Inspiration Thursday! Life.

There's so much going on in Swoonville this week - some of you know EXACTLY what I mean - that it's difficult to accomplish anything. My head has been spinning with things to do. Constant lists. Restlessness. I just need to DO something ...until I fall into bed and think about the million more things I want to do.

I went to Michael's the other day to pick up some last minute supplies to finish an order, and as usual I had the radio on in my car. (Insert word of thanks for XM/Sirius Radio) For some reason I flipped through to the Broadway channel and heard the opening lines of "Circle of Life." Now you and I both know this song has been done to death. I've heard this song thousands of times, but for some reason on this particular day, in this particular parking lot, watching this particular sunset, I started to cry. The line that did it? "There's more to be seen than can ever be seen, more to do than could ever be done."

Well folks, blame the hormones, but that was it for me. I was done. It exactly captured what I'd been feeling recently - this sometimes manic push to do more, see more, be more, create more. I want to go back to Paris and show my now husband the City of Light. I want to see baby elephants take their first steps in the wild. I want to watch waterfalls in Hawaii. And I want to explore a lot more of this United States - talking to people, hearing stories, understanding what unites us as a nation.

Now look, I'm a lot like many (who are blessed enough to have a job) in this recession. I've spent many, many days getting to work, putting one foot in front of the other, making payments on my bills and just trying to get through this difficult time. I've been re-learning how to count my blessings. But something in the past two weeks sparked me into this restlessness. And at some point I realized that just because things are this way now, they won't be this way forever.

In fact, the thing that keeps life from staying the same boils down to something relatively ethereal: dreaming. The thing that unites us as Americans is just that: The American Dream. And that's what keeps us looking up, looking forward and carrying through to that better moment. So instead of continuing to plod forward just making it through, I've decided to do something else instead. I've decided to look up instead of down. I've decided to live. And I've decided to dream. Because there are better days ahead. I can feel it. I hope you can too.