What inspires you?

Swamped, I've taken myself away from the blogs for a bit. I just needed to get away from the act of trying to motivate or inspire others and focus on doing that for myself. Life got hectic on my end, and I really needed to step back and reaccess.

I'm a champion here of listening to the internal rhythms. The body, mind and soul does not hide from you what you need. You just may choose to ignore it. I try not to. I hope you understand the need for my absence. I always knew I'd be back.

Still, what brought me back was a comment one of my readers said to me in person, and I had to pay attention to that as well.

"You haven't been writing lately," she said to me.

Of course I've been writing, just not on the blogs.

But her comment reminded me I did need to consider my audience. Like I said, I always knew I'd return, but maybe you didn't. I wasn't doing a very good job of keeping you informed. But I didn't want to put any pressure on myself, so I didn't, not until such time that it was necessary. And, you know, when your readers notice you're missing, I figure you should take notice as well.

I did, and I'm back. And I'm back with a simple question:

What is inspiring you today? Maybe it's a person (like Martin Luther King, Jr., pictured above in bronze), or maybe it's a book, or a certain phrase you heard someone say -- and it stuck. Maybe it's someone else's blog that inspired you today.

If you're blogging, if you're riding, if you're hard at work, what is it that is motivating you to act today? If something springs to mind, just post a quick comment, and let's talk about this over the course of the next few weeks.

I've recently begun work with another writer who is in need of moving past burnout. We're going to help each other via e-mails for now. It appears that she's become uninspired. IMO, she has good reason, but, like me and this blog, we still need to work to overcome that. We still need to produce.

So over the course of the next few weeks, while I'm helping my BF convalesce from his open heart surgery (which is partly the reason for my absence--and now also my return), am working on moving past this burnout with my fellow writer friend, and am waiting for assignments to roll in from editors and other clients I've been pitching, let's talk inspiration. Let's see if we can dig deep for some answers.

Because on those days when nothing seems like it will help us move past this challenge, something will. But we may have to experiment a bit. Let's see if we can compile some handy lists of ideas to use when we need them the next time. This time, I guarantee you, the simple act of writing them down, thinking about them, talking about them, will do the trick. But next time, let's plan on being better prepared.

So, again, I ask: what is inspiring you right at this very moment? What do you wish would inspire you right now? Write it down, right here.

And, tomorrow, we'll talk.