Inspiration is everywhere... if you stop to listen!

Hello to you on this beautiful spring day that feels so much like a summer afternoon.  Today, I was thinking about how many people are beginning to notice what the most important things in life are - and they are talking about it.  If you've been wondering if the energies have been shifting to a greater awareness and purpose, there are signs around us, sometimes we just need to listen.

I have been taking a public speaking course for the last month and I have been working with a great group of people of whom I had never met before.  While we enjoy the challenges of writing, presenting  and critiquing speeches to each other in a weekly format I have noticed something inspiring about the group.  Every week each participant comes up with a topic and speech that they would like to talk about for 2 to 3 minutes.  For most people getting up in front of a great can be nerve-wracking and even a little scary.  Many people wonder, "How can I make a random subject interesting and engaging with just me standing at the front of a room of people."  Certainly the purpose of the class is to build the confidence and fine tune speaking skills so that you would feel comfortable giving a speech to one or one thousand people.

Some speeches have been particularly engaging, such as the woman who spoke about taking in an exchange student.  She spoke of how it was fun at first, then became challenging, but then she had the sudden realization that this student, who had been a stranger 6 months before was now a member of the family.  The feelings that were expressed in her speech related a deep gratitude for what she thought would be a random experience.  As the story unfolded, she truly told it as if she were the mother of the student who stayed with her and how they taught each other so much about friendship and family.  She summed the speech up about finding life lessons in unexpected places, if one would just be open to them.

Another colleague in the class shared a beautiful story of karma, which kept us all on the edge of our seats as we listened to his adventure.  He explained how he was in California some years ago on a visit, when a friend from New York wired him some money to purchase a guitar from a shop in the area.  The gentleman agreed to make the purchase of the special guitar and ship it to New York before he left from his visit.  One morning after breakfast a couple of days before he was going to leave, he noticed the waves on the beach looked very enticing, and he decided to go for a quick surf.  Once out in the water the waves proved quite strong, so strong by the time he was done in the water he had lost his swim shorts - and his wallet, which contained the guitar money and his own money to travel home with.  After an exhaustive search of the beach, the swim shorts and the wallet with the money was missing, and deemed to having been washed out to sea.

The last day before the gentleman was to hop a plane home, he stopped at his favorite breakfast joint again and while at a table he heard an officer in the doorway of the business speaking to the host.  The officer mentioned the gentleman by name, but didn't state why he was looking for him.  Not sure as to why he was being looked for, he stepped forward and ended up accompanying the officer back to the police station.  After sitting and answering questions for some time from the officer, the gentleman was still confused as to why he was as the station when all of a sudden the office produced the missing wallet!  Upon opening the wallet all of the money, which was hundreds of dollars, was still inside along with the man's identification cards.  He couldn't believe his luck!  When he was told that a child playing in the seaweed on the beach found it and turned it in, he couldn't believe his ears.  He got in touch with the young man and gave him a reward and learned that just the wallet had washed ashore and his shorts were still missing.  He said that was the day he really started believing in karma, and that is how he lives his life.  The guitar was purchased and sent to New York along with this inspirational story.

I was thrilled to have heard these inspirational stories along with many others in my class and I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to work with this group.  Listening to people who choose to share their inspiring stories definitely makes the sun shine a little brighter in my world, I hope it brightens your day, too.