Inspiration

Who inspires you? Maybe a family member or a friend. Possibly a sports hero or someone who has overcome some sort of life challenge. Or sometimes a perfect stranger.

Inspiration isn’t something we necessarily go around looking for, rather it usually shows up when we’re least expecting it. For example, we were on a hike recently in New Hampshire, it wasn’t an especially long hike but it had some steep spots and sections with lots of stairs. We noticed a couple hiking a ways in front of us. The women seemed to be struggling a bit with the first set of stairs and appeared to lightly fall but then got up and continued the hike. She didn’t seem fazed by it nor hurt. We met up with them later in the hike at an overlook and talked with the Ohio couple for a while. I noticed she was wearing a brace on one of her lower legs so I asked if she had an injury. She said she was wearing the brace because she has MS. She explained further that it’s something she has dealt with for over 30 years and she just works through it. She didn’t seem like she was talking about an incurable disease or handicap, it was more like some irritating thing that frustrates her occasionally that she just works through. We talked more and she told us a story about a long and strenuous hike she recently did in Utah and how the people around her tried to talk her out of the hike. I suspect it was the same stubborn perseverance that got her through it, which has likely gotten her through many other challenges throughout her life. Somehow the rest of that hike seemed just a little bit easier for the two of us. I’m sure I’ll think about her again next spring when we are hiking in Utah and need a little inspiration to get through a tough hike.

A few days later we went to the summit of Mount Washington. No, we didn’t hike, rather we took the Cog Railway, but we felt a photo at the summit marker was still well deserved. Getting to the marker required standing behind several other people and climbing over a boulder field. In front of us was an elderly couple from Australia, as we later learned. She was a tiny lady, skin and bones, and was obvious that she had just recently been going through cancer treatments. She was determined to climb the boulders to the summit but I could tell each step she made was extremely painful. She was at great risk of falling so I offered her my hand which she graciously accepted. Although I was there to help, it was her feet and her determination which ultimately got her to the summit for a well-deserved picture… a picture which meant something a whole lot deeper to her than the one we took of us. She had no business being on that mountain peek, yet she was. And I suspect that same determination is the reason she was conquering cancer.

I see too many people that stop believing, stop trying, stop doing because of some challenge in their lives. The reality is, once you stop doing, you stop living. Life throws unfair challenges at us to test us, because we can conquer them and persevere.

Who’s inspires you? Look in the mirror, they might just be staring back at you.