When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
~Lao Tzu
Inspired.
When I close my eyes and ask myself what does this one small word really mean to me, the answer comes back like a prayer on the wind.
I shouldn’t be so surprised really. One dictionary definition of this magical word declares it “To be guided by the Divine.” Or-“being of such surpassing excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods.”
Synonyms for this powerhouse of a word include beauties such as brilliant, aroused, impressive, thrilling, and memorable. Sound good? I thought so. How about uplifted, exhilarated, enthused and elated?
Does this sound like a life worth living? A goal worth stretching toward?
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, wrote a wonderful book called The Power of Intention, Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way. I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it. It’s on my reading list every January. In fact my copy is so worn by now that the book opens to certain pages by habit as if it knows exactly what I am coming back to re-fill my mind with at the start of every year.
Like the page where this juicy nugget falls out of:
Practice Being the Kind of Person You Wish to Attract
As I’ve touched on before, if you want to be loved unconditionally, practice loving unconditionally. If you want assistance from others, extend assistance whenever and wherever you have the opportunity. If you’d like to be the recipient of generosity, then be as generous as you can as frequently as you can. This is one of the simplest and most powerful ways of attracting the power of intention. Match up with the forthcomingness of the universal mind from which everyone and everything originates while extending it outward, and you’ll attract back to yourself all that you intend to manifest.
So after reading that passage again as I worked through my 2009 reflections and my 2010 goals, I began to meditate on the following questions. What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of life do I want to have as I cross that threshold into the next fifty years of my life?
And as I sat there the answer came to me like a prayer whispered on a soft breeze.
INSPIRED
I want to live a truly Inspired life. A life filled with Divine Inspiration, enthusiasm, brilliance, passion, excellence, and elation.
For the longest time, tucked away in a closet I’ve kept a little blog called The Inspired Artist!, where I’ve hidden away recipes, paintings, photos. Stuff I really don’t expect anyone to see. (Not a very inspired attitude it now occurs to me as I write this). I loved the title. It resonated with who I wanted to be. An Inspired Artist filling my life with creative endeavors to share with the world.
The reason it never went anywhere? It isn’t enough. Art is just a part of me, it isn’t all of me. I want ALL of me to be inspired and I want all of YOU to be inspired. I want to change the world with inspiration.
That’s my big hairy audacious goal for 2010. To live an Inspired Life in 2010 and hope you will join in with me to live one too.
Dr. Dyer has already given us the recipe. We know what we have to do. If we want to attract more Inspired people to come along on our journey, all we have to do is practice. That simple…practice being inspired…living inspired…embracing inspiration wherever we can find it.
How to find inspiration?
Open your eyes and heart and look for it. Make it an Intention. An on purpose daily habit to seek it out everywhere. Begin to see it in the little things. It’s all around us, in the people right next door, in the places we go day to day, in the lessons that spirit is trying to teach if we take a moment to listen. It breaths in the smile of a child, in the deep brown eyes of a beloved pet who’s unconditional love knows no end, in the loving touch of an elderly couple still holding hands.
Stop and look…take it in…and then don’t forget to share it with others. Spread the inspiration! Be the inspiration! Manifest the energy and watch it grow forward!
BE the Inspired Life. I plan to. Will you join me?
Friar says
Hey! Your new theme looks fantastic!
Brett Legree says
Wow!!! This looks *amazing*, kudos to the team who put this together 😉 glad to be here with you in 2010, Wendi.
-Brett
.-= Brett Legree’s last post… 6 weeks 2 days. =-.
Lance says
Wendi,
As I read this today, I can’t help but glance up at your header (the site looks amazing!) at the lighthouse, and think “what a perfect example”. Lighthouse…sending it’s light out into the world. Give the light, be the light.
Inspired. Wendi, that word is so good. I think it touches upon the brilliance and beauty in all of us…in the gifts we have and the love we share. I look forward to experiencing the inspiration of life you’ll share here…and I DO join you in BEing the inspired life…
.-= Lance’s last post… The Art of Life =-.
