Who Inspires You

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

As an aspiring journalist I am often asked who sparked my interest in the written word?  How did I come to know that writing is the career I wanted to pursue.   At the age of 18 I stopped answering that question truthfully.  I used to respond with the truth, 'my mother', but that seemed to surprise people and bore them easily.  I tried to justify my answer to them by explaining it was my mother who taught me to read and introduced me to the library that held the books that she would read to me, and eventually I would read to her.  She was then, is now, and always has been my inspiration to be a successful, published author of articles, blogs, novels and perhaps a spiritual book here and there.  

Somewhere in my 18th year of life I decided I would give those interested in a more common, somewhat traditional, and less boring answer that if my mother and my past had not been my inspiration to become a writer it would have been Ralph Waldo Emerson.  It was not because I enjoyed his work all that much, or even understood his words in poetry.  In fact in one of my college classes when I drew the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson as an assignment I traded it along with a $15 Starbucks gift card for a fellow students pick which was Emily Dickinson.  

BEHIND ME DIPS ETERNITY by Emily Dickinson has long been one of my favorite pieces of poetry.  It was written in 1955, long before I was born, but it speaks of eternity and that is a topic I research and write about as often as the sun sets.  Earning an high A on a research paper I wrote about her and her work was very rewarding to me.  The trade I made to avoid the research on Ralph Waldo Emerson proved to be solid at the time.  However, I would find myself wondering what I passed up when I gave away my golden ticket to a venti Salted Carmel Mocha treat.

I did the research anyway and once I got to know RWE beyond the poetry that I could never quite decipher I began to understand why my mind could not let go of the assignment I did.   RWE was born in Boston and although I was not I ended up in Boston when I was 14.  He was the 2nd of 5 sons who survived into adulthood.  I am 1 of 2 out of 5 children in my family who has survived into adulthood.  After his father died of stomach cancer when RWE was 8 he was raised by his mother and his Aunt Mary.   My 'dad' had no hand in raising me and my mother raised me upto the age of 14 and today my Aunt Mary is in my life, overseeing my walk in life.  Faced with poor health RWE sought out warmer climates.  I myself suffer from cold feet aliments that require me to sleep with sock on.  (OK, that might be a stretch of the imagination but you see where I am going with this.)

RWE was an individualist, much like myself.  RWE was a self proclaimed genius and although I do not claim that about myself, I find the comparison in our intellect quite remarkable.  As was he, I do not prefer to be in the limelight.  I do not seek out groups of people to lecture in front of, to play music in front of.  I am most at home in the comfort of my own home, or with my Misfit family members.  Like RWE I also believe that everything in life is connected by God in some fashion or another.  Right down to my interest in who RWE was and how he made a difference in the 19th century.

So, if you were to ask me today who my inspiration in life has been, and who inspired me to want to be an avid reader of the Bible and an aspiring journalist, blogger, and publisher I would give you the the answer that is true to my heart.  My mother.  Ralph Waldo Emerson is the individual whose quote listed at the top of this page describes not only how I should look at life, but how we all should look at life.  God puts us where we are needed at any given moment in our lives.  He gives us the strength and courage we need to survive our weakest moments.  He gives us the people we need, when we need them.  Just because God takes them from us on earth does not mean they have left us stranded.  They kindle the fire inside of us to move forward in life, over come the obstacles, push away the fear.

No matter the past you have survived, no matter the struggles you will face in the future, it is the fire you have inside yourself that has gotten you not only to where you are today, but will take you to where you need to be in the future.  There is someone in your past that has gotten you to where your are today.  That someone for me was my mother.  Although she is no longer with me in the physical world, I carry my mother in my heart.  She helps guide me from there in my travels on earth, still inspiring me to be the best I can be and to keep believing in my dreams.  Who is your inspiration?  Who has touched your past in such a loving caring way that you believe in your future enough to keep the fire burning inside you on your daily walk towards your dreams?

You are who you are because of your past.  You will be who you become because of the present.  Your future will be defined by how you carried yourself in the past.   Always strive to be better then everyone expects you fo be, including yourself.