365 Inspirations—183: Six Months of Daily Blogging

"We are always creating. Whatever a person’s mind dwells on intensely and with firm resolve, that is exactly what he becomes.”—Shankaracharya

Today I'm celebrating six months of blogging about inspirations

every

single

day!

What I've learned is that it's important to celebrate the milestones in life. Six months of daily blogging is A LOT and I can't quite be sure I'll blog everyday for the next six months, but I made it to right here, right now.

And that's how I've done it everyday.

I've just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. One word in front of the other.

Word by word, I've made it here.

It wasn't all for nothing. I've learned a lot. This is my second year of blogging every day. In 2010, I wrote 365 Lessons, which will become my next book.

Writing inspirations this year has helped me to focus on the positive in my life and all around me. It's giving me the courage to keep writing and sharing and to be, well, inspirational ^_^!

I'm finding that what one focuses on one becomes.

Did you ever practice anything daily for any length of time? What was it and how did it change or help your life?

365 Inspirations—152: Gardening and Beethoven

Irises in our front yard

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."—Ludwig van Beethoven

I had hoped to take a crack at the 75 plus tests I have to grade over the weekend, but gardening and Beethoven took over.

After a long walk at Discovery Park in Seattle, I came home and mowed the lawn and Yoon put our new weed wacker together and got to work. We even weeded the circular flower bed in the front yard and then we were pooped. We have a small fenced yard in the front and a HUGE backyard that we never even got to today. It was very rewarding to spruce up the front yard, but it left me exhausted. I like gardening, but I don't do it often enough and can only do it if it is in small spurts and not for hours and hours.

After a couple hours of work on the front yard, we cleaned ourselves up and got ready for a concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Yoon bought tickets last night online, but one of his yoga students ended up comping him tickets right in the orchestra section because she plays in the symphony!

He gave the extra tickets to two friends for a good price!

The concert was excellent. We got to see a violin solo by Alina Ibragimova. She was fantastic.

Anyway, It's now 11:30pm and I'm going to hit the hay with the sound of Beethoven still ringing in my ears! Before the weekend started, I did not plan to do either of these things, but sometimes what we didn't expect to do turns out to be the weekend's highlights!

Did you do anything spontaneous this weekend?

365 Inspirations–142: There's That Word "Inspiring" Again....

On a yoga retreat led by my husband in Sedona, AZ

"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day."—Pope Paul VI 

 What do you focus on everyday? Your problems or worries, you relationships, cleaning the house, finances? Love and peace?

Whatever you choose to focus on actually becomes your life! I'm a testimony to that. I decided to focus on inspiration this year and it has shown up everywhere in my life.

Just today I watched this video about a teenager who passed away on May 20, 2013, but his message was not about dying, it was all about LIVING!

It was such an inspirational video. I want to live my life like that. I want sow the seeds of love, happiness, peace and inspiration as if this were my last day on earth.

Because truth be told, we don't know how many days we have left. 

So why wait?

Why hesitate?

Why hold off on things that could make a difference RIGHT NOW?

So that little word "inspiration" snuck into my life again today. I received a new review on Amazon and here's what it said:

"Inspiring" (Hartford, CT ) May 15, 2013
Thank you, Katherine,  for sharing your lovely story with all of us. I hope more women find her story inspiring, and more men can be partners like Seong Yoon Lee." 

Here's the link to that review. 

None of us own this inspiration. It flows in and out of  everything. Whether or not we choose to recognize it in ourselves and others really depends on what we choose to focus on. For this year, I have chosen to focus on "inspiration".

  What have you chosen to focus on this year?

365 Inspirations—140: It's in the Air, It's Everywhere

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."—Dr. Seuss

 If you ever decide to write on any single topic every single day,—be it love, stress, money, or say, INSPIRATION—soon you will find that THAT very thing is EVERYWHERE. It's amazing. It really works.

I'm seeing inspiration all around me.

I see it in the air, I see it everywhere. (Doesn't that sound like the start of a really awesome Dr. Seuss Book?)

Here's a spontaneous, Dr. Seuss-inspired poem for you:

Inspiration is all around,
HERE and THERE,
It's in the air,
It's EVERYWHERE,
It's in my green eggs with ham,
It's even in a clam,
I can find it on the street,
And in the faces of the people I meet,
I found it in my fortune cookie,
I am not an inspiration rookie.

I got this fortune in my cookie at a Taiwanese restaurant yesterday!

Okay, okay, take it easy. It's 11:32PM and I just finished a long night of teaching. I am quite impressed with this little poem I came up with on the fly so late on a weeknight.

