Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Oh Inspiration, Where Art Thou?


"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."   ... Isaiah 43:19

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Where is inspiration? You know, those nudges to create. To think differently. To seek healing for our aging bodies. To pull ourselves up off the couch or away from the computer.

Everywhere. Inspiration is everywhere.

But--usually--we must seek it. Inspiration to move and live and create differently seldom flutters down from the sky upon our heads. Rarely does it flow through the people we see every day (though sometimes it may), so it becomes unfair for us to turn all moody when they can't provide it. But mostly? Mostly inspiration must be sought and searched for and wanted.

Seek to view Life differently. Stay open when someone tells you something you never heard before. Don't give dismissing, pat, religious replies before you've researched that new idea for yourself. You just may miss an opportunity to be set free from what cages you.

Growing requires stretching our minds, adding foreign ideas and thoughts which never before crawled through our brain waves. 

And if we're not growing? Well, I think we are dying. Slowly, like in quicksand of dull boringness. Sadly.

And do we really want that?

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This passage from the book, From The Ground Up, always(!) inspires me to rush outside and continue creating a fun garden, one which, hopefully, will someday inspire others to create their own outdoor growing place:


"(Those gardens) were wild and untamed, but entirely welcoming at the same time. You could have fun in gardens like those. They were full of surprises: the poppies that went to seed in the lettuce bed, the alyssum that sprang from cracks in the sidewalk, the flowering vine that snaked its way up an oak tree and bloomed there all summer. These gardens were not afraid to be different from the rest. They spilled over their borders, they clashed with the neighbors, they ran amuck.


"This was the kind of garden I wanted: a lively and boisterous place, part miniature farm, part playground, part zoo. A place where I could grow purple tomatoes and plant rainbow stripes of lettuce and let the sparrows pick seeds out of the sunflowers. A place that would abound with bugs and butterflies and the faint, rustling sound of things growing."




Don't you love the picture that paints inside your head? Don't you appreciate the inspiration, the gentle push it sends?


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"Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!"   ... Psalm 96:1


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."   ... 2 Corinthians 5:17

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Yesterday I sat in the sunshine upon the garage patio and planted lettuce, radish and spinach seeds in little pots. What an amazing, longed-for thing, I thought to myself. Sammy The Cat laid inside his carrier upon the lawn and watched me and we both looked up into the blue springtime sky with many smiles.

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3 comments:

  1. Ugh...my library co-op has every other book of Amy Stewart's except this one! Sounds like a fun, inspiring read.

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  2. Anonymous1:06 PM

    Since I started gardening years ago it has been the place I love to be! I am always surprised by the beauty of a garden. Every year, every season is different. Like life in generate, some things are more ordinary and other supper special! The color combinations, and textures are my favorite. Silly but to have the food to eat later is secondary to me!! I just love being out there rooting around and raking and primping things. Listening to the birds and seeing a neighbor cat lazing in the sunshine of my garden. Watching the clouds and breathing in the beauty! What Hollywood movie could ever compare to God's earth?? Sarah

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  3. Anonymous10:10 AM

    Debra, this is one of my favorite gardening books. She has since moved and I wish she would write one about her new garden. Thanks for reminding me, I'm going to read it, again. Joyce

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