two bods

We actually can’t avoid being inspired, nor can we avoid inspiring others. Chance and our humanity will have their way: we dream our dreams; we reach out to, and love, each other; we are, when we are brave, true to our real selves, and we are inspired when we witness these things. We are moved by great music, by drama on stage and off it, and by the unselfishness of ordinary people. And ordinary people do the same for us: we have each given and received Inspiration, for it is part of being human.

However, by developing our capacity to receive and give Inspiration consciously, and with courage, will and awareness, we can grow habits that can help more of us live more fully, and help each other to do the same.  We can ‘lead’ ourselves and each other to become less ordinary and more fully human. We have a pathway to realising Hamlet’s affirmation of the extra-ordinariness of each one of us:

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god – the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!