Maquinna's Poop du Jour

Come on, get happy

Recent encounters with a number of folks whose spheres frequently intersect with mine have had me thinking more lately on the subject of passion. I'm not referring to sweaty bodies and Barry White crooning in the background, but more about the stuff that electrifies your imagination, makes you seek out more and more of it (helplessly or unconsciously sometimes), and simply put, just plain makes you happy.

It long bothered me that I was having difficulty finding 'the thing' that did it for me. The one thing I would always get jazzed up about. I expected lightbulbs to go off or the voice of God to explode in my head and say 'Hey, dummy - open your eyes. This is what you're supposed to be doing.' I'd see other people who had found their own passion, and honestly, I was very jealous.

I was the 'good all-rounder' in school. Jane of all trades, master of none. I could competently churn out a critique of beat poetry, dissect a sheep's eyeball, or even hack my way through a Grieg nocturne with enough effort. But always, it was as though there was a veil between my heart and any of these things - frequently a veil of indifference. Nothing resonated. Photography changed that - but I don't want to talk about photography at the moment.

I discovered that passion like this was much like learning, as I got older, how real love comes upon you. Some people are literally hit by the thunderbolt; the heavens open and they can't help but run towards something, compelled like salmon moving upstream. For me, it was a slow realization. Something that had always been there began to look different - or more correctly, I began to look at it differently. And then it was literally like going 'Oh. NOW I get it.'

No matter how it happens, though, the consequences, in my experience, are the same. If you truly love something, if you're truly passionate about it and not just dabbling in it, you go after it with everything you have. You don't let obstacles get in your way. You don't allow negative thoughts to stop you or whine about how hard something is. Your greatest happiness comes when everything is coalescing around that which you're passionate about. While sometimes things are frustrating, your heart gives you no choice. You're compelled to do everything you can to keep going, excited, shameless, constantly seeking out more and more of it. Passion doesn't make excuses. When you love something that much, you're so absorbed in your own pursuit of it that you don't let the unknown beat you down. You jump right in, fearless, moth to the flame. If you don't feel that way about something, chances are very good it's because you're not passionate about it. It's not your path.

Even when the thing about which someone is passionate holds little interest for me, I nearly always find passionate people more interesting, and more energizing for my own passions. They're terrific people to be around because they're positive, and they inspire you. Life is a wonderland for them; new experiences ignite their creativity. They don't cringe in fear of the unknown: they embrace it. We gather around those who make us feel that way, and avoid those who sap our spirits with their negative energy.

If I could give anyone one piece of advice, it would be this: find the thing that makes you incredibly happy, and do it, regardless of what anyone else thinks. And if you don't know what that is or what you're doing doesn't make you feel that way, keep looking.

posted by Maquinna @ 11:07 a.m.