The
Story of
the
Inspiration Book
May 29,
1993
On Friday, January 30,
1987,
while I was waiting for the bus after school, I
started
writing in a blank notebook the poem "Comes the Dawn"
by Veronica A.
Shoffstall as printed in Ann Landers'
advice column. This notebook was
to help me through what I still consider to be the most profound change
of my life - even more significant than going off to college or
marrying. I entitled the book
Inspiration and included a
table
of contents for easy reference.
Ironically, two days later tragedy
struck when a classmate
died
in a car crash. My book helped me and assisted me in helping others
cope
with the loss. On my eighteenth birthday (August 28,
1987; you do the math), the day I
consider to be the
most perfect day in my life, I purchased a blank hardcover book from
Shakti, my favorite State Street
bookstore, and began transferring the materials from "softcover" to
"hardcover" just after I went off to college. I wasn't to write in the
book again for nearly five years, but I did refer to it often
throughout college, and I even loaned it to someone: my now husband. In the summer of 1992, I was under
great duress. My husband and I
moved to Milwaukee where I had a difficult time finding a decent job.
The one
job I did find for a while was working for a very verbally abusive man
in
a print shop. I started writing in Inspiration
again because I needed
the
inner strength and support it offered me back in early 1987. Since that time, I have shared some
of
the writings with others whom
I see have a need for that same kind of moral support. Sometimes I do
this anonymously. Inspiration contains
writings that vary from popular
songs
and poems in our culture and history to songs written by a close
friend,
Casey Day, to my own personal poetry that I've written
throughout the
years.
This book also reaffirms my belief in God as is signified by the
passage
written on the opening leaf:
Once, when I
was little, a friend
asked me,
"Do you know what moves the clouds?"
"No," I replied.
"My mom told me it's the power of God."
And I was
awestruck.