Taste and see...

I have some truly awesome friends. I've been thinking about two of them in particular, and how they inspire me. Take friend number one...

... let's call her Amy, just for the fun of it. Every year, Amy takes time to review her goals in life, and she creates a long list for the year ahead. She also has longer-term aims, and she takes time to look at these too. Now when I she she creates a long list, I mean lonnnnnnngggg... some of us have two of three new year's resolutions - well Amy, she doesn't bother with these, she makes life plans instead, with swathes of ambitions, personal goals and career objectives. Because the difference between Amy and most of us is that she actually sets out to achieve them - and checks up on herself to see how she's progressing. It astounds me as to how someone can be so focused and driven - and yet seem to be having so much fun whilst doing it. She's tried to help me understand, talked me through some of the goal-setting techniques she's used, and reminded me of said ambitions at a later date.... and admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised that I had, in fact, managed to do some of the things on my list. But some of the other things on the list... I'd forgotten about them. I guess I wasn't quite so passionate about achieving them as I might have thought.

And then there's friend number two.... let's think of another name for her - okay, we'll call her Lucy. The thing that gets me all inspired when I think about Lucy is her calm acceptance of the people around her - with all their good points and icky hidden things, all their happy days and crappy days - and how excited she is about getting to know them and letting them know that they're okay. It's quite overwhelming to discover someone who loves you, even when they've heard your worst - and believe me, Lucy's heard my worst - and is absolutely convinced that you are an amazing human being. She seems to have an inexhaustable well of compassion for the yukkiest parts of humanity - of which I count myself as one - and an excitement about seeing them experience the best of life. There's a verse in the Bible - the book of James I think - where it talks about us standing alongside people who mourn and crying along with them, or with people who laugh and celebrating with them - Lucy's got that bit sussed, I think. But like with Amy, I watch Lucy and I wonder where it all comes from, this passion, this drive, that keeps her going even when she probably feels tired, or like she just can't love another person.

It's only when spend time looking at these people that I start to feel hungry for an impetus in my own life that leads me to feel passionate enough about something that I keep going until I succeed. I can't be like Amy, and have a huge list of things to achieve - even the idea of it overwhelms me and puts me off. But I think that Amy and Lucy both teach me something that I have to spend more time thinking about - they both keep going because what they are doing excites them. It's like they've had a taste of something good, and they need to keep going back for a little more. So that's my little goal for this week.... decide what tastes good and whether I am ready to go after a little bit more.....