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—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!)