To inspire is to breathe in; to expire is to breathe out. Stories that inspire us fill our chests and make us feel more alive.
They awaken us to possibilities of being. These possibilities might be entirely new to us, or they might be old ones that are no longer familiar, or have not seemed possible for a long time.
Reading stories of Winnie-the-Pooh inspires me with the possibility of being loved and respected just as I am, with all my so-called ’faults’. I am inspired too by Pooh’s creative and imaginative engagement with the world, his close observation, his speculation and his poetry.
Isn’t it funny
How a bee likes honey?
Buzz buzz buzz
I wonder why he does?
Miki and I travelled to the edge of the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, to the bridge where Pooh and Christopher Robin played Poohsticks. Our pilgrimage, and the game of Poohsticks we played there, affirmed the roles that love and respect play in our lives. Our pilgrimage was as spiritual as those of the pilgrims who centuries before, but not far away, travelled to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury.
James Bond movies inspire me with the possibilities of being courageous, of taking risks and winning; and of being admired and desired. (James Bond stories are infantile fantasies of murderous omnipotence and gratification, but they can still inspire me.)