Inspiration

I find that both things great and small can be an inspiration.

Two people who inspire me are Luisa Perkins and John Roos.

I'll be lucky enough to have both of them visit here sometime in the near future - I'll be reviewing Luisa's amazing cookbook, Comfortably Yum, and John will be the launch for a new feature here: Local Love Fridays. Local Love Fridays will focus on small, independent business owners in the Ann Arbor/Southeast Michigan area, and our first feature will be RoosRoast Coffee. I'm hoping that some of you who are farther afield will take up this challenge, too, and help us to learn about your communities through those who are trying to make a difference in this crazy world economy.

I'm not yet sure if my debut piece will be next week or on June 12th. Stay tuned for that one.

In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with some of my favorite quotes. These quotations inspire me on a daily basis, but, you know, I'm kind of word-driven like that.

Ray Bradbury:

"To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in glorious fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next.

You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats on your crazy heads.

I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories - science fiction and otherwise.

Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And, out of that love, remake a world."

Sai Baba:

"Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve upon the silence?"

Eleanor Roosevelt:

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."

Horace:

"Carpe diem."

What makes you "seize the day"? What inspires you?