But really, it's true. I do in fact find it everywhere these days. I hear about someone or read about something and say, "That is inspirational!"

Or I may be gazing up at the stars or clouds in awe and think, "Look at THAT!"

Or I may even be doing something that is normally quite boring, but I will suddenly see it in a new light. I'll suddenly see possibilities where before there was just the same old, same old.

Situations that would usually seem stressful now have me humming a tune.

I don't even mind the fast-approaching, sure-to-be rainy month of June. (Okay, had to throw that one in there for kicks!)

How about you? What's your inspiration TODAY? I'd love to hear it (Or a Dr. Suess-inspired poem!)

365 Inspirations—60: Signs

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."—Henry David Thoreau

I believe in signs. I always have. They are everywhere if we tune in.

Recently I've been thinking of trying out somewhere new to live. For a while, I thought I might like to live in Sedona, but I think I'd miss the ocean too much.

My husband and I went out for sushi today for lunch. I started talking about our upcoming yoga retreat in Hawaii. We'll be in Hilo, Hawaii this month with a group of students. I'm looking forward to experiencing a new place and seeing how I feel there.

Somehow, we both started talking about creating a retreat center in Hawaii and we agreed that it would be the perfect place for what we have in mind. We talked about how we think we might like Hilo with it's interesting climate,  landscape and volcanoes, but we'll have to see when we get there.

Just then, on the sushi conveyer belt, a sushi plate labeled "Volcano Roll" passed by right in front of us. This was odd because it was the first time to see it in this sushi shop where we are regular customers.

We both looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Volcano Roll."

We walked outside and considered seeing a movie at the theater across the street. Nothing looked interesting, and we turned and left. We saw a movie poster that caught our eye and returned to the reader board to look at the movie times. No one was in line, but the woman selling tickets was talking to a male friend using the microphone from inside the ticket box.

Just then, clear as a bell, the man said, "So you are spontaneously moving to Hawaii?"

The woman selling tickets smiled and said, through the microphone, "Yes, I am."

My husband and I just stood there. We completely forgot about the movie or seeing a movie or looking at the reader board.

We left the ticket booth and wandered through the mall lost in thoughts about Hawaii.

Maybe it's just a pipe dream, but every great venture starts this way.

I believe in signs. I believe that we create our lives and we often notice what we need to.

Do you believe in signs? Have they ever led you to something new in your life?

365 Inspirations—57: Inspiration is Always There

"Inspiration doesn't come to you, YOU are IT."—Katherine Jenkins

This a post from my 365 Lessons (Lesson 131) I wrote in 2010, which I am planning to turn into a book! It's almost 11:05pm and I've had a long day and nothing inspiring is coming, but I am inspired by these words that I wrote long ago...they are words I need to hear right now! 

I've heard people say, "I'm waiting for inspiration to come to me." or "I'm waiting to be hit with inspiration." You may be waiting a lifetime. Inspire means to breathe in. You don't wait to breathe in, you just do it. Inspiration can also mean to be "in spirit." For each person that will mean a different thing. For me, it means tuning in to the divine within. Or, more simply, "tuning in." Inspiration is always there. The space within you is always there. But it is clouded by thoughts, emotions, and activities. Because the human mind is so cluttered with thoughts, it's very hard to see the inspiration.

So much of life is about "doing" and very little of life is about "being." There is an emphasis in Western culture to do. You can't forget the Nike ads which said, "Just do it." While I do believe action is also part of being, alot of the "do it" that gets us stuck happens in our thoughts. We have "to do" lists and those lists are LONG. Sometimes too long and humanly impossible. We have plans, we want this and that and need to go here or there.

Inspiration is hard to see if the our vessel is full...full of information, full of plans, full of worries, full of ideas, full of ________.

When you empty your vessel, when you start to let go of all those things that are clouding the clarity or emptiness or spirit that exists in you, you will start to feel inspiration again. If you keep your vessel or your inner space clear, you will find that inspiration is always there and it doesn't come from you specifically.

When you are empty, inspiration is able to move through you. Many writers talk about how they have no idea where the words came from. They just sat down and let go and this is what came out. The very act of "trying" to write something inspiring doesn't work. Inspiration comes from space within. If there is no space within you, if you are tired, stressed, overworked and underpaid, unhappy, worried or sick, it will be very hard for you to see the inspiration that is always there.

Keep your vessel clear, leave an empty space within you, clear your calendar, keep a regular walking schedule, pray, do yoga or practice meditation. Find a way to create space for yourself everyday and you will find, if you practice keeping yourself clear, that inspiration is always there. Inspiration doesn't come to you, YOU are IT. Don't try to look for it, just let go, clear a space and "be."