Wendi Kelly says
@Friar! You beat Brett! I was so sure he would get here first… but I’m so glad you are here. welcome my lil’ brother. 🙂 I am beaming at the site. Deb outdid herself with the design…once again.
@Brett- I can’t ever forget that it all began with me throwing a single post out in the blogosphere on a whim, and a really nice guy reading what I wrote and leaving a nice comment to encourage me to keep on going. Brett Legree the encourager. And my first blogging friend. I am happy to get to 2010 out here with you too! Cheers!
@Lance- You ARE one of the Inspired. Thank you for that. I truly believe that what we can create living the Inspired Life will be magical. I’m SOOOOO excited! Can you feel it!!
Brett Legree says
Friar cheated! Friar cheated!
(I had to drive Cathryn to work, actually… and feed the kids… and walk the dog…)
I knew when I stopped in that day that I’d found a special place – and you, too, are an encourager. In fact, expect some new writing up on 6 Weeks very soon, I am feeling bullish about 2010 and things are happening as we speak.
Your gentle email nudges are helping that to happen.
.-= Brett Legree’s last post… 6 weeks 2 days. =-.
Deb Dorchak says
Morning All!
@Wendi: This is such a beautiful thing on so many levels. Like I said, you deserve it. Enjoy.
@Brett: Amazing how encouragement just keep cycling outward, innit? It keeps going, gathering momentum and before you know it, world changes are happening.
@Lance: What a pleasure it is to meet you! I’ve heard so many good things about you. So glad to see you here.
@Friar: Thanks! And I don’t think you cheated, you had faster rowers in the galley.
Lori Hoeck says
Beautiful site design!
A wise and wonderful friend tells me this will be a year of plenty — not the sit back and get fed plenty, but the big and bold plenty. I recently heard this phrase: “All ships rise in a rising tide.” Sounds like you are dedicated to helping that tide rise so all ships can rise as well. What a great way to approach 2010!
.-= Lori Hoeck’s last post… Do you know your bad guys? =-.
Sean Platt says
I agree with Lance, the lighthouse is the perfect symbol for all you’re trying to convey.
And the site looks FANTASTIC. Over the fence and into a bull’s eye.
Looking forward to an Inspired Life in 2010.
.-= Sean Platt’s last post… Available Darkness: Chapter 35 =-.
steph says
Wendy and Deb: AWESOME!! I just wanted a sneak peek, and this looks fantastic!
I’ll be back after work…
Jamie Simmerman says
OH! Pretty! I’m lovin’ the night sky thing you guys got going on. 😀 Great Job!
.-= Jamie Simmerman’s last post… Keeping it Real in Copywriting =-.
Colleen Vanderlinden says
Congrats on the redesign — it looks fabulous! I love Dr. Dyer. Our local PBS has him on whenever they’re raising money (it must work well 🙂 ) and I’ve been inspired every time I’ve seen one of his shows. I’ll have to read The Power of Intention. I understand what you’re saying about wanting every part of your life to be inspired. For a long time I thought the only way to find inspiration was in my work. But there’s a whole world of inspiration in my children’s faces, the smell of bread baking, and the sound of toads in my garden. What a waste if I were to miss all of that!
By the way — that video in the sidebar? I may just come back every day just to watch that 🙂
Janice Cartier says
Woo hoo! Just gorgeous!!!! Congrats Deb and Wendi! Okay enough exclamations.. I’ll just have to do a happy dance for you…one of these Fridays we are so going to get to share that pitcher of margaritas for real life…as a little one I know says. And for real life, living an inspired life is so much better than living that programmed by everyone else’s expectations one.
It’s on the back of my cards:
“Precisely the least, the smallest, the lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a breeze, a moment’s glance-it is little that makes the best happiness.”~Frederich Nietzsche
Noticing them? Taking them to heart? Now that is a very nice inspired life to have indeed.
