just one person. And then spread that to two and as many as you can. You’ll see the difference it makes.”

This is my platform. For now. And maybe it will stay that way. But it’s already done what I didn’t know it could do. Liberate someone. What a powerful way to express what helping to free someone from their own struggle can feel like.

Oprah talked about your life speaking to you as a whisper that, if you don’t listen, will start to throw bricks. And if you don’t listen, she said, the whole brick wall will fall down.

Well, my brick wall fell down. So I’m listening. Every day I’m piecing together more and more about what I want to do with this opportunity. I don’t know where it will take me. I don’t know if it will be something I do an hour a day after work or if it will be more than that.

“You have the power to change somebody’s life,” Oprah said.

I’ve already seen the difference it makes, so I intend to keep shining my light.

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: living life, perspective

Hello, Inspiration – Father’s Day

June 19, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

I haven’t posted in a couple of days. Confession: I feel like I’m slipping. A rough few days and I feel like the swirl is coming back, so I’m just trying to hold it off.

I’m going to save my planned inspiration post until I can feel it again and express it properly. In the meantime, some thoughts on Father’s Day.

I know some people don’t have dads – my parents have both lost theirs. I know some dads aren’t perfect. I know some moms out there are doing it on their own for one reason or another.

It sounds silly, but this blogospheric community has made me really realize how hard Father’s Day can be for some people.

I’m blessed in the dad department – both with my own dad and the wonderful dad my husband is.

This might seem like a downer, but I’m actually inspired by those of you who don’t or can’t rejoice in Father’s Day. You’ve shared stories of bad relationships with your fathers. You’ve commented that you don’t have a relationship with your father at all.

Some of you have lost your fathers. Some fathers have lost their children.

Some of you have amazing and wonderful dads but just don’t get to see them as often as you’d like.

Whatever your situation, your strength and honesty inspire me.

I feel lucky to know others who do whatever you need to do on Father’s Day – celebrate it, ignore it, rail against it, or take the time to remember your dad and hold him in your heart.

So to all of you who have lived with the hard stuff, and to all the fathers and father figures out there who spread love and joy and caring, I wish you a Happy Father’s Day, whatever that looks like to you.

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: admissions, family, gratitude, love, perspective

Hello, Inspiration – She Believed

June 12, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

This philosophy, which I mostly manage to maintain, got me where I am today. And it will take me where I’m going next.

I believe this, and I believe we all can. Do you? What stops you from believing?

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: hope, living life

Hello, Inspiration – Rocky Mountain Soul

June 5, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

With apologies in advance to my mother, who will probably cry when she reads this.

Sometimes inspiration isn’t a thing or a person, it’s a place.

I’ve driven this road a hundred times. It contains a part of my soul that I only actually see – actually feel – when I’m on it.

It leads me to where I’m from – not a city, necessarily, but a place packed with memories.

The significance of this place was passed down to me by my family’s history and my mother’s love of the mountains. It has now been passed down to my son who, when we met up again after he drove with my parents for a while, proudly announced, “I saw Grandma’s favourite mountain!”

Inspiration is being in this place and watching for trains, even though I’m now 36, not 6 (and not a boy).

It’s spotting wildlife – new generations of those same animals we drove past in my childhood.

It’s tall mountains and big skies.

It’s a place that lives in me. And right now I am alive in it.

My song: John Denver – Take Me Home Country Roads

All photos from Flickr as credited. Instead of snapping shots of the scenery, we’ve been soaking it in.

Filed Under: Happy things, Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: family, gratitude, love, travel

Hello Inspiration – Our True Selves

May 29, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

I’ve been inspired this week by a bunch of different things that have contributed to where I am now.

Since I started blogging, I have discovered a new community. These are people I’ve never met who have provided so much support to me (and to each other) during the most difficult time in my life.

Recently some of those people have started vlogging. I LOVE this. I love seeing their faces. I love hearing their voices. I feel more like I actually have met them.

There are a lot of people I could include here, but I’m going to share three with you – one funny, one sweet & friendly, and one incredibly brave.

Leighann and I started blogging around the same time, and if I walked past her in the street I would hug her. I love her posts and her tweets, but seeing her on camera made me really feel like I know who she is. Here is her first (quite funny) vlog.

Alison is not one of my PPD mamas, but she reads and comments and shows so much support. I find this incredible for someone who hasn’t experienced it – it’s like she gets it, which is quite amazing. I loved her vlog – she is beautifully sweet. Plus I really like her accent.

And then Kim. She used her first vlog to participate in Miranda’s rally for mental health and telling her story in this way is really powerful. Loved that she showed her true self in this way for this cause.

Which brings me to Miranda’s rally, which must have taken a lot of energy to organize and shows a dedication that is such a hallmark of who Miranda is. The American Psychological Association had Mental Health Day. Miranda had mental health days. Maybe even weeks. She gave people a place to tell their stories and as a whole that’s a really powerful thing.

And speaking of sharing her stories, Amanda did that this week. When she let me know she had been inspired to share her story about PPD, I was so glad. And so proud. Proud of her, because I know how scary that can be to do.

I’ve been thinking of all these things as I pondered what to what about for this week’s inspiration post. And then last night I sat down to watch the (PVR’d) final episode of Oprah. I haven’t been a regular Oprah watcher for a while, but I wanted to watch her last episode. So much of what she said in her farewell is exactly what I’ve been working on articulating here in a post that’s been in draft for weeks. That will come in time, but in the meantime Oprah said something that describes exactly why these things are inspirational to me:

“In every way in every day you are showing people exactly who you are. You’re letting your life speak for you.”

All the above are examples of this. And that’s all I’m trying to do too. My life has been speaking to me for a while, and only occasionally have I been able to hear it. But by allowing myself to be who I am, and by sharing that with others, I have removed some things that have prevented me from hearing those messages.

I hear them now. And for the first time in a long time, I’ve had a week where I understand what people meant when they said, “I wish you peace” because I’ve found it. It wasn’t in my environment, it wasn’t in my medication, it was in me. And I have invited it to stay.