Do you feel inspired daily or is it difficult to find anything to be inspired about?

365 Inspirations—45: A Letter to my Husband on Valentine's Day

On our Wedding Day in Korea, May 10, 2003

Dear Yoon,

Valentine's Day is just another day, right? Still, as busy as we both are, I want to take some time to tell you how much you mean to me.

I haven't always been the easiest person to be married to and have gone through my share of ups and downs. Lately, I've been more down than up.

For almost eighteen years, we've always found our way back to each other, even when things seemed shaky or like they might break apart.

It hasn't been an easy road for us. You're from the East, I'm from the West. You were a monk when I met you, I was a crazy American girl with wanderlust traveling around trying to find what the meaning of life was.

You left everything to be with me. You left the monastery, your country—pretty much everything. When you arrived at my apartment door in Korea, all you had was a tiny backpack and the clothes on your back.

You had never known a life outside the monastery, yet in that very first year of living with me, you had set up a yoga business in my living room. I came back from Christmas with family in New York City to find a bunch of people in stretch pants on yoga mats saying, "Ommmm..."

You had a knack for teaching yoga and had lots of training in the monastery and in India. You brought so much experience with you.

I can't forget the day you said, "I found a building!" I had no idea how we would pay for a building or a sign or everything else that came with forming a yoga school in Korea, but you believed it would happen and it DID! Again and again and again....

Fast forward to 2013, and you are the owner and teacher at a beautiful yoga studio near Seattle and have led retreats all over the place! You are my BIGGEST inspiration.

Because of your belief that things would work out, you have encouraged me to fulfill many of my own dreams (i.e. blogging, book writing, etc.).

I know it wasn't easy to hang up your robe and decide to walk a very different path with me. I know it took so much courage. And here you are, still walking by my side, through the thick and thin.

Thank you for being by my side. Thank you for believing in me and loving me even when things seem difficult or hard. Thank you for your gift of teaching yoga. You have inspired and helped so many people, including me.

I love you so much and I am so happy you are still with me after all these years!

Your wife,
Katherine

*To my readers:
I hope you will take the time to tell the people in your life how much you love them. It is so easy to take the people closest to us for granted.

365 Inspirations—Seven: Korean Cuisine

"I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give."
Julia Child 

 In this world of fast-food and FAST everything for that matter, I really appreciate and am inspired by the Korean cuisine. Nothing is fast about making Korean food. There are no drive-thru windows that I know of offering this cuisine.

Fortunately, I live in Seattle, which is abundant with ethnic food from all over the world and up in North Seattle, where I live, Korean food is everywhere! This was a blessing we did not know we'd find when my Korean husband and I arrived at our house in Seattle in 2006 after spending nearly a decade in Asia.

Within a mile or so of our house, I can count a dozen Korean restaurants offering various dishes. We even have a Korean spa and norebang (singing room) not too far away. Needless to say, my husband feels right at home here.

I wish I could tell you that after living in Korean and marrying a Korean man, I've mastered the Korean cuisine, but I haven't. Not really.

The thing about Korean food is it often includes many side dishes. Making the side dishes alone would take several days. Then you have the main dish and often you have a soup.

I can make various soups and a few rice dishes, (dol sot bi bim bap, duk mandu guk, kimchi jigae, daeng jang jigae, etc.) but I'm not sure how tasty they are and I don't have copious amounts of time to make all the intricate little side dishes! In fact, that's probably one part of the Korean cuisine that's gotten faster to prepare because many people pick up already prepared side dishes in Korean supermarkets.

Above is a picture of a dish called Duk Mandu Guk (Rice Cake and Dumpling Soup). Many Koreans eat this dish on New Year's Day. Since we have so many excellent Korean restaurants right next to our home, we go out for Korean food a lot. I hope to try and prepare more Korean food at home this year, but I may cheat and buy the little side dishes to make my life easier.

What is your favorite cuisine? Do you like to prepare it at home or go out to eat?

365 Inspirations—Two: PSY "Gangnam Style"

"I wanted to make them forget, just for a moment even, about their immediate troubles, and to entertain them the way entertainment should be all about..."—PSY

This Korean guy is getting the entire world to dance like a horse setting off flashmobs worldwide. He broke a Guinness Book World Record for over a billion hits on You Tube. He's making people dance and laugh....how can you NOT like someone who is doing this on a massive scale?

I'm not jumping on the  "PSY band wagon." I have a reason for liking this Korean one-hit wonder. First, I used to live in "Gangnam" (By the way, the "a" sounds in this word are open like opening your mouth and saying "ahhh" when you go to the doctor). Gangnam is a trendy, upscale district in Seoul and my husband and I used to have a yoga studio there as well as one in Seongnam, in the suburbs of Seoul.

