Do you have passion?
The ancient Greeks did not write obituaries,
instead they asked only one question of a person:
"Did he have passion?"
From the movie "Serendipity"
based on the teachings of the Greek philosopher Aristippus of Cyrene
It is much easier to go through life all protected and not letting anything through. To do your job 9 to 5 as... a job from 9 to 5. To see a walk by the sea as only a physical motion on sand near to a pond of water rather than a mass of energy floating through you.
It is more courageous to let it all in. To do every thing you do with passion, to let it in, play with it, in your mind, ponder over it, question it, question one's own abilities and judgement. Constantly. Reading the signs and act on them.
Just as it gives relentless joy, it also takes a lot of energy to keep a balance in a rational world. Where not everything can be done based on hunches. Where some tasks just have to be done, even if the joy might not be in there.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
3 comments:
I like this a lot :)
If I were to summarize how to live life, it would be like this and I would recommend this to everyone I know and love.. It epitomizes my view of the world... Mmmmm, it causes a lot of intensity - so joy is felt wholly, as is pain.. But hey, who said it was meant to be a walk in the park?
What especially rings true is the part about some things just need to be done even if at times, it feels like the joy is not.. To me, that is because we may have to look back at them later and realize why... It is actually meant as an intense experience and you'll eventually pick up on what it was meant to provide you with...
Much love, E
Thanks Peter for the article.
For my own reading, I took the liberty of replacing the word 'passion' above with the word 'purpose in life'. We all have stuff that we are passionate about.
If we define and clarify our purpose in life from the onset, passion will be the richness that we feel and share in everything we love to do.
A typical person spends +/- 50% of his conscious time (excluding sleeping) on his work, and with such proportion, it's better be worth of one's time, otherwise h/she'd better cut loss and do stuff he is passionate about and inline with the purpose one sees in life.
Passion can lead to fear and sorrow as well as happiness and joy. Our tasks will be to live in a balance way and recognise those symptoms.
Best wishes for your break. Go well, stay well.
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