Invigorated

I absolutely love it when I come across something that inspires me so much that I want to run out and create something right away.  It doesn't matter what I create, I just know that the my world cannot go one more minute without my having given birth to something beautiful (hopefully) that didn't exist before.  I've been inspired to such a magnitude quite a few times this week.

If you haven't seen Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud video, it's worth the five minutes.  If you are like me, it's worth a lot of five minutes.

I never really paid much attention to Sheeran, but I came across this video and changed my practices.  He learned to dance for this video, and the transformation in him is amazing.  Not only is he dancing, but he is performing lifts and keeping time for five minutes of serious dancing.  I realize his partner is doing the lion's share of work, but what Sheeran is doing is still quite incredible.  The whole thing is beautiful.

Obviously, I have a soft spot for books and writing.  Some of my best writing has occurred after reading something amazing from a fellow writer.  That happened to me when reading Night Broken by Patricia Briggs.

"I curled up around Medea and prayed as fervently as I ever had.  I had faith that it would help.  But death isn't a tragedy to God, only to those left behind."

For those of you reading after I dropped the "G" word, I'm looking at this from a philosophical perspective, not a theological one, and it's mind blowing.  A creator of the universe, ruler of before, during, and after wouldn't really think death was a tragedy, would he? I mean, if he loved the people left behind he would care that we hurt, but as far as death itself and someone no long being on this earth, it wouldn't look the same to him as it would to us.  Anyway, it's these kind of thoughts that make my brain work and makes me want to make someone else's brain work.  What better way to influence the world than to challenge it's view of itself?  Religion is a huge foundation of any society,  and death is an unknown that we are constantly trying to understand and qualify.

Another book that I drew inspiration from this last week was Valerie Plame Wilson's Fair Game.  I got quite a few things out of this book, but the biggest thing likely wasn't what she had intended.  I loved the vocabulary she used.  She used big, impregnated words.  I feel like so many authors these days avoid such words.  Keep it at the fifth grade reading level, you know?  That may be reflective of the books I choose to read, but nevertheless, I was inspired.  She used the word "cogent" casually in a sentence.  I challenge anyone to try that this week.

I would love to hear what inspires everyone else.  I'm constantly on the look-out.