Getting inspiration close to (and far from) home

I'm surrounded by friends and family members who inspire me. They are down-to-earth, kindhearted people, and their successes bring a smile to my lips. Here's a random sampling of the challenges they're tackling:

• living in South Korea for six months, and attending university *in Korean*;
• completing a master's degree while working full time, with plans to help women in the developing world;
• raising children and keeping a family running smoothly, and showing love and good judgment in good times and in bad;
• simultaneously studying to become a nurse, working in a care home and teaching ballet (not to mention filling people's days with sunshine);
• looking after a sibling who experienced a particularly nasty divorce, and helping him get back on his feet;
• caring for a mother who has dementia whilst running a business in which it's tough to make ends meet, and doing so with humour and grace;
• teaching marvellous and affordable community yoga and pilates classes -- in her seventies(!);
• succeeding in the high stakes game of options trading, having carefully experimented and taught himself about the field for years.

Still on the subject of inspiration, this time both human and divine,  try borrowing a copy of Come Be My Light, about Mother Teresa.

Although the narrator admittedly comes across as a bit of a drip at times, the excerpts from Mother's Teresa's letters are something else. Did you know, for instance, that this wonderful woman had something very like a severe case of depression for 50 years, yet still founded a religious order which now ministers to the poorest and sickest people around the world? That's inspiration for you!