There is more than one meaning for the word inspiration. Inspiration is what writers wait for — a flash of ideas that flows onto the page. Inspiration is a warming of the heart and a quickening of the mind by someone or something who has done something that amazes or uplifts us. Inspiration is the very act of taking a breath, of inhaling, drawing in the oxygen that sustains life.
Inspiration can come to us in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. It was so for me as I was driving through the city one day, running errands, and listening to the CBC Radio program White Coat, Black Art. That episode told the story of Catherine Wreford-Ledlow, a woman in Winnipeg facing a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. For those of you familiar with the Canadian musician Gord Downie, it is the same cancer that claimed his life earlier this year.
This inspiring woman is dealing with her diagnosis by continuing with life, and by working to help others who will be diagnosed in the future. Quoting from an article on the CBC website, “In addition to being a mom of two, Wreford Ledlow, a dancer who has performed on Broadway, teaches musical theatre at the Shelley Shearer School of Dance, and is the facilitator of a local support group for people with brain cancer.”
I’d like to invite you to take some time (this will take close to half an hour, so find a time when that’s a possibility for you), lean back, take a deep breath, and listen to the full episode of White Coat, Black Art that so inspired me when I heard it in my car that busy afternoon. You can find it here, at CBC Listen.
I is for Inspiration. It is for the Invitation to Inhale fresh air into our lungs, fresh Ideas into our minds, fresh life into our hearts. Inspiration Illuminates our darkness.
