Inspire

I'm pretty tired of being bossed around by inanimate objects.

It all started with a particular brand of chocolates deciding that, when I opened their bite-sized squares of lusciousness, I should be greeted with instructions on how to live my best life. Excuse me, what? I just want to put something yummy in my mouth. Be quiet already.

Next, soft drinks decided to enter the bossy-pants game by determining that personalizing my drink wasn't enough.  Now I'm feeling the pressure to match the can's words to my mood or my tribe or whatever catchphrase I'm willing to adopt for the moment. To this trend I say, 1. I'm exhausted and 2. Just no.

It all came to a head when I twisted open my cough drop yesterday, assuming I'd find within its paper cell a....hold please...cough drop. Instead, I was assaulted with the completely non-common-cold-related advice printed within: "Inspire Envy!" it screamed at me.

CAN EVERYONE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE TO EAT CHOCOLATE AND DRINK CHEMICALS AND NOT COUGH IN PEACE?????

Once I finished rolling my eyes at the absurdity sitting in my hand, I decided that this phrase should be filed under Absolutely and Decidedly The Worst Advice Ever Received.

I don't think most of us consider ourselves to be particularly inspirational people, but we are. We are all inspiring something, and I'd hate for my offering to be Envy.

Let's inspire Laughter, with our people and even at ourselves.

Let's inspire Reflection, taking a breath, pausing to create quiet in the middle of the noise.

Let's inspire Grace, both quickly-offered forgiveness and long-fought redemption.

Let's inspire Change, a dissatisfacton with the status quo.

Let's inspire Contentment, a lack of comparison of our homes and bodies and accomplishments.

Let's inspire Bravery in the larger moments of great action and in the smaller, quieter moments when just getting through the day requires our courage.

Let's not use up our days inspiring envy and jealousy, swallowing the lie that we must look and own and showcase a comparison-breeding life.

There's a whole world full of Better Things to inspire. Let's spend our rapidly-disappearing days inspiring those.

Although, let's not get crazy: I'm totally still buying that chocolate. Chatty wrappers or not.