inspiration from The Crab Nebula - A Supernova Remnant

 

The Crab Nebula - -a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula - is 6500 light years from Earth. One light year is 5.88 trillion miles. The distance that light travels in a vacuum for one year. When we reference "the universe", it is so far beyond what we can seem to imagine. The possibilities are infinite. The creation is amazing and awe-inspiring. Imagine what types of intelligence has evolved out there with technology 1000 times or more advanced than our own. Past-present-future merging into the eternal now. Other dimensions beyond measurable time. Consciousness expanding here and hereafter. And we think we have it all figured out

Inspiration from Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Review

Unbroken, based on a true story by Laura Hillenbrand (author of Seabisquit)

 This story, which I finished as an audiobook, was one of the most engaging stories I have ever read in my life. The inspiration was in the fortitude, courage, and creativity of Louis Zamperini.

“A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.” (The Washington Post)

Zamperini went from a delinquent childhood to becoming a world record-breaking marathon runner, only to be drafted into the army and sent on missions as a bomber in the Pacific in World War II. 

The incredible but true story starts from there when he struggled to survive for 36 days on a raft against sharks, hunger and thirst, sun and storms, only to end up landing on an island and being taken to a POW camp.

What he endured there and in other camps was brutality that targeted him among others and he needed to survive this if he could. 

" Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will." - Audible  

 

As an audiobook, it was an extraordinary experience to listen to the story narrated masterfully by Edward Hermann. It's no surprise that on Audible there are 49,470 reviews with an average rating of 4.6out of 5 stars. 

                          

Unbroken is an inspiration and testimony to the resilience of the human mind, body, heart, and spirit that we all have to some degree within us.

Critic's Rave Reviews

"Unbroken is wonderful twice over, for the tale it tells and for the way it’s told. A better book than Seabiscuit, it manages maximum velocity with no loss of subtlety. [Hillenbrand has] a jeweler’s eye for a detail that makes a story live." (Newsweek)

"A master class in narrative storytelling.... Extraordinarily moving...A powerfully drawn survival epic." (The Wall Street Journal)

"Ambitious and powerful.... Hillenbrand is intelligent and restrained, and wise enough to let the story unfold for itself. Her research is thorough, her writing crystalline. Unbroken is gripping in an almost cinematic way." (The New York Times Book Review)

“[A] one-in-a-billion story...designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.” (New York)

“Staggering...mesmerizing...Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.” (People) 

“A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.” (The Washington Post)

“Hillenbrand...tells [this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.” (Time)

“Unbroken is too much book to hope for: a hellride of a story in the grip of the one writer who can handle it.” (Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run) 

 GET THIS AUDIOBOOK AS A FREE  DOWNLOAD WITH A FREE TRIAL OF AUDIBLE >

Five Ideas for Inspiration for October

 Five Ideas for Inspiration in October

“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne

October is a month of change, transition from Summer to Fall, from light to increasing darkness in the days, colder weather, rain, brilliant leaves that fall and sail with the wind, candles and approaching holidays, Dias de Los Muertos and Halloween traditions, Fall harvest, and more time indoors.

Here are five ideas for inspiration in October:

1) Start a creative project

A creative project can be anything that you've thought about doing and have not started yet. Whatever it is, creativity will be involved in how you plan it, have ideas about it, engage in it, and take actions to create it. This first act of creativity may be to start it. Once started, commit to follow through with it daily, and maybe set a goal to continue until the end of the year.

2) Celebrate Halloween differently

Besides the usual routines of visiting a haunted house, or pumpkin patch, or decorating the home, consider adding something different. For example, when I lived in Denver the Botannical Gardens had an amazing authentic celebration of Dios de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead celebrated in Mexico. Another idea is to carve pumpkins with unique faces that you can find on Google and display them on your window or front porch.

Scary movies and books are prolific, and if these have not been a part of the routine, seek out unusual experiences with both or either. I am listening to the classic novel Dracula as an audiobook for the first time. This is the original story and it is very engaging, building suspense in every chapter. It is a masterpiece and now I know why.

3) Listen to inspiring music every morning (or whatever time works)

Whether on YouTube or with headphones try adding one inspiring song in your morning routine or whatever time works in the day. By adding more music in October, the month will take on a different vibe, and may enhance your life in ways unknown until you try it.

4) Plants seeds of inspiration for the New Year

Whatever inspires you now take it to the next level and add something new. The New Year will be upon us soon and October is a good time to start planting "seeds of inspiration" or ideas that will inspire you through the rest of the year and into the New Year. In one year from now you might have a tree. 

5) Create and read an affirmation every day until the end of the year.

Here's a template to work with or create your own. By affirming this every day you are infusing the most positive thoughts about your life in a concentrated form. 

Today I am most grateful for ___________________________.
These are the reasons why I love my life or will love my life: ________, _________, _________, ______________.
I am continuing _________- a new project and committed to practicing it every day until the end of the year. I enjoy the love and connection with my family and friends, especially ______, ______, ______, ______, ______._________ 

 

October can be a month to be remembered this year, for those things that we started or created that provided us inspiration in the months that followed. 

 

Carpe Diem