{Un}inspired

Today I'm feeling:

:: snide

:: churlish

:: bitter

Isn't churlish a great word? It means ungracious or ill-natured.

"How are you today?" a poor, unsuspecting soul ventures to query.

"I'm feeling rather churlish, I'm afraid," I respond and walk away,

in my imagination only. I'm rarely--no, never--churlish in public.

But I'll dare to be churlish on this here public blog today.

I'll indulge my equivalent of sour stomach acid before applying the antacid of good cheer, gratitude and getting on with my day.

If you follow any of the blogs I do, you'll appreciate my sarcastic rendering of the {brackets} that usually bookend words like {in}spired life

and the double colon :: that my truly favorite blogger {of all time} [ha!] uses to introduce things she's loving, doing, feeling--all lovely and not embittered like me. :[

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the couch this morning, checked a couple favorite blogs and the Facebook news feed and felt like all the inspired people in the world are living such inspired, homemade, productive lives, canned and preserved in rustic, beautiful Mason jars decked in burlap ribbon with little chalkboard labels. They've made their fresh salsa with their garden veggies and herbs, their homemade ice cream flavor of exotic extraction, their fresh pasta sauce from their tomato garden harvest {my tomatoes died on the vine}. They've also run several miles this morning and thrown their children a creative birthday party in the past week, with handmade favors and homemade cake from scratch, with fresh eggs collected that very morning in a rustic wire basket from their backyard chickens. They've documented and blogged about it every step of the way and posted their original recipes for all to enjoy. They've had such a way with words and photographs--painting word pictures with expert brush strokes and mingling photographs to give your heart a pang. They've also published a book with their original photography, all while raising and homeschooling their kids and knitting, sewing, throwing pottery and selling their wares on Etsy. Or being a professor. Today their DIY project is to make a raised wooden garden bed to grow their own pumpkins just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving. They're a few weeks late on getting their pumpkins into the ground, but they'll yield a plump little harvest nonetheless.

Guess what? I feel better now! I've spewed my bitterness and am ready to move on with my ordinary day of moderate productivity and mood swings, while hoping and praying that our neighbors in Kenya and Somalia can be fed and hydrated and taste hope while we in America carry on with our {in}spired lives. (I'm merely noting the disparity here, merely wishing that those experiencing famine and refugee status could live in comfort, beauty and security with fresh food and clean drinking water. I am NOT saying that those who can create beauty should not enjoy it and share it. I just wish it could spill over to the Horn of Africa. Maybe it can! I'm just sad that some are dying while others are thriving. I want everyone to be thriving! We don't all thrive to the limitless extent that blogs and Facebook feeds portray, albeit in a skewed way, but there are enough resources in the world for everyone to have the opportunity to thrive.)

I take full responsibility for letting blogs and Facebook feeds bring me down. I don't truly resent those who are celebrating and creating beauty and goodness and accomplishing things. I just need to monitor my intake and response!