Friday:: Aspire to Inspire

Smile
encaustic on birch 10x10

Have you ever pondered the thought : What lifts me up? 
What is it that you do that really makes you feel good inside and causes that little wave of emotion to surge and the tiniest of smiles to cross your face.
What lifts me up?  I've been thinking about this lately.   This is what I came up with:  Inspire - inspire is top of the list. Really. The thought I did something or said something that inspired someone else – wowie. Uplifting. You GO Girl kinda stuff.

So how do we do this – add inspire to our daily list of things we do? What if the TO DO list looked something like this:

Grocery shopping, inspire, bank, inspire, Dr. appt.,inspire, laundry, inspire, make dinner, inspire

I mean really, look at the definition. How can we not find a way to add this to our day.

in·spired, in·spir·ing, in·spires
v.tr.

1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.

2. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion:
3.
a. To stimulate to action; motivate:.
b. To affect or touch:
4. To draw forth; elicit or arouse:
5. To be the cause or source of; bring about.
6. To draw in (air) by inhaling.

7. Archaic

a. To breathe on.
b. To breathe life into.
v.intr.
1. To stimulate energies, ideals, or reverence:
2. To inhale.

Inspire comes in so many shapes and forms. Inspire can be intentional and unintentional. I actually believe that often times we have no idea that something we did was inspiring. So today add inspire to your “do” list – say something kind, do something kind, smile, laugh, compliment, hug, kiss, inhale – and be your amazing self. You may not know who you inspire, but really that's OK. If we all include at least one kind act or kind words in our day, we will inspire others. Today, go out into the world and aspire to inspire.

Happy Paint Party Friday to you all. Many thanks to this group for their kindness and beautiful inspirational work. Hit the button below and go and visit some of these amazing artists who share their work on Fridays.  (sorry for the small print - ran into an HTML snag that I couldn't seem to fix)