A few months ago, I got into an argument with a friend about passion. Writing passionately, living passionately, being passionate. I may have written about this before, but as the months have gone by, I can see his side more clearly. So the question I'm asking is how to live life more passionately?
Passionate means "strong intense emotional response, whether sexual, loving, angry, or hateful." As a woman, I've often thought of passion in the loving and sexual sense. I am a woman of the heart and I love to love. For me, that is being passionate, loving my husband, my family, my kids, my friends. I am passionate about them. I want to see them happy and successful. I care intensely about them and their welfare. They inspire in me strong emotional responses from extreme joy to the depths of despair. This constant emotional rollar coaster is exhausting, but I wouldn't want it any other way.
Now my friend, he's passionate about bikes. He lives, eats, drinks, breathes bmx. He wants nothing more than to ride. He writes about it. He has a bike team. He has an online store that sells bmx stuff. That is his passion. See for yourself at http://www.plussizebmx.com/.
My husband is passionate about beer. Everything about it, makes him happy. He loves to brew it, to drink it, to talk and joke about it. He writes a blog about it too at http://www.hop-daddy.blogspot.com/. He visits breweries and plans our date nights around where he can find a new beer to try. Beer is his passion.
So seeing their enthusiasm, seeing their passion for something outside of themselves, makes me question my own passions. If I find that the most passionate things in my life are other people, then my happiness will always be determined by their happiness, which is completely out of my control. I will be doomed to a passionate but heartbreaking future. So how do I live life passionately, if it's not to love the people who mean the most to me?
I write, but do I write passionately? Nah. I write a bunch of crap that nobody really wants to read. I mainly write for therapy so I don't loose my mind. Is that passionate? No, it's more like life preserving. Would I want to write everyday? Would I want to make a living writing? Yes. I'd love to write and be successful. But is that passion?
I bake cupcakes. Do I bake them passionately? I do like them. They provide a certain amount of comfort and homeiness to my life. But would I want to bake cupcakes all day long, everyday? No because then it wouldn't be fun anymore.
So here I am back to the beginning again. How can I live my life more passionately? I'm still trying to figure it out. In the meantime, maybe I'll go call my best friend and say hi.
