Who inspires you? What teacher, family member, boss, employee, friend, lover, hero from history, what stranger or even place or animal?
Is there an event in your past that inspired you to take action?

What do you think?

Life inspires me Everyday teaches me something new And I am amazed at what I have achieved

I'm inspired by the people who keep going.  I guess you could also say they serve as admonition, too.  Like if they can do it, what the heck is wrong with you! on those days when it really gets to me. 

My sister Cynthia inspires me.  She came to live with us in 1984. She was 12, I was 2, so we kinda grew up together.  She has CP and is 'severely' mentally disabled.  But she's always smiling.  She has her moments when she doesn't want to, but she hangs tough.

You guys inspire me, too.  So many people here, so many different paths, so many different destinations, and yet we're all taking the same interstate.  LYG!!!

Movies inspire me a lot!.

lifestyle and countryside just pure nature inspires me its pure genious

also my father and his world of advice, my family and my friends, tools for life teachings will inspire my hopes and my dreams to come true

This recently retired teacher I know decided to learn a new language: Spanish. Learning a new language is no easy task, and even harder when you are 60 years old.

He does not listen to people that tell him he cannot do things.

He went at it with all his heart and soul and in less than a year we has fluent enough to be able to give a 15min speech, WITHOUT EVEN READING IT!!!

People that have that kind of determination inspire me.

Keep your eyes on the prize, and just like him, if someone tells you you cannot do something... prove them wrong with a smile!

Sebastian

My current hero is my 27 year old pastor.When I wasnt a member of any church,he came to see me 5 or 6 times while i lay in ccu after a mechanical heart valve operation and carrotive artery sugery, And colon surgery all within three weeks. He began his studies to become a ordained paster while in the pen. This man is there for anyone anytime. when he got out of the pen he lived in a salvation army halfway house on 20.00 a week ,he tithed 200 of it a week. after he was saved he couldnt tithe money in the pen so he tithed 200 in stamps! since he was saved and started preaching  had his own church , he got married in july of last year! He and his wife just got back from a week in Hatie! hE never hesitates to give all the praise and honor to god!(where it belongs)

My mom inspires me.  She came to the US with an 8th grade education and she was one of the smartest women I know.  She was ahead of her time; embraced change and adventrue.  She raised 7 children,  ran a successful business, put all her kids through college, fought breast cancer and died with NO regrets.  I think her greatest gift to us was to instill in us a sense of gratitude for every second; she never lost her sense of wonder.  She was a life long learner - my greatest teacher.   

My spiritual master inspires me, A.C, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. After preparing himself for 69 yrs., he left India for Boston, suffering two heart attacks on an old steam ship. On the order of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktissidhanta Sarasvati Thakur, He arrived with $ 10 and a trunk of Srimad Bhagavatam books. After having his typewriter and years of manuscripts typed on the Bhagavad Gita stolen, he finally ended up in a small storefront in Manhatten. He would sit under a tree in Tompkins Square Park, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, and dozens of bohemians, hippies and counter-culture people joined him to become his students. He inspired them to live a drug /alcohol free life, and taughtthem about the principal of mercy, by becoming vegetarian, and allowing the souls in animals bodies to complete their life spans. In twelve years he travelled the world 17 times, opening up dozens of organic self-sufficient farms, over a hundred temples where people could dine on free vegetarian food, inaugurated many joyful festivals for the public, and translated hundreds of valuable life -transforming books  which found theirway into all the major universities of the world. He saved my life. I owe him everything, but will never be able to sufficiently epay him.

Rachel Corrie (http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=1866&CategoryId=23)  inspires me. She gave her most valuable thing (life) for her values.

Bravo! Rachel Corrie is a true American hero.

I can hear her calling "Liberty and Justice for all"

Books inspires me. Sometimes I can catch something from movies.  Also my best friend helps me and inspires me when I feel down. 

I don't think there is one single event or person I find inspirational. It's more life as a whole. I see things I would like to incorporate in my life, I see people and thrive to be more like them without losing myself in the process.

I like to stay open and sensitive to the all of these. I don't want to miss anyting by limiting myself to one.

Wow just reading some of this has inspired me. I have been inspired by many depending on the situation at the moment I am most inspired by the people I am meeting on toolstolife and by the coach for giving us an opportunity to better ourselves.

Surething you inspired me almost as soon as i joined this great community and I had no idea of your life challenges which i have just this moment learnt of.

Marieparadise what a great mother

Yes each of you inspires me.

Much Love

Fred

....I cheated on my wife of 18 years during the time that she was pregnant with our baby boy who will be 7 months old tomorrow. She gave me so much and I just kept taking....I am in therapy now to correct and battle my bitter/ungrateful/deceitful/greedy/selfish spirit...

We are living separately at times and I am doing all I can think of to try to get her to see that although I have failed her and our three kids in the past I love them and a bad man can change if he wants to...

I've finally got a handle on the anger  that caused me to even try to justify my wrongdoing by blaming her, the same anger that caused me to not want to seek help, all inspired by her coming to my job one night, "poking" me in the chest and reminding me of how much she truly needed me in spite of how much she felt she didn't even love me..

Eventually, she began to again 

My granddaughter who is 4 has inspired me because she is always has something to say!  She ask questions and gives answers.   I can see life in her eyes that I forget all about.   I sit and listen to what ever she has to say and as long as she wants to talk, becuase she knows she has something important to say.  I want to hear all she as to say.

tk182

My friend whose name is also Karen. She is a sign language interpreter.   She has explained gently the problems communicating a person that is hard of hearing has been. She encourages me in my sign language and we have many things in common that we do together.   She is closer than a sister and I thank God that I have met her.  Her husband was a bush pilot in Alaska... and she stood by him as he relearned to talk, walk, and fly again after a horrible accident.  She sacrafices for those she loves and I have never met any one like her.  She is a great gift from God and I thank him for her in my life.  I wish she would take TOOLS because she suffers from some anxiety   or maybe that is her way to put on red lights and rest.  I don't know for sure.  But there is no one like her.

I guess the most honest answer I can give here is to say the places that I have been have inspired me.

There is a State Park close to my home.  Letchworth - I was there on Monday with a new friend.  This park is a place of history, of memories from my childhood and adult years, with a spiritual feeling about communing with nature.  I feel free, breathing in the air, listening to the critters around me, watching and listening to the peaceful sound of the water over the many falls there.

When I am there, and I go to work out problems, worries, just doubts about things, I can really get in touch with myself, my inner voice and my visualizations.  I feel a sense of purpose beyond the obvious of just living and breathing.  I really feel that higher power there.

I have ties to this place, my family has had reunions in this park since the 30's, old photos show things that have come before. I love the history of the People of the Land of the Eastern Door.  The Iroquois, who said that we borrow this earth for a short while and that we need to protect and cherish her.

I walk the paths that they walked and really try to listen to their spirits as I gaze at the lovely Birch Trees that were sacred to them. I revisit all the chapters of my life there and I remember all the good and bad things that I have done and gone through to get to where I am now.  I grow spirtually with every passing day and every visit to this place.

Micci