Do You Have Passion-Ways to Tell If You Do

Have you ever thought about the subject of passion? Recently, a friend asked how I managed to juggle a number of things in my life while still finding the time to write. I replied it was my sanity, my passion.

Webster’s dictionary and Wikipedia’s definition of passion may not agree that it has any semblance of logic or reasonableness to it at all. The inference is that passion is beyond any sensibility; it engulfs and consumes…

There was one other time in my life when I was consumed with the passion of a project. I didn’t even realize it until a co-worker remarked about this, following my enthusiastic sharing of my new passion: owning and operating a dance studio and the places I envisioned it reaching.

“Denise,” she said quietly after I had finished, “it is clear you have a real passion for what you are doing.”

I hadn’t thought about it until my friend, who is a social worker, pointed it out to me. That is one of the ways you can tell it is passion-you aren’t even aware of the fact that you are constantly thinking and talking about this subject. In the situation of the dance studio it had been a lifelong dream of mine to have my own studio. That dream came true over three decades later in my mid forties and it was on my mind continuously.

Here is another fact: it is not something that deflates, but elates. It lifts your mood. Just imagine being passionate about another individual. You are so in love that your mind rearranges your life around the love for that person. The sun does not just rise-it rises in a beautiful display of rich color in which you may sigh heavily and think, “I wish Donna could see this; if only she were here with me now to share this moment.”

Or, a commercial for a Caribbean getaway comes on television and you have seen it a zillion times, but now it is a message that prompts you to think of your loved one. “That is the perfect place for Joe and I to vacation,” you may think to yourself; never minding the cost, the time off of work or the need to place your pooch in a kennel for a week. It is enough to know that the commercial was a reminder that you and your lover deserve that special trip.

Passion excites, exhilarates, and electrifies. It prompts you to want share your passion with the world, in whatever form it may take: painting, sculpting, biking, writing. Whatever happens to light your fire-the fire that burns within the very marrow of you, is what your soul is impassioned about.

For me, it happens to be writing. I know this by the goals that I set for myself; my attempts to hone my craft; the fact that I consider it a craft and not a hobby; the decision to write regardless of any monetary gains and despite any monetary shortcomings; the hours of sleep I lose when engrossed in a writing project; forgetting that at some point I went from hunger to not eating and not noticing; and, most importantly, being aware that my mind is continuously filing away hub ideas

One year ago while visiting my children in Michigan I carried my camera with me at all times. As the proud grandmother of four it would be simple enough to say it was to catch those candid moments with my grandkids. While that may be some of the truth, it was not the whole truth.

The other reason was to take pictures of everything and anything for the next hub I would write. In fact, I stopped to photograph things so often that my oldest daughter finally commented that it was all I was thinking of.

Well, fast forward a few months from that date and she became a Hubpages member and caught the bug as well. No longer does she chide me about my habit. In fact, I had to smile one afternoon when she shared with me that she had bought some flowers and fresh fruit and vegetable to take ‘still life’ photos for her hubs.

Being passionate about something does not end with a person, a talent or a particular object. It can be an idea, a charity or a cause that stirs the fires within. Whatever you are passionate about you will know it. It is not something that fades away with time or with the next fad that comes along. You don’t lose your enthusiasm about it if someone tells you that it is a silly idea. You don’t forget about it when you go to bed at night and get up for breakfast the next morning.

You realize that it is the still, small voice inside you prompting, nudging, tickling, cajoling. It is the whisper you hear walking alone, or the clang in your head when the message is ignored. It is the heartbreak you feel when you are separated from this that absorbs you so completely. It is the loneliness you bear when you spend time doing something other than what you love.

Like lovers reaching across an empty space toward each other, it is the mystery of whatever prompts us to be more than we knew we could be.

To be passionate about what you love is to die for…