Inspiration via Violin and Basketball

I sometimes reserve a particular word to express my reaction when I am especially moved: I’m INSPIRED.  I’ll often say a pastor or speaker is inspiring when I am touched to the core by a presentation.  Or a day with an old friend might be inspiring, or an especially striking sunset. 

But please know I don’t use the word lightly. I don’t say someone or something is inspiring unless I’ve been enlarged, energized, quickened, challenged, broken apart/shaken down/opened up in some way.  The word INSPIRING is one of the highest compliments I can give because I’ve been awakened or challenged or changed, or maybe all three, or maybe something beyond all three.

Yesterday and today we visited our daughter, Emily, and her family. It was INSPIRING.

This morning I visited 10-year-old Caleb’s group violin lesson.  Of course there was a primary focus on discovering precisely what is required to make a violin sing, but only in the context of learning that stretched far, far into other realms.  I found myself vicariously being challenged to embrace and live out uplifting attitudes and goals.  To respect, express, create, and honor.  To value life and music and learning and other people.  To appreciate individuality and the opportunity to harness it in order to work in unison to produce something more beautiful than you could produce on your own.

It was a lesson in living.  A quality lesson.  It took me far beyond the left-brained, rote, predictable, cookie-cutter approach of most Westernized education.  It was a breath of fresh air.

After violin lesson we went to Caleb’s final basketball game of the year.  After a near-perfect season, his team lost this final game.  The coach met the gloomy boys afterwards with inspiration that may well last a lifetime.  His thoughts were well-articulated in a way that made us all (kids and adults alike) think about the inevitabilities in life: disappointment, frustration, opportunity, acceptance, optimism, hope.  Teamwork.  Growth. 

An all-team party complete with pizza, soda, and cupcakes with mountainous frosting ended the season for good.  Then we went home to a rousing basketball game in the park when Caleb and one of his teammates pitted themselves against a team of three adults (two regulars and one substitute when Grampa got tired).  Here’s a picture of Caleb stealing the ball from his mom.  This small split-second in time reveals a tiny glimpse into the human experience.  It speaks to me of motherhood, a sacred calling that requires a woman to sacrificially share everything she is, everything she has, and everything she hopes for the future: to dare to live without restraint.  It reminds me that when a mother loves and gives her all, it is returned and more.  I have been in my daughter's shoes and yet....she inspires me.