Brava, ladies. Nice launch. I am honored to be on the guest list. 🙂 ( Waves hi to friends here. )
.-= Janice Cartier’s last post… Anemones, Nudibranchs, Pink and Flow =-.
Deb Dorchak says
@Janice: !!!! Never enough exclamation points! Oops, there goes another one! Damn, they’re addictive little buggers.
I’ve got you penciled in for that pitcher. Thanks for the compliments. We’re on a roll with design for sure.
Wendi Kelly says
Yay! It’s a party! Drop the balloons!
@Brett- I am going to hold you to that…if I don’t see a post up at six weeks soon I’m going to start camping out on your doorstep with a protest sign. Come on! Get back in the game! You want to warm up by guest posting here? I know for a FACT that you have led a very inspired life. Come in and share.
@Deb- There are not enough words to express the gratitude I have for you. My Business partner and my friend. This is ours now and together I know we can do anything we put our mind to.
@Lori- your friend is very wise indeed. I believe love poured outward brings love back two-fold. Our lighthouse will be shining the light for all the ships to see in the rising tide this year. I think it will be a very bright year indeed.
@ Thanks Sean! So glad you are here! Everyone, Sean just re-launched his site this week at Collective Inkwell.It looks great. Stop in and say hi if you have time. http://collectiveinkwell.com/
@Hi Steph! See you after work, we’ll still be here, grinning like silly school girls.
@ Jamie, thanks…that has become our combined partnership symbol. Deb’s Sirius Star and Wendi’s Lighthouse. We couldn’t think of a better way to express it coming together. We love it. Glad you do too.
@Colleen- Hi! I’m so glad you are here! Yes Dr. Dyer opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the world. I can’t even remember how old I was the first time I read his book. And I’m glad you liked the song!
Did everyone go check out the video? Go do if you didn’t the words and music will make you smile….Yes Friar…even you. …at least I think it will. It IS Friday. One never knows on a Friday about a Friar Bear….:)
Allison Day says
Wendi… you inspire me.
I absolutely love your new theme. You should’ve seen the look on my face the first time I saw it. As I was saying to Deb, it’s so you – elegant, beautiful… it suits you perfectly. It was truly an honor getting to code this theme for you. 🙂
Davina says
Absolutely beautiful theme! Love the colours. Great job to the Sirius team. I think I’d want to post every day if this was my new home. 🙂
Deb Dorchak says
Allison! Yes, we cannot forget our Coding Goddess in all this. Cheers to the silent team member behind the curtain! Come take another bow!
Wendi Kelly says
@Allison
Thank you…and right back at you…without you…I don’t even know what to say. Ideas just stay ideas until someone steps up who makes them happen. That’s you. Our amazing coder.
And Rose…out there hiding somewhere, our Chief Editor on the team…nothing gets past her either. This is TEAM WORK at its best. Group Hug!!
@ Davina~Feel free to come and post! Notice that I said SHARE the Inspiration. Every Friday will be Guest Post day at LLI. We would love for everyone to come and share their stories of inspiration and hope and dreams for everyone to enjoy.
Joanna Young says
“I want to change the world with inspiration.” – what an inspiring goal! Someone shared this quote from Gina Trapani with me earlier this week – “don’t get things done, make things happen” – I really like that, the focus on the energy we send out into the world, yes, like the beams of that lighthouse 🙂
The site does look fabulous – I particularly like the attention to the look and feel of the comment box where so much of the blog magic – inspiration happens x
Brett Legree says
@Friar,
I think Deb is saying that your Viking horde is better than my Viking horde – *Viking Rumble* (with much beer and merriment after!)
@Wendi,
I have a post in my head, right now. It will explain a bit of what I’ve been up to in my long absence – though a guest post would be welcome, too!
