"Find Your Passion"

There is a new movie starring Richard Gere that is titled "Shall We Dance." It concerns a lawyer who is happily married with two kids, but he still doesn't feel complete. He wants to find something outside his marriage and family that he feels passionate about. He finds that in ballroom dancing.

Now not many of us want to be ballroom dancers but we do know what it means to need something we feel passionately about. I have found the happiest people are those who did find their passion, and it can be as simple as working crossword puzzles or as complex as restoring old cars.

I have a friend who works the "USA Today" crossword puzzle every day. He says it is a challenge plus it provides proof his mind is still working. He works it with a ball point pen so there can be no erasures. He also finds the first clue he knows and has to work all the other words in a connecting order from that first word. Pretty complex huh for a simple puzzle?

Is the Crossword Puzzle his passion? I think so. It is something he looks forward to each day. It provides him with a good feeling and it also complements the other happy things in his life. Passions don't have to be huge projects; they can be the simple things in life.

Working with kids is my wife's passion. She is the principal of a school but manages to get into the classroom a few times each week either to read to the children or to help them with their assignments. She says she has to return to the classroom periodically to refresh and renew herself. She went into education because she loves children and keeps herself in touch with them by frequent trips back to the classroom.

My sons both love what I call gadgets. They are forever getting the latest palm pilots, or computer games, or even Tivo equipment. They come by this passion naturally as their grandfather, my Dad, loved to tinker with things. He had a million radios and TV's in our house with wires leading from one spot to another. Me, I can barely work my VCR but my two sons are gadget gurus.

So what is it you like to do? What is the "extra" thing in your life that gives you pleasure? If your answer to that question is "I don't know" then you need to do some soul-searching and exploration. All of us need to find something that feeds that inner need in us; something that makes us feel refreshed even when we are worn out.

Passions should be balanced. Family should always come first for the most part. But finding that extra something that is the dessert of our lives is a necessity. My passions are writing, watching movies, reading good books, listening to good music, etc. I have a lot of "passions." 

I hope you have a passion or you find one soon. Life is too short not to have these added pleasures. At least that is the way I feel about it.

 

 

 

 

 

©2004 Jackie K. Cooper

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