Inspire, Excite and Breathe In! ~homage to my inspirational people.

I am dedicating today's entry to those who have inspired me most in my life time. All though there are too many singers, writers, artists and teachers who have greatly touched me and changed me to even mention, I still would like to name a few. I have searched for my college poetry professor online and have not been able to find her. I actually want to talk with her again someday. Alas, she was wonderful and her name was Martha Furlong. I think Poetry I and II were in my top five favorite classes in college. She taught us so well and I loved her sassy attitude. She loved Sylvia Plath and Martinis and I loved Mrs. Furlong.

When looking up synonyms for the word: inspiration, I found the coolest different meanings. In one source:

inspiration
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	Divine guidance and motivation imparted directly.
Synonyms:	afflatus

How divine is that!? To say that someone who inspires you could be Divine in essence, or the experience is Divine of being inspired. Perhaps I could even go so far as to say that when we are inspired, it could be a direct experience all of our connectedness to God and to one another, our Oneness. I love it.

In another source:

inspiration
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	A sudden exciting thought.
Synonyms:	brainstorm

And how is exciting is that!!?? Of course it is. When someone or something inspires me I feel the need to drop whatever I am holding (hopefully not the baby), run to a studio and begin to create. Weather it be write, sketch, paint, sculpt or simply do Yoga and meditate, I love that exciting feeling.

In the last source I checked:

inspiration
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	The act of breathing in.
Synonyms:	inhalation

How could I have forgotten about this definition?! Ha! And how cool that it can combine meanings in my mind. Ah! To take in a fresh, clean, morning breath! It is just like bringing in a fresh new perspective and/or idea. To breathe in new O2 can bring vitality and cleanse the mind, blood and body just like a miraculous idea can. Maybe that is why I love Yoga so much, it is multiple patterns of inspirations! Ha!

So here are the folks I love to love, thank you all for being.

This is Shiva Rea. Yoga instructor, surfer, dancer and many more things but really an inspiration to Becca. If I ever said, I wish I could be more like.....the only person I would say is Shiva Rea. She says she is not interested in "doing" Yoga, but rather BEING Yoga. Nuff said, sister. I aspire to be half as strong, peaceful, centered, healthy and intellectual as she. Both of these photos were placed in Yoga calendars around the time I discovered her, I believe back in the late 90's early 2000. Check out: http://www.shivarea.com/ for the very best Yoga DVD's you could ever want.

This is one of Paul Cezanne's famous paintings called Mount Saint Victoire. He painted this mountain several times in several different ways. He is the father of cubism. The reason why art is the way it is, in my opinion. As my sister Lisa (always an inspiration) so eloquently puts it, "the beauty of art is making a simple brushstroke look like a peach, rather than trying to paint to look like a photograph." That is art man. And Paul knew this better than anyone. I was lucky enough to see his private studio and this exact view out the window, in Provence, France. Yes, I feel cool.

This is Iris DeMent, she sings and plays beautifully. Her way is different, her voice makes me cry. I totally dig that. She is a true, creative artist. I almost named my first daughter Iris, after her....maybe if we have another girl. My other sister (also another constant inspiration) gave me a mix tape in like 1993 with her voice on it. Thank you Meg, good taste is your thing! Check her out at:

http://www.irisdement.com/biography.html

This is Christiane Northrup, M.D. She is a writer but also an OB/GYN. But she is so very much more than those two titles. She, before almost anyone else, was connecting the spirit and happiness to health and wellness. I have her book planted directly to my left this very minute and really, most of the time! The one book of hers I own is the size of an encyclopedia called, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing. She prescribes things like tai chi...just to give you an idea of her coolness. I will be investing in each of her books as time passes for me. They are priceless volumes of knowledge. The next book of hers I want is to do with Mothers and daughters, awesome! And then she has one for menopause. I love her I wish she would have been my OB.

This is good old Lex Gillan, the great man who certified me to teach Yoga in 2001. He also taught me how to be simple and have a magestic meditation. "Lex Gillan has been a practitioner of yoga and meditation for nearly 40 years. He has studied with world-class teachers – including Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Father Thomas Keating, Andy Gold and James Ezelle, M.D. – since the 1960’s. Mr. Gillan has been a full-time instructor since 1974 when he founded The Yoga Institute in Houston, Texas, one of the oldest yoga studio businesses in the country. Since its inception, he has taught more than 20,000 yoga classes, 70 ten-day retreats and 300 meditation workshops. Mr. Gillan also teaches the Yoga Teacher Training and National Certifications Course, is a founder and Trustee of Rose Mountain Retreat Center outside Las Vegas, New Mexico and is on the Adjunct Faculty at The Institute for Religion and Health in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. He is degreed in Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin University (Texas) and spent five years as a commercial banker in Houston in the 60’s."

~ Quote/bio taken from: http://www.thehealthclubcompany.com/lex-gillan.htm

Hope I can pass along a little inspiration to some of you out there along with me, with this great list of folks.

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

Peace, Peace, Peace

BECCA, out.