We can’t see the video here, the IT Police won’t let us 🙁
.-= Brett Legree’s last post… 6 weeks 2 days. =-.
Sue Markgraf says
The verse of a light worker is Matthew 5:16. (In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.). But I also like the two verses just prior, and your work here fits so nicely with this mission: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all the house.” Inspired living is heart-felt and it comes with great risk. But blessed are those who take that risk and dare to dream dreams that lift others so that God may ultimately be glorified.
Wendi, my Sister in light, I love you, share your dream and join you without question in this important work. Godspeed.
Deb Dorchak says
@Joanna: Thanks! Never thought I’d get a compliment on a comment box 🙂 Guess it’s good to pay attention to *all* the details.
@Brett: *points and laughs* Yeah, pretty much. Da Rumble in Valhalla! Where’re my Valkyries at? I want to get in on this.
Wendi Kelly says
@Sue,
Hello my wonderful friend! I am so glad you are here! Welcome and thank you for joining us- I know that you SO get the importance of spreading the light and why the lighthouse has always been my symbol. The simple fact is that the darkness can never live in the light. Ever.
It can’t be done. As long as we live in the light and spread the inspiration, we can”t be stopped.
steph says
Sitting here beside my loudly snoring sweet dog, listening to the loudly rumbling ancient but still working furnace, watching the snow fly outside, I think of how hard C and I worked to intend all this. It’s so hard at times to see the fruit of your intentions, of your positive thinking and taking action toward what you want, but then there are times like this, when I allow myself to unglue my editor’s cap and look at my world with true appreciation. Focusing on what I want, not on what I don’t want, has certainly worked for me in many areas.
Now I have to figure out exactly what I want as far as what I do for a living. I’ve looked back over the years I’ve been here, the 14 jobs I’ve had in 10 years, and I notice a trend. First, I didn’t know what I wanted, so I couldn’t really intend anything or put anything out there for other people that was committed. Second, nothing I’ve done, although I’ve learned things, has been relevant enough to forward me to the end I want, which is to work in publishing but to ideally own my bookshop tearoom. I’ve been too unfocused, too noncommittal to create opportunities for me to get where I want to go.
You talked about practising, about keeping an eye out, and about (genuinely) putting out there what you want to get in return. I think once we commit to these things, our reality will become much more clear and our goals more attainable.
Barbara Swafford says
Hi Wendi and Deb,
First, I must say, your new site is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!!!. I love the colors and am happy to see you kept the lighthouse as it mirrors your message so well.
Wayne Dyer is a favorite author of mine, too. I’m currently rereading his book, “Excuses Begone”. And you’re right, he does give us the “recipe”. As I was reading your post it reminded me of a lesson we had in college. The lesson was to write our own obituary. At first it sounded rather morbid, but when the professor instructed us to write how we wanted to be remembered, it was a wake up call as to how we want to live our lives. Do we want to be remembered as a kind person? Loving? Or mean and crotchety? Etc…
Back to the party…. Where’s confetti? The champagne? 🙂
.-= Barbara Swafford’s last post… Mind Your Own Business, Or Not? =-.
Wendi Kelly says
@Steph~ From day one when Deb did my first design in the bottom corner of the blog, I wrote my goals and intention for all to see. I wrote it, proclaimed it and never stopped believing that everything that was happening in my life wasn’t somehow bringing me closer to that goal.
this is what is said down there: My goal is to grow Life’s Little Inspirations into a website that offers books, inspirational materials, motivational speaking, workshops, coaching, and training classes on how to work and live an inspired, profitable and happy life.
Today, we are knocking down the door to that goal and we are marching much faster now to wrapping a pretty bow on all the loose ends.
There is probably a whole blog post- or a book in this…but the short answer is Dream…write it down, focus on it, have faith in it…never give up on it.
There was a lot of time in 2009 that felt like LLI might just be over. It was a bad year. But that little corner kept staring at me and wouldn’t give up. It was in writing and refused to die. And isn’t it just like life that just when things seem darkest, that victory is right around the corner?
