Exploring Passion: For the LOVE of It

Passion:

Often associated with the heat of Sexuality

Often pondered “What is my passion?” when choosing a career

Often pursued as something outside of us

Instead of an energy alive within us

Fueled by exercising our power of choice again and again

Doing what we simply MUST

And knowing with all our heart

That BEING alive is enough

Our existence is the Passion made manifest in physical form.

We live in a doing culture and I am all for getting shit done, doing what we love, choosing to give our energy to pursuits that feed us, and expressing our Self uniquely in this sacred dance of life.  But often, the grind of doing strips us of the truth:  Being alive is enough, our existence is the Passion made manifest in physical form. 

During the most profound visitation dream I experienced with my brother, Michael, shortly after he died, he was smiling at me glowing with a transcendent radiance saying over and over:  LIVE the Passion…LIVE the Passion…LIVE the Passion.  It was an invitation to explore what Passion is and what it isn’t that continues to unfold as I am shown that my very being is the Passion and informs my life choices in what I give this energy to in the doing of this world.

Last night, I went to a benefit concert downtown Nashville where the string of talent fed me.  There were the up and comers like Friends of Lola and Mo Pitney as well as the stars like current radio sweetheart Sarah Darling and longtime hit maker Darryl Worley best known for his patriotic song Have you Forgotten? following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  Darryl was the headliner so he was the last to go on stage.  He is a cool guy, salt of the earth, friend to all and you could feel this as he praised the artists who performed before him pointing out their unique gifts, appreciating them with sincerity.  As he perched his acoustic guitar on his knee, he shared that he has played in venues all over Nashville but when he was younger, he never enjoyed the experience because he was nervous playing for the record labels and the powers that be hoping to be discovered.  He continued on saying that now, at this point in his life (he is 40 something), he plays because God put the love of music in his heart.  This is Passion.  And when he played and sang the Passion poured into all of us, palpable, full of pure joy. 

What a breath of fresh air Darryl is, a teacher for us all as he is living and being the Passion and doing what he must for the love it.  He wasn’t trying to be anti-establishment or bash the record labels at all.  He was sharing wisdom that came from his journey of exploring life, getting lost as he looked for others to discover in him, to affirm and to see what always existed.  And finding his way home to him Self, resting in the truth of who he is, what matters most and what makes him come alive.  Life is a personal Odyssey of forgetting and remembering, wandering and returning home.

Being born the eighth child of 8 children, people in my community would actually say to me:  You must have been a mistake!  And I would respond to them boldly even as young as 8 years old:  No, I am a child born of pure passion!  This would make them laugh and would make me feel better so it became a standard one-liner throughout my childhood.  But there is actual wisdom in the innocence of this statement that came from the depths of me.  Remember, this was the 70’s when this flew out of my mouth, before the influence of cable and song lyrics with sexual content.  The truth is:  We are all children of pure PASSION!  And not one of us is a mistake.  And it is important to recognize what is.

The invitation this day is to affirm silently (and out loud):  I am the Passion.  And tune in to what lies in your heart, what you must do simply for the love of it and how it makes you come alive feeling the joy and magnificence of being.

We can never manufacture anything as great as being who we truly are!