what lights you up?

I gave a workshop today for 40 participants. When we started, I asked everyone in the room to turn to their neighbor and ask “what lights you up?”. It’s a simple cocktail party ice breaker, that almost always leads to more interesting conversations than “what do you do?”.  I started, by way of example, with holding up this dried okra stems and said “this lights me!” and then went on about my love of seed pods, and my delight in finding this one stem with an unusual okra pod that had curled in on itself in a perfect helix. And then, to my astonishment, each participant turned to their neighbor and the room literally exploded into conversation. It was a good five minutes or more before I could get them to even hear me above the din so that I could start my presentation. How I wish I could have heard all 40 answers! Anyway, it worked like a charm. We were only just getting started, and the group had already formed a community. And so, I ask you, dear reader, what lights you up?

dried okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)