Inspiration

I had an interesting discussion with some students today. We were going over some Latin root words, and being a self-proclaimed Latin geek, I was loving the connections between some English words and their Latin ancestors. The Latin word respiro means "to breathe." This word is the foundation for several of our English words, including respirate, conspiracy, and inspiration.

Think about this for a minute. Breath is the very foundation of life. After we emerge from the womb, breathing is one of our first activities. Air must flow through our lungs. I can't help but wonder just how important inspiration is to our lives. It comes from the word for breath!

So what exactly is a life without inspiration? I only need to look back at some rough stretches of my own life to get a glimpse. In those moments, depression seeped in. Numbness to the world overcame all sensation. Merely walking through the motions of life took extraordinary effort.

When I was seventeen, my life was in shambles. It was the beginning of a several year period of confusion and disillusionment. I remember those dark days and still cringe at just how desperate I often felt. I wrote a poem in the midst of it that I've shared with only one other person, but somehow it fits well with this idea.

Oh, head why do you not
tell the heart what you know
for it is slowly decaying and becoming a hollow mass of darkness.
It needs to be accountable.
It needs to feel shame.
The body longs to feel holiness flow through its veins.
How long is too long?
When will it once be as it was?
This comotose spirit is fading.
All light has become a hope of the past.
The heart is hardening
day by day
until a cold stone shall be left in its place.
The blood is no longer clotting
and is flowing at unstoppable paces.
Advancement is gone.
Shadows linger.
Life is failing.
Death is waiting.
The day of enlightenment must come.
If not, only a cold corpse shall be here.
Because encouragement is gone.
Sometimes it wonders if God is gone.© 1994, A.B

That was the pinnacle of my uninspired life. It was void of feeling and filled with a sense of suffocation that I cannot accurately put into words. Eventually I did find my inspiration again. Living an inspired life is an amazing experience...often the total opposite of the almost-dead existence. It's not without its own hiccups, but that breath of ideas and feelings is my life support.

I wonder how many people in the world are suffocating in an uninspired life. Working solely for a paycheck. Sleeping next to partners they don't know. Bathing children who are enigmas. Maintaining the mundane because it's convenient. Are they afraid to breathe? Living is an incredible risk, filled with the unknown. My mind is so overwhelmed by this concept that I'm still processing it, and I'm sure I will refine this concept as I work through it. For now, I hope that we all take the chance to breathe...to be inspired...to chase our dreams.