Breathe in Deep and Be Inspired

A few midwives that are friends of mine are living in Haiti right now and posting all sorts of pictures of births they're doing. Around May I seriously got to thinking about studying to become a midwife. I talked to my friend Lisa who just moved to Haiti, she gave me the number of a guru, I called her, set up some time to assist in pre natal visits at the end of August... and then summer came. I don't know what it was really, my summer wasn't particularly exciting, but I got distracted. I hardly thought about midwifery all summer, I didn't read the books I was supposed to and I totally blew off the guru when August came. I felt bad about blowing her off, but I figured if I hadn't thought about it all summer, it must not be that into the idea.

But looking at these pictures, seeing the work these strong, amazing and beautiful women are doing, the example they're setting for other women is seriously inspiring. And not inspiring in the way that makes me want to write a check or say a prayer. Inspiring in a way that makes my chest hurt because I'm not doing it.

For the past year I've been searching for ways to incorporate the only two things I really want in life:

1. Help people, especially abroad (Haiti, Africa, Eastern Europe)
2. Write

As I'm reading Donald Miller's book about living a story worth telling, he keeps saying that the essence of a story is a character that wants something and over comes obstacles to get it. Now that I know what I want, I'm just waiting for the obstacles. Specificity is the big one staring me down right now. How do I want to help people? Midwifery? Starting a non profit? Therapeutic writing programs? There are infinite possibilities, and daunting as it may be, there are worse obstacles to be faced with I suppose. And how will I incorporate writing? I have no plan right now and I feel like I'm biding my time until graduation. In essence, I'm not living a very good story.

Now that Mr. Long Distance has removed himself from my life and the distractions he brought with him, my new goal is to work on living a good story. Something someone might want to write down someday, or might mean something to someone when they close the back cover, tighten their grasp around the binding and put the pages to their nose. You know, the way you do when you know a story has changed where you're going and what you know about life. I want people to tighten their fingers around my life and hold it to their nose. Breathe in deep and feel inspired.