“I LIKE it but I just don’t know if it’s my PASSION.” Finding a life’s passion was a theme for some of our early (and recent) discussions at the Venus meetings. Our dissections of this topic have had an urgency to them. After all, we are now officially in the second half of our lives and we don’t want to waste a single second. We spent a lot of time in the first half working and building career and family life. Now we want to “find our passion.”
I’ve been musing more about this lately. And it seems to me, we don’t need to find our passion, necessarily. Passion sounds huge, momentous, important and weighty. We had questions galore about the passion quest: Where do we look for it? How do we know when we’ve found it? How much of a commitment do we make to it.
A passion should by definition be GRAND. Or should it?
What if we just had a lot of little passions, small pastimes we enjoyed and delighted in like gardening, biking, and wine-tasting (in Beej’s case) or photography, hula, and golf in mine. More like passionettes. That would sure take the pressure off – finding the ONE special thing that we not only are in LOVE with (read passionate about) but are willing to abandon ourselves to and actually become good at doing or performing. How about we just fall in like (and out if that’s how it works.)
If we were to allow ourselves full access to our delight in our small “likes” rather than that one great LOVE or passion, might we then be able to relax into pure joy and contentment? And in so doing, discover that our real passion is LIFE?
I’m not sure, but I feel so much more comfortable and “full” when I look at my passionettes in this way. I’ll likely never be a good golfer, but I really like it. I don’t want to golf every day or obsess about my score. I just want to get outside, breathe fresh air, hit some pretty shots and maybe break 100 now and again.
I love hula – it’s my spiritual practice as well as a dance. And a crossroads has opened before me – do I want to go further and become a teacher? And the answer would likely be yes if it was my ONE PASSION. If I’m honest with myself, I’d have to say it is not. I can go to church and worship without needing to become a minister.
This past week, I’ve been indulging in my photography passionette. Jack Davis (of the Photoshop WOW books) taught a class here on Moloka`i, Hawai`i with my handsome hubby Dewitt Jones. I’ve been reveling in taking photos with no real goal or endpoint in mind – just pure pleasure
In fact, now that I’m no longer looking at photography as something “serious” or my passion, I’m experiencing way more fun and freedom. And my favorite camera? My iPhone – because with all the cool apps, I can shoot, collage, and push the creative envelope to my heart’s content, no holds barred. (Check out my Digital Diva and Digital Diva / Digital Dude iPhone art sites.)
So I’ve given up looking to find my PASSION. When I have family, good friends, and my small but vibrant passionettes, nothing is missing. Nothing at all.
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Life then appears as the passion. Enjoying every *day*, following our intuition as to what we do for love.
I recall a Spiritual Guide asking me the question: What is the first thing you see when you wake up?
Hummm… The ceiling, the pillow, the color of the walls, the leaves, trees, birds… etc..
And he responds.. Don’t you see life? When you went to sleep you closed your eyes and died. We are reborn every time we wake, he said. When we wake, we enter into a new life.
So it is… perhaps.. a new life… a new passion… one awaiting a time to simply be.
Loved this topic, my inner critic and I have been hashing this one out for days after reading it….
Your term “passionettes” is a very effective way of dealing with those nagging thoughts that keep us from enjoying the beauty and pleasure in our daily lives, the ones that scream “Why aren’t you doing anything IMPORTANT?” Sadly, those of us who are over achievers by conditioning, not choice, really have issues with this.
This business of “finding your passion” has been quite a topic of discussion in my circle for the past 5 years. Several of us have felt a sincere inner need to find a new path that will be a driving force for our lives.
As we meandered along, seeking “IT” we’ve managed to learn a lot of new things, meet new people, and grow. Yet we continued to feel unfulfilled and kept grasping at one idea after another in search of THE THING, “Our Thing” as we called it. Alas, like a butterfly, chasing it causes it to become elusive, but while sitting still, it casually alights upon us.
That’s how I think about this entry you have written: Things take time, and as we are evolving, we need to be content with who we are, where we are, and what we are doing to experience the inner peace we need to be able to listen to the quiet voice within us that already knows the answers.
We need to be patient as our personal “quilt” is stitched from our life experiences, making us the unique being that we are, with our very special gifts.
We need to suspend judgement of ourselves, and accept that not all things need to feel hard to be an accomplishment. Things that feel too easy to us (because it is our gift, or feels fun) get discredited. We think we have to suffer, or we aren’t making progress.
In my case, after years of being in the healing sciences and living in the realm of academic accomplishments, I have followed my dream of being a full time artist. I now have a renewed sense of purpose: I create beautiful things that make others feel good in body and soul, and I try to make the world a more beautiful place.
Somebody’s gotta do it! Why not me?
Just keep enjoying all those passionettes! If you are destined to have an “IT”, IT will find YOU. Not the other way around, in my opinion.
Love and blessings to all….