I believe SO MUCH in the power of the written word and the power also of not giving up.
I also believe in you.
hugs!
@Barbara,
I have done that obituary exercise! A few different times in fact. The first time was at a personal development seminar with 5000 people. We had been given journals to journal the weekend and that was one of the exercises. The lights were turned down softly, quiet music of the variety you might hear in a funeral parlor was playing in the background and we were given plenty of time to sit quietly with our thoughts and write.
After awhile, you could hear sniffing and quiet sobs as people had some real breakthroughs. It was magical. It zeros it on what we are focusing our time on that’s for sure.
I remember tearing up my goal list for the year and starting over after that exercise.
Friar says
You know…I just feel a communal GROUP HUG happenin’ here! 😀 😀 😀 😀
.-= Friar’s last post… Realistic New Years’ Resolutions I Can Keep =-.
Rose says
This site is like a warm cup of homemade apple cider on a snowy winter day. I love every bit of it. Overflow of the peeps behind it, no doubt. Cheers, indeed! 😉
Betsy Wuebker says
Hi Wendi – As I said in email earlier, the combination of sparkle and peace is just the right visual effect. It’s perfectly lovely. Congratulations on a new look and a new beginning for 2010!
Betsy
.-= Betsy Wuebker’s last post… My Three Words for 2010 =-.
Stacey Shipman says
Hi Wendi,
Congratulations on the new site and all that is in store for you in 2010. The site is beautiful. 2009 was rocky for many and it’s great to see you back for a new year and new decade. I look forward to being part of this community again. We have similar missions! Best of luck to you.
Stacey
.-= Stacey Shipman’s last post… Awake to Life, Turkeys and All =-.
Karen Swim says
Wendi, the new canvas is beautiful and a perfect place to frame your enormous talent. You have never failed to shine that bright light of inspiration, in every word, every tweet, every conversation. I will take that challenge and join you in living an inspired life. Congrats on the new home, it is a perfect reflection of your beautiful soul!
.-= Karen Swim’s last post… Gig Your Way to Success =-.
Wendi Kelly says
Thanks Karen,
Looks to me you are well on you’re way to a very Inspired 2010! It’s going to be a great journey, glad we’ll be taking it together.
Suzie Cheel says
Hi Karen,
I just discovered this wonderully inspiring blog thanks to Lance and I love it. I will join you as 2010 is my year to inspire and be inspired so I’ll be surrounding myself with inspiring people like you. I love that you have recipes, paintings etc tucked away, I also have domains like beach Inspirations waiting to be shared with the world.
Thanks for inspring me today
Namaste
Suzie
.-= Suzie Cheel’s last post… 2010 Predictions =-.
Wendi Kelly says
Hi Suzie!
This is Wendi,
Welcome to Life’s Little Inspirations! We are so glad you are here. And so glad you found us through Lance ( There is a rumor he may be writing here some times so come back to look for him, we are hoping!) Yes, there are all kinds of good things hidden in the Archives and hopefully a lot more great things to come this year. Only the farthest stars are the limit!
Suzie Cheel says
Wendi,
apologies, for some reason I have said hi Karen instead of Wendi- can you change that and delet this comment
thanks
.-= Suzie Cheel’s last post… 2010 Predictions =-.
Deb Dorchak says
@Suzie: Not to go too off topic, but what font is that in your header on you site? (yup! I went to go take a peek! Love the colors 🙂 )
*ahem* Now, back on topic. Wandering through this site is like looking through an attic, you never know what kind of treasures you’ll find.
Suzie Cheel says
Hi Deb,
Not sure- let me see if Brian told me – was done by @nationwideclass think this is it Vivaldii.TTF. What a joy to see the Sab Badge here- watch for bi weekly Abundance cafe features of Sabs
.-= Suzie Cheel’s last post… Inspirational SABs #15 =-.