A-Z blogging challenge: D is for Daily inspiration

Some people call them devotionals. I do, too, depending on the day and the content; but wherever the words come from, they are my daily dose of inspiration. Having quiet minutes in the morning to get my head on straight before the day truly takes off... those are the few moments with exponential power to shape my mood and my forward motion.

Growing up, we had family morning devotionals. I remember being twitchy and mildly agitated, ready to get up and out the door. Let's go. Now. I didn't get--at all--the value of starting the day out with a prayer and a moment of peaceful thought. Thankfully, Seth seems to get it--how did I luck out that a 16-year-old will pause with us, happily, every morning and evening? God is indeed good to this mom.

Some of my favorites come into my inbox, every morning. I don't always read them all, but I do try and stop for one or two, before I head out to work. Sometimes it's a headline that will draw me in, or a quote, or a text. I get emails from the following:

The Bridgemaker

The High Calling

Daily Encouragement

Pema Chodron Foundation

And on Facebook, I follow Rumi, Oswald Chambers and C.S. Lewis, who each have morning words of wisdom. I know, kind of funny to have three dead men in my Facebook feed. But they are all very inspirational to me.

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes:
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

And Mr. Chambers:
“It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God: but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.” 

 Last but not least, Rumi:
“This world is in deep trouble, from top to bottom. But it can be swiftly healed by the balm of love.”

Where do you go for daily inspiration? I am always looking for more, please share!

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

Monday morning inspiration

The view for much of our roadtrip this past weekend.

I have been reflecting on my lack of dietary freshness of late. Some winters I do a better job with keeping up on the salads and such, other winters... not so much. This is one of those not so much winters. So, knowing I should be doing better, I have been looking for some inspiration beyond the box of greens languishing in the fridge, and of course, there are plenty of options.

Kale and squash salad or Brussels sprout salad or Winter radicchio slaw or Endive salad with blue cheese, red grapes and pecans. There is surely no excuse for my lack of salad intake... I'm determined to turn this trend around!

I was cleaning out my inbox over the weekend--it tends to creep up in number if I don't keep an eye out, know what I mean?--and saw a leftover devotional email from the very end of 2012, talking about a Psalm for the new year, Psalm 90. I saw this paraphrase below, and love how it aligns with so much of what I want to remember every day, as well as what I've chosen for my OLW 2013: Light. I love it when my procrastination results in an a-ha moment when that same email might have gotten a quick delete a month or two ago.

Spring doesn't seem so far away these days. The sun has come out here and there, enough to tease toward whole days of cloudless skies. And the temperatures have been almost balmy as well. Seeing color forecasts from Pantone never hurts, either. I actually saw the fall one first and thought, "Oh brother, surely we aren't fast-forwarding straight to fall?" and went looking for spring.

Which are your favorites? For spring, mine has to be Tender Shoots or Lemon Zest or Nectarine (I know, hard to choose!). For fall, I'm Acai and Koi, with a little Mykonos Blue... Regardless, I do love both palettes!

pantone spring

pantone fall fashion

Panorama of the lake of my childhood, Okanagan Lake.

Wishing you the kind of week that brings blue skies, fresh air and glassy lakes (even if they're all just figurative!).