Inspiration

Have you ever had someone tell you that you inspire them? I hadn't until recently. A friend of mine from class, Ryan, does acrobatics for fun, but a few months ago he got a bad shoulder injury that's prevented him from doing what he loves. I think at first it was physical block, and once he got past that, it turned into mental block - ie. I can't do acrobatics because I'm injured. Apparently, I was part of what got him out of that.

Ryan's told me more than once in the past few months that I inspire him. I didn't understand why at first, because what could I have done to inspire somebody? I'm just living my life. He told me that it's because I don't let my physical constraints get in my way - I do Feldenkrais, I dance, I live my life how I want to, and I've figured out how to do all of that in a way that works for me and my body. In watching me do that, he's figured out how to get back into acrobatics and enjoy it again, despite his slowly healing shoulder.

It's surreal to think of that as inspiring. Like I said, all I'm doing is living my life. I just choose to live it so that I can enjoy it, not so that I'm stuck in my limitations. I fought with those limitations all through high school and I don't want to be in that fighting place anymore. I'm just trying to move on from that. It's great if that happens to inspire somebody, but it's also strange. It makes my life feel bigger than I consider it to be, because it's proof that simply the way I live my life in relation to myself, not to someone else, affects somebody directly.