My Lineage of Inspiration
I’m working on a career-development course right now, titled ‘Work That Matters’. It’s by Maia Duerr, and in this blog post, I am going to make what Maia calls a Lineage of Inspiration.
Maia herself elaborates on her Lineage of Inspiration at the Internet-address http://maiaduerr.com/lineage-and-liberation-2/.
She writes:
So as way of creating my own personal lineage chart, I want to name some of those people who made a huge impact on me and to whom I feel enormous gratitude. I’m sharing this list as a way for you to get to know me better and it’s also an invitation for you to do the same. It’s a huge gift to realize that our lineage is linked to our liberation. We don’t have to do it alone. There is no way we possibly could do it on our own.
The following is the prompt I am working with, which I reproduce from the afore-mentioned Internet address. ‘Who’s in your personal lineage? Who are the people who have guided you to more freedom in your life, and what gifts have you received from them?’
- Masafumi Itokazu (“Matchi”). Matchi has a profile on Couchsurfing.com. He was my room-mate in the autumn of the year 2013 A.D., at a dormitory on the campus of National Taiwan University, until he left our shared room - rather abruptly, I thought - some-time during the wet winter of the same year. He was a sharp dresser, I think. I’ve received the gift of encouragement, unspoken or otherwise, to dress myself as boldly as I would like. A gift of confidence, in other words - perhaps. Now I dress as I dare (or so I would like to think).
- Chris Jensen. Chris has a profile on LinkedIn. Chris was my supervisor during my internship at his (now-defunct, I guess) start-up Good For Us. At the point in time that I met him, I was somewhat in the earlier part of what could be conventionally called College Education. I had little to no awareness of inner life or spiritual life, I think, at that time. Chris did not seem afraid to mandate a practice of recalling A Few Things That You’re Grateful For, during lunches together. Chris also extended an invitation for me to visit him during his work at the non-profit organisation Ground-up Initative (G.U.I.). Exposure to Nature that seemed a little less domesticated (at G.U.I.), and the beginnings of a practice of gratitude - I’ve received these gifts.
- Emily Dickinson. I read that she withdrew from society, famously becoming recluse-like, and developed a kind of language of her own, which can, maybe, be seen in her now-renown poems. I’ve received encouragement to pursue a path into poetry, regardless of how unconventional a life I may seem to lead.
- A manager at my kitchen-workplace, by the name of Lily (transliterated name). I met her while I was a part-time cook at a budget restaurant of sorts. (I still am, for now.) She seemed sensitive enough to refill any sauces (or ingredients) that I’ve run out of, at a time when I was too busy or pre-occupied to refill those myself. I’ve received the gift of an example of service towards my co-workers, or perhaps even humankind. I can strive to emulate her sensitivity to others, I think, if nothing else.