"Someone stole the word 'inspiration' and left it to sputter in a soft romantic illusion." With these words taken from Chapter One, the
author announces the topic of this book, which is the accessing of active inspiration. This sentence does more, however, than suggest the
theme of the chapters to come. It foreshadows three aspects of this book that stand out in my mind. The first of these is the use of
language. The second question suggested by this sentence involves the book's effectiveness in meeting its own stated and implied goals
regarding the treatment of inspiration. The third, closely related to the second, involves the logical progression from need to solution.
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I found the language style to be both engaging and highly appropriate for the subject being discussed. Lumari's background as a sculptor
leads her to incorporate artistic creativity into her spiritual teaching, and that combination creates a highly effective presentation of
her ideas. While I enjoyed the variety of language structure, interspersing poetry with declarative and creative prose, the thing that I
found especially engaging was her use of metaphor. For example, in an image of power and simple beauty, she speaks of all the stringed
instruments in an orchestra responding to a note plucked by a single string. She then she goes on to associate that phenomenon with the
inspirational step of reverberation, describing it as the ripple effect of Inspiration. Your own Inspiration touches compatible energy in
others, she writes, who then bring their creative power back to you.
The second factor suggested by that early quotation from the book, that of fulfilling its own purpose, demands consideration on two levels.
The first level, that of meeting the overtly stated purpose, is somewhat difficult to assess because the stated purpose changes several times. It
goes from reclaiming the spirit of inspiration to healing misconceptions about inspiration to bringing the reader "into higher alignment so you can
"fulfill your destiny." Since both reclaiming spirits and fulfilling destinies seem a bit beyond the scope of a 118-page book, let's assume the
primary stated purpose is that of healing the misconceptions about inspiration. The author devotes much of this short book to addressing those
misconceptions and arguing that 'Living Inspired' demands active involvement. That stated purpose, then, seems to be accomplished within these
pages.
The second level of this question of purpose concerns the mainly unstated but strongly implied purpose. While not openly mentioned until
page 103, this purpose is then neatly presented in five words - "You need a visionary coach�." - and finished up four pages later with,
"I certainly hope I am one of them." This finally-unveiled purpose - to persuade the reader to seek out the coaching services of the author
- is not persuasively argued. First of all, she has already stated in more than one place that inspiration is very personal and private, "rarely
a shared event." Second, much of her argument for this is based on guilt, such as her question asking, "How many people will lose an opportunity
in their own life because you didn't take the next steps to get the right coaching or guidance?" Alienating the reader is not usually an effective
technique. Third, I know I felt betrayed by the implication that I would be incapable of acting on inspiration, myself, and I think others might
share that feeling of betrayal.
The author's use of effusive descriptors that are seldom followed by specific action steps leads to a disconnect between need and solution.
This often seems to be glossed over by the tendency to use effusive descriptors that are seldom followed by specific action steps. For example,
the operative phrase of the book's title, Living Inspired, is defined as "an exponential amplifier that allows you to get inspired." On the
next page, it appears that inspiration itself is "absolutely fabulous. There is magic and beauty and wonder in all of it." The final paragraph in
the chapter, several pages later, comes closer than any other part of the book to describing steps toward Living Inspired, saying "This may bring
you to leadership and volunteer positions�." This does not say to me what sort of action can be taken to make the changes needed to produce active
inspiration.
This book does say at one point that "Inspiration does not give you an outline or provide a "build by numbers" format with rules�."
However, this makes me wonder about the reason for writing a book about accessing inspiration when there is no defined way to accomplish
that goal.
In summary, this book contains some beautiful imagery. The author is obviously very creative, and she is also obviously passionate about
her spiritual path. I thoroughly enjoyed approximately the first half of the book, where the majority of her artistic creativity appears.
As the pages went on, with expansive generalities that were insufficiently supported by specific details, I found myself starting to lose
interest. When I reached the part about needing outside coaching to act on personal inspiration, I was getting close to done. (Maybe it's a good
thing the book was about over, too.) In retrospect, I can see that the early parts of this book were valuable to me. I was inspired to work on a
couple of projects that have been neglected for too long. For this reason, I would cautiously recommend this book to those interested in accessing
their own creativity.
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