
Inspire, aspire, expire are all related because they’re all based on the Latin verb spirāre, "to breathe." Inspire is literally "to breathe into," which God is said to do when you have a sudden impulse to do something, creative or otherwise. You see something in some type of media or in person, and you get this feeling of, "you know, I ought to [do something]…" It inspires you: it gives your ideas life.
Aspire is "to breathe on," to give life to something, to want something. You want to be a great author, you give the idea of writing great literature life. You aspire to it.
Expire is "to breathe its last." Something ends, because there’s no more breath in it, at least not your breath. You’re no longer breathing life into it.
I was inspired to start a blog almost ten years ago because I aspired to be a great writer of fiction, but as time went on I realized that wasn’t what I wanted and I parted ways with it: I let that dream expire, because I found something else that I wanted to do, to focus on blogging.
You may now breathe a sigh of relief…

Linda Hill inspires us weekly with Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Now a word about Stag beer, the Superbeer!
Cheers to you and your creative response to the prompt. That beer commercial was a hoot. I’m glad our paths crossed here in the blogosphere. I’ve been inspired ever since – you’re so organized and loyal. True gifts for a blogger to aspire to.
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Thanks! I appreciate hearing that. I’ve been having fun with the commercials…
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You’re welcome. You sure find fun ones!
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That Latin came in handy! It’s a good thing that our aspirations can change.
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Etymology is maybe the biggest justification for taking Latin, because so many words were taken from it. And yes, it is good that our aspirations change.
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Like that ending line. Good descriptions of the prompt words.
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Thanks!
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Mostly when dreams expire it’s sad but not this time. Sounds like you’ve no regrets. And we get to benefit from your decision to keeping blogging.
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I could just not sit myself down and write a piece of fiction, and I realized that I don’t even like to read fiction… I’m happy the way things turned out….
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This is great John and so interesting 💜💜
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Thanks!
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Excellent, John! I was just commenting about wanting to learn something new every day and you have helped me achieve that goal today. Well done. Bonus points and a Stag Beer on the house are yours :-)
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Thanks, Dan!
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John, you were a much better Latin student than I. I enjoyed this post very much. I am thankful you chose to blog, although I am sure I would have enjoyed a book you penned.
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I forgot to say that I laughed out loud at the Stag beer commercial. 😂
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That was a good one, wasn’t it?
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Thanks! The thing was that anytime I’d start to write fiction it ended up reading like a bunch of blog posts. Finally, I realized that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.
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