are you passionate?

pas·sion
[pash-uhn] noun

1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

a few of you know i have this thing for passion.

i just love it.

i believe it is a necessary ingredient for a happy life.

if you do not hold fast to whatever your passions are,

i don't see the point in going about your day to day life...regularly.

hemingway said, "every man's life ends the same way.

it is only the details of how he lived & how he died that distinguish one man from another."

how are you living your life?

are you passionate?

are you living & breathing through the trials & challenges of life,

knowing all the while that you still have your passions which bring you joy?

mind you, passion is not the same as obsession.

to be passionate about something, does not have to mean it rules your life.

nor does it have to make sense to anyone but yourself.

passion does not require talent.

passions are also not the things that necessarily are important to you either.

they aren't your husband/wife/kids/job etc,

(unless, of course, you are personally passionate about being a parent

or what have you).

though those things are necessary & important,

are they what you loved or wished for since you were a little child?

again i ask you, are you passionate?

what are you passionate about?

to answer questions like these,

we must first define passion.

passion stems from the archaic term

passionem (passio for short)

which is roughly translated as suffering; enduring; strong emotion.

this was often referenced with the passion of christ,

along with the name for the passionflower -- flos passionis --

which arose from the supposed resemblance of the corona

to the crown of thorns christ worn on the cross.

as we can see,

passion is much more than just an obsession.

passions are deep within our roots.

they are what bring us happiness, on a personal level.

i like to think of passion as being

the thing i would do everyday the rest of my life, even if i never got paid a dime.

watch this video & tell me that the passion emitted from it doesn't bring tears to your eyes.

passion is most delicate when it is first spoken.

when a child first tells their parent,

"daddy, i want to be a snowboarder when i grow up!"

how delicate of a passion & dream this is.

what do people usually say to such outlandishly beautiful dreams?

"that's great honey, but make sure you stay in school & get an education,

just in case, so you have something to fall back on."

this is normal to say, & though i don't condemn anyone for saying this,

i hope to never say it to my future children

i want to encourage them, as my parents did me.

of course i will assure them that they need schooling,

because i believe schooling is wise no matter what your passion or path in life is.

i love learning.

but i hope to always support my children with whatever their passions are,

(so long as they are ethically, morally, & intellectually edifying.)

^_^

so i ask you one more time, what are your passions?

i challenge you to write down a list of 25 different passions you've found in life.

not a safety list; one that you would not be embarrassed to read out loud.

rather, a list so personal it reaches & digs at the very core of your being.

as a second challenge,

i challenge you to seize one of your passions.

i challenge you to revive one of them & allow it to live & breathe within you.

just do it.

if you can't seem to pinpoint any passion in your life,

email/text/call/facebook; contact 25 of your friends & family members,

& ask them to describe you in one sentence.

ask them to not say anything degrading, sarcastic, negative, or jokingly.

just an honest, pleasant sentence.

i will be doing so, simply because it sounds intriguing to me.

when you do so, i am told your passion may very well become apparent to you

through these sentences.

now, i am going to give you a list of 10 of my passions.

please don't laugh at them.

they don't have to make sense to you,
in fact, many of you may not even know they existed within me.

but they do, & they bring me happiness.

i am passionate about:
-- cooking

-- travelling;  seeing the world & the people in it.

-- serving people i treasure or care about;  giving them gifts;  making them happy.

-- writing:  lyrics, books, poems, blogs, emails, letters, anything.

-- letters: writing them, sending them, receiving them, stamps, postage, paper, envelopes, everything. 

-- creating art/beauty;  playing a musical instrument, painting, drawing, or taking a picture.

-- being outside:  hiking, camping, backpacking, travelling, adventuring, anything.

--  being different;  breaking the mold;  being noticed doing what i love or deem right.

-- loving, being with, & caring for animals.

-- being loved, admired, & trusted.

those are all things that bring me happiness.

i am still trying to write list upon list of my passions,

in hopes that i can find my deepest, most treasured passion.

until then, i challenge you to be passionate.

live a life you love.

& i'll leave you with one of my most favorite neil young songs:

are you passionate?

are you passionate?

are you livin' like you talk?

are you dreamin' how you'll be goin' to the top?

are you negative

in a world that never stops turning on you,

turning on me, turning on you?

are you loving it?

can you ever get enough of it?

is it everything:

a love that never stops coming to you,

coming to me, coming to you?

once i was soldier, i was fighting in the sky.

& the gunfire kept coming back on me.

so i dove into the darkness & i let my missiles fly,

& they might be the ones that kept you free.

once i was a prisoner, i was riding in a truck

cleaned up for a public display.

i looked at those around me & when they looked at me

i let them see my soul on that day.

are you scared of it?

do you wish that it would stop?

does it bother you when you hear your spirit talk?

well i'm right with you.

yes, i'm right with you,

it's working on me, it's working on you.

it's working on me.