Inspiring Minds

One of the things I love most about this time of year is the opportunity to reconnect with inspirational material and the creators.  Thanks to YouTube, I can create a Master Class with each of the heroes on my “Guru List”.  I recharge my batteries with media and the makers.

Movies, music and books give me energy by feeding my mind and uplifting my spirit.  The leisure time of the holidays affords me time with characters and emotions, sounds and harmonies, colors and textures.  All the things that enliven the senses are abuzz with the start of the marketing frenzy that is the shopping season.

I celebrate my birthday for several weeks since it’s in early December and rolls right into the holidays.  I like to kick it off with an annual viewing of a Cameron Crowe film.  Usually, I pop in my Almost Famous DVD and let the music wash over me.

This year, I came home from a birthday lunch to find the gem Dazed and Confused on VH1.  Despite the commercial interruptions, I found myself nostalgic as 1993 versions of Ben Affleck, Parker Posey and Mr. “Alright, Alright, Alright” himself, Matthew McConaughey embody Richard Linklater’s brilliant dialogue.  The “Before” trilogy is the epitome of collaborative writing.

One of the things I love most about this time of year is the opportunity to reconnect with inspirational material and the creators.  Thanks to YouTube, I can create a Master Class with each of the heroes on my “Guru List”.  I recharge my batteries with media and the makers.

Movies, music and books give me energy by feeding my mind and uplifting my spirit.  The leisure time of the holidays affords me opportunities to connect with characters and emotions, sounds and harmonies, colors and textures.  All the things that enliven the senses are abuzz with the start of the marketing frenzy that is the shopping season.

My friend Fred bought me Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson for my birthday.  I cannot wait to crack open the spine and enter her world.  It was on my wishlist even before reading her op-ed in the NY Times.  It was added to my wishlist when I heard her speak last Spring at the North Carolina Reading Association Conference.   She has since been added to the “Guru List”.

Between friends’ holiday parties and time with family, it’s important to find inspiration in the words, lyrics, melodies and visions of those who feed our senses.

The aforementioned Richard Linklater is one of my top 5 gurus.  He joins the ranks of filmmakers Amy Heckerling and Woody Allen, as well as my education gurus Rafe Esquith and Christopher Lehman.  Then there are my musical gurus, too numerous to name.

Here’s to finding a book that nudges you to stay under a blanket while getting lost in the pages, digital or paper.

Here’s to hearing a melody that transports you back to a time when life was slower and less complicated.

Here’s to finding two hours to be teleported by the silver screen to a place where time and space know no boundaries.

My wish for you this season is that you spend time with your own gurus, the inspiring minds that will make sure yours is refreshed for 2015!