The second reason I like PSY is that he is doing something completely different than what I have seen coming out of Korea and in the K-pop scene. I don't follow it too much because I feel much of it is the same.

To find someone who has done something unique and different in the music scene in Korea is really quite amazing and to become a phenomenon worldwide in a completely different language is unheard of, really. Even if I didn't like the song, I have to give this guy credit for becoming the phenomenon that he is.

The thing is, the video and song are kind of catchy and before long I find myself actually trying to do this crazy horse dance. Here's our attempt in Las Vegas to start a flashmob.

The other thing I like about PSY is that he's smart and he's following his own path. He went to Berkeley School of Music and then dropped out because he felt like he could accomplish more on his own (this is sort of reminiscent of all the great people I know: i.e. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.) I'm not advocating dropping out of school, but there are some people who are meant to follow their own paths and ideas. They are the "leaders" and often the "changers" of a society.

PSY locked himself away for an entire year to compose music and only came out to get gas and food on occasion. I heard him speak of his success to a group of Oxford University students and was quite impressed not only with his ability to speak English, but also his willingness to share and inspire others with his journey.

I'm sure the craze will die down and who knows if this Korean will ever have another hit, but he had ONE HIT and that's all it took get the entire world to dance like a horse. Now that's something!

INSPIRATION IS CONTAGIOUS

Look out!!!!! Someone near you might be very inspiring and cause you to want to run off and do inspiring things yourself. I live with one of those people. He's the person I'm writing the book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, about. He can see a vision of his life so clearly. He meets so many people on a regular basis and I feel like that number is growing every day. He gives all his energy to his students and the yoga classes he teaches. He strives to bring out the best in ever single yoga student he meets because he believes that everyone possesses a greatness inside that has yet to be tapped into. He has a way with creating a space where people feel comfortable enough to open up so that they are free to experience this greatness. He has inspired me to write a book, to keep up with my yoga and to keep expanding in my yoga practice. I have felt moved to record him in pictures, words, and videos. This is what I have been doing lately. Here is a video from one of his large classes. His classes seem to be getting larger and larger.



I believe that the people we are surrounded by and the environment in which we live are so important. Are there inspiring people around you? Do you feel invigorated by those near you? Do people you surround yourself with lift you up and make you want to do great things in this world?

I used to be somewhat of a pessimist. I couldn't understand why things wouldn't go my way. Sometimes it felt like I was the only one in the world who was suffering. Later, after lots of meditation, I realized that I choose my life. I choose how I react to whatever life throws my way. I choose who I want to surround myself with and what activities I want to do. It's my choice. There are plenty of people in this world who have suffered great losses or experienced great pain, but it is their choice what they will do with the situation that is given to them.

By choosing to be an optimistic person, I'm finding that more and more positive situations are entering into my life. This optimism is contagious, just as inspiration is contagious. Unfortunately, pessimism, depression and negative emotions are also contagious, but you have
a choice. You don't have to accept these negative emotions as your way of life. You can actually choose to be a happy person, or a giving person, or a kind person, or all of these things.

Like my husband, I'm also a teacher. I teach English as a Second Language at a community college. I have students from all over the world. They come from Iran, Iraq, China, Russia, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Africa, etc. Some of them have experienced the most terrible atrocities that you can imagine. Yet, I'm so amazed to find that my students seem to be such happy people for the most part. They come to my class smiling and enthusiastic. They are kind, grateful and so happy to be learning English.


I am inspired by my students, but I think it's a two-way street. In order to be inspired by someone, we have to have to have that quality within us and be willing to accept that quality as part of us. Inspiration is contagious, just like all other positive emotions. By being great and by putting inspiration out into the world, you will find that it comes back to you. Your life starts to have this very amazing quality to it. You start to receive so many positive benefits and that makes you want to give even more.

Every single one of us has this greatness inside. This greatness is made up of qualities which include love, kindness, peace, understanding, generosity, happiness, etc. These are not qualities we have to look for, they are qualities that we naturally possess. It is in our nature.

Every day you have a choice. It's not that negative emotions are wrong, but it is your own choice on how you will act in this world and what qualities you will display. From my own experience, if you choose to allow anger, pain and negativity to become predominate emotions in your life, you will only attract more situations that will allow you to feel these emotions. If you start to allow love, peace, happiness and generosity into your life, you will attract more situations which will allow you to feel these as well. You will be surprised at how much will change in your life if you just choose to smile at someone or just smile for the sake of smiling. It can make all the difference in the world.

Have you been inspired by anyone lately?

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.