Inspiration gives hope, keeps things fresh and vibrant, functioning and purposeful.
The view from my parents kitchen window, the branches of the live oaks in the south with their dark bark and hanging moss, looking out at the ocean as the waves philander with my feet. More than just a view, it is a complete moment of beauty that fills my soul with fresh air and cleans out the cluttered paths of my intellect, but the real beauty of inspiration is that it can come from anywhere. A song, a thought, a memory.....all that is required is a willingness to breathe.
During my last visit home I was able to live such a moment. Something that has been going on for a long time but I hadn't been open enough to be inspired until now.
My neighbor (technically, my parents neighbor, as I have moved away, but will always be my neighbor) many years ago was inspired to take a leap of faith and save a company from going under. The company he saved by mortgaging his own farm is the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS). The NCCS was created to help support and preserve the Constitution by encouraging the public to be educated in the principals that have made the US such a strong country, and how to preserve these fundamental ideals. This is from their web page.
"A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing...that...communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?" ~ George Washington
Through the years, my neighbor has been steadily working to educate the public about the Constitution and the founding principals that make it possible....the very things we must know if we want it to continue. Not an easy task and pretty slow going at times, until recently
when he received a little help from Glenn Beck, who mentioned some NCCS books (The 5000 Year Leap, The Real George Washington, The Real Thomas Jefferson, and The Real Benjamin Franklin) on his program. Since then, NCCS has been flooded with orders...more than they could keep up with. Friends, neighbors and other supporters have been volunteering a lot of time but they are still swamped. While I was visiting my parents I had the opportunity to go spend a few hours in NCCS headquarters (my neighbors home) and help out. It was an impressive operation. I put together boxes, packaged some books, organized a few invoices....a drop in the bucket I know, but I have never been thanked so many times in my life. It was truly inspiring to see a bunch farmers working together on a snowy day to protect the natural standards they could never take for granted. Who would have thought that such a far reaching, important work was going on from a simple farm house in the middle of nowhere USA?Now I too share the word, with anyone who will listen, to not just be an active participant, but an inspired and educated participant. Inspiration has little effect if it just lingers around us. Old ideas and idle ways need to be expelled to make room for new possibilities to be inhaled, to sustain, and build something stronger.
Take a deep breath of inspiration and join Wordfull Wednesday at Chololateonmycranium.
