Inspiration Strikes

Inspiration is something that is completely unpredictable. Inspiration comes from many different places. Often for me, inspiration comes from other people, books, nature, and music. This week,  inspiration has come from many different people—from youth and adults living out their passions and vocations.

This past week was my first week at my grown up job. I met so many people, all of them wonderful. Do I remember all of their names? Probably not. But I will learn them at some point.

This week was Vacation Bible School at First Presbyterian Church. (Click the link to see pictures from VBS.) The middle schoolers had their own program in conjunction with the children’s VBS. These kids were full of life and spunk and many questions.

The youth shocked me with their kindness and love toward one another. There were three students who were visiting us from another church. These kids tried to make sure that our guests were involved. They also blew me away with how quickly the began to accept me, the outsider. Their simple gestures of love and kindness have inspired me to be conscious of how I can work to make each space I am in more welcoming. Not only have the youth at First Pres been welcoming, so have my fellow staff members and the parishioners. So you can say this week has been a good one.

Music has been my other inspiration this week. There honestly has not been a day where somebody’s music talent or love of music has not inspired me. Music is ingrained in the life of First Pres. They have some fabulous musicians who share their music weekly. I think I am going to fit in well there.

However without the consistent opportunity to make music, I have found myself in a weird place.  In the past couple weeks, the fact that I do not have a specific ensemble to make music with has been sobering for me. I’ve been longing for a musical outlet to express myself. So I have been trying to listen to new music almost everyday.

I was inspired to do this by an awesome guy I met a couple of Fridays ago. In January, he started listening to new music every single day—which is one heck of an undertaking. He said that he found he was so much more creative because of his intentionality of listening to new music. So I thought I would give it a try.

While I have not been successful at listening to new music everyday (I think I need longer to process new music than just one day.), I have found this incredible want to be more creative in my daily life. Whether that be in creating age-appropriate and engaging curriculum for my kids or simply looking for a more creative way to express myself through writing or cooking, listening to new music has helped me tap into my creative side. 

But really, my point for writing this post was not to just tell you about what has inspired me this week. I’m curious where you found your inspiration this week. Did you find inspiration in nature? Did you find inspiration in the people around you? Did you find inspiration from others’ inspiration? Let’s start a conversation about inspiration. Who knows? Maybe that is where your inspiration for the week will come.

Image from Biz City Area.