You know, the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: “Did he have passion?” – Serendipity, the movie
Whether the Greeks wrote or didn’t write obituaries isn’t as important as the question.
Passion is a zeal, a fervor, a barely controllable emotion towards a subject or person.
Do you have that feeling for something? Art, writing, cooking, service…
a feeling that if you did not do this ‘thing,’ your spirit would dampen, keep you in regret, have you say ‘what if?’
For me, if I’m not writing, I’m not truly living. My body and spirit often feel like a container of thoughts, waiting for my hands to hold a pen or hover over a keyboard ready to dive in and release those thoughts into a journal or on a keyboard.
To not set free those thoughts, is to keep everything in a container until it’s in danger of imploding, or worse, create a slow burn from the inside out.
The word passion comes from the Latin verb patere meaning to suffer.
Sometimes we suffer when working towards that passion. We always suffer if we don’t even make the attempt.
I say this only to give an example of what can happen when not heeding your enthusiasm.
Sometimes we do this to ourselves. Other times we allow someone else, through their criticism, to reduce our conviction for a subject.
It’s not their fault, it’s up to you to fulfill your own dream. To crave it so much that you hear their words and work on your passion anyway.
Critics can either wrap your passion in words of doubt until your light goes out or you can decide to follow your dreams and see where they lead.
Your art, writing, cooking, ‘fill in the blank,’may not lead you to fame or fortune. You may need to work hard to fulfill your dream, and this might takes years…
but your family or friends could affirmingly answer the obituary question;
better, yet, you would know the answer before anyone wrote your obituary.
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