We all have things in our lives that inspire us, mold us, shape us and help us strive to be the best that we can be. Sometimes these people impact us for a moment or for a lifetime. Sometimes we notice their inspiration early on and it resonates with us continuously throughout our lives, and other times it's fleeting, but still impactful.
I wouldn't consider myself to be someone who's tough to inspire- shoot, do a good deed and I'm insta-spired. I've been known to be moved by everything from a touching story on Oprah, a speaker at a luncheon, a random act of kindness on the street, a smile from a homeless person on a corner... you name it, they've all brought a smile to my face and in some cases a tear to my eye.
However, there's one person who has inspired me on a whole different kind of a level, a very personal level. That person is writer, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book Eat, Pray, Love. I'll never forget how entangled and entrenched I became with the book from the moment I picked it up. I'm usually a night time reader, but I found myself searching for times to get away to read the book throughout the day. It was one of those reads that left me laughing out loud, crying out loud, and thinking (sometimes out loud), "That's what I want to do!" or, "That's how I feel!"
The other element to Gilbert's book that touched me was something far beyond the meaning behind the stories she shared, it was more about the way in which she shared them. Gilbert's writing style was (and is) something I felt instantly connected to. Gilbert writes in a very humanistic manner and in a very real manner. Sometimes you read books and while you're impressed by the writing style and techniques, they sometimes lack personality and character. Gilbert gives personality and character like any other other author I've read (granted I'm not as well versed in my reading as some readers, but this is my opinion and I'm entitled to it, right?). As I was reading away, admiring Gilbert's talent, I began to realize that part of the reason I felt so connected to her style was because she wrties in a way that felt very familiar to me. She writes like I do.
Sure, I can take the time to come up with imagery and creative ideas, but my best writing is always the writing that comes straight from the heart. I will admit that making words and thoughts flow is something that has come easier to me than it does for others (don't worry, I can't sing a chord to save my life, my talents are all balanced out), and I'll also admit I still have work to do, but when I read Gilbert's book, I realized that it was time to take on the one talent I knew I'd been keeping under wraps since my days in high school.
Not only did Gilbert's book inspire me on a deeper, inner-personal level, as I was reading it at a time when I was searching for some inspiration beyond writing, but it inspired me to go after something I hadn't really even been considering getting back into. After reading her book, I began to toy with the idea of writing again. So I started jotting some things down in a word document. I then began posting them to my Facebook to discover that there were some people who actually enjoyed my posts! As my confidence began to rise in my writing, I decided to take it a step further and began writing a health and fitness blog at work, and luckily my coworkers believed in me enough to do it. That's when the idea to create "Life Thru Blue Eyes" came to surface. You see, someday I'd love to write a book of my own. And, after reading Gilbert's excerpt on her website about advice for writers, there was one thing I really took from it all, "I was a writer with low expectations and high patience". That's how I'm choosing to look at this writing journey. My only expectation is that one day my words and thoughts make it to paperback, and if that happens tomorrow great and if it happens in 60 years, fine, but I'm living by the thought that one day- it will happen.
Yesterday, at the YWCA luncheon here in Seattle (Bellevue) I was lucky enough to briefly meet Elizabeth and quickly share with her that she was a writing inspiration to me. I've never been one to feel a deep need to "meet" someone in the public spotlight. If it happens, it happens, and in my life it has here and there, but this was a moment that was different for me. To be able to shake the hand of someone who has truly inspired you, and even get an unasked for hug from it and then later listen to that person speak, and bring about further inspiration through their speech is a really great feeling. And, that meeting will forever hold a spot near and dear to my writer